Exterior of Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton
(ST. LOUIS; October 1, 2020) – Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton (7730 Bonhomme Ave, St. Louis, MO 63105), the 268-room hotel is now open after a multi-million dollar, full-scale transformation by Silverwest Hotels. Located in downtown Clayton, Missouri, located on Bonhomme Ave., just west of Hanley Road, Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton is a new upscale hotel destination for creative and culturally-minded travelers and locals alike. The hotel features over 17,000 square feet of meeting space, state-of-the-art fitness center with panoramic views of downtown St. Louis, an open-air pool deck on the third floor, a signature bar and restaurant, Café la Vie, artwork from over 50 local and nationally acclaimed artists, and more. To celebrate the opening, the hotel will be offering a free small Illy coffee for the community at Café la Vie today, October 1 through Sunday, October 4, 2020, from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
General Manager Andrew Hargis says, “Following one year of extensive renovation work, we are thrilled to welcome our guests to Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton. We imagine that locals and returning travelers will be extremely surprised to see the full-scale transformation of the property inside. Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton will blend St. Louis’ rich European heritage with a chic, sophisticated design, and there is so much to explore at the hotel and surrounding neighborhood.”
Located in the heart of the Clayton Business District, the hotel is within walking distance of top restaurants as well as a short drive or jog to St. Louis’ award-winning Forest Park with its free museums and Saint Louis Zoo, Washington University in St. Louis campus and Barnes Jewish Medical Center. Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton has a passion to embrace St. Louis’ local culture, specifically in regard to the arts and cuisine.
Silverwest Hotels’ Managing Director of Acquisition and Development Patrick Mace comments, “When we acquired this hotel in 2018, we knew that we found a diamond in the rough. By bringing the Le Meridien brand to the Clayton neighborhood and compiling the best design and operating teams, we now have a premier hotel for both discerning business travels and leisure enthusiasts.”
The Design
Designed by globally-recognized firm HOK, the refreshed hotel seamlessly integrates into the welcoming Clayton community, providing guests with the comfort of a home away from home. The contemporary design creates a dramatic, intimate and curated retreat for guests – both inside and out. Exterior work to refresh the 17-story building included new windows throughout the hotel, new façade updates, a redesigned porte cochere entry, and more to give the building a sleeker and more modern feel. In addition to the design, HOK worked with Eaton Fine Art to create a curated art program for the hotel which features over 50 works of art throughout the public spaces and guest rooms. From abstract colorful prints with the neighboring Shaw Park’s map grid integrated into the artist’s work to photography featuring architecture around St. Louis, Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton’s art has thoughtful nods to the community throughout the space. A signature art piece for the hotel is the “Dog Walker” art on the exterior front of the hotel. The interactive piece is a nod to community’s parks and dog lovers and allows guests to actually step into the art to be a dog walker. Also, for every person that posts in front of the art and tags the hotel @lemeridienstlclayton, they will donate $1 to the APA. See more here.
For the interiors, Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton encourages guests to sip and savor the good life while traveling in glamour, so the refined design highlights St. Louis and its roots as a French city. Upon entering the lobby, check-in desks echo French writing desks, accented by subtly arching standing lamps of blackened steel and polished brass. The lobby also includes the Salon which is a living room, lounge, and informal business hub for guests to gather, filled with mid-century modern furnishings and dramatic and playful artwork.
The Guestrooms
With 268 guestrooms including 13 suites with enhanced space, the design is reminiscent of a French pied-à-terre apartment, a home away from home with a residential ambience. Room furnishings echo the mid-century modern influence with pops of denim blue color and Hermes orange and floor-to-ceiling windows to take in the views of the Clayton cityscape as well as Shaw Park and downtown St. Louis from the upper floor rooms. Thoughtful design elements help guests unwind, including plush bedding and pillow-top mattress, invigorating Malin + Goetz amenities, and personal in-room Illy coffee and espresso station. Rooms also feature the latest technologies including 55-inch televisions with app streaming and fiber-cabled guestrooms.
Room from Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton
Additional amenities include the new pool deck on the third floor that immerses guests in the surrounding Clayton cityscape with an expansive terrace. The previously unused 15th floor was converted into a stunning, natural light filled fitness center with expansive views of the St. Louis metropolis, including downtown and the Arch, as well as state-of-the-art fitness equipment, including Peloton bikes. Playful and bold artwork fills the open terrace and fitness center spaces.
The hotel has also created unique and fun experiences for families and their pets. Traveling pets receive free amenities of a Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton treat, bowl and dog bed and an upgradable pet package is available to include a gift card to local pet boutique, Lola & Penelope. Families can also upgrade their experience to including an in-room glamping experience equipped with a cloth tent, a plush campfire and a sweet treat s’more amenity for tiny explorers. Each child will receive a Le Meridien passport, which is an activity and coloring book, along with a surprise gift, just for them.
The Restaurant
Café la Vie, the hotel’s bar and restaurant, will transition from morning coffee prepared by a master barista to evening cocktails, sharables, and dessert prepared by a first-class food and beverage team. With the mid-century modern design, the spacious 7,400 square foot, 125-seat restaurant launches with a breakfast, happy hour and dinner menus with additional dishes and offerings to be added over time. Large teddy bears are also currently in place to maintain socially distancing requirements.
The Breakfast menu features grab & go items from pastries to yogurt parfait as well as Signature Breakfast offerings like the Pain Perdu Tartine ($12), brioche French toast with confit pork belly, local farm-fresh sunny-side up egg and maple syrup and the Avocado Toast ($12) with marinated cherry tomatoes, fried shallots on nine-grain wheat. An extensive program of Illy coffee drinks will be available as well as a selection of breakfast cocktails and juices from local St. Louis Juice Press. Café la Vie will offer a happy hour experience from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. which includes the Sparkling Program, six effervescent cocktails (two non-alcoholic) available daily as well as Petite Plates, small bites perfect for happy hour. For example, Petite Plate bites include a Charcuterie Plate ($12), Fromage Blanc Olivade Dip ($8) with local fresh cheese and grilled sourdough, Tuna Niçoise Tartine and more. Sparkling Program cocktails include drinks like the Bark, Beans, Bubbly ($7) with blood orange amaro, Illy espresso, demerara, Fever-Tree tonic and The Countryside ($7), Hanson of Sonoma vodka, orgeat, fresh beet-orange juice, fresh lemon juice and Prosecco. For dinner, guests can select from a menu of small plates and entrées. Dishes to start include French Onion Soup, Little Gem Salad, Confit Salmon Rillette and more. Larger entrées are the Café La Vie Burger with bordelaise, special sauce, comet cheese, fried shallots, pommes frites on a brioche bun; Roasted Chicken with chestnut agnolotti, butternut squash soubise, crispy Brussels sprouts, Medjool dates and poultry jus; classic Moules-Frites and Faroe Island Salmon with rock shrimp, grapefruit, toasted pecans, celery root and fine herb hash browns. Beverage offerings include wines by the glass, beers on draught and in bottles and cans as well as rifts on classic cocktails. There is also a secret additional cocktail menu that can be requested by guests.
Meeting & Event Capabilities
Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton will also be a destination for meetings and events with an array of spaces and ways to accommodate business meetings, socials functions, weddings and celebrations. With a dedicated Conference Level floor, the hotel can provide distinct areas for meetings with the Pavilion Room conference space, three breakout rooms, and pre-function space. Located on the Lobby Level, two ballrooms, The Forest Park Ballroom and Grand Salle Ballroom, are the hotel’s signature ballrooms for hosting elevated banquet and catering events. For executive meetings, the hotel features the area’s only boardroom on a guestroom floor allowing for complete exclusivity for attendees, if desired. And the third-floor terrace is the perfect spot for an outdoor cocktail function.
For more information about rates and available bookings, visit the hotel’s website. Reservations are now open. The hotel is currently offering a Residents’ Rate for Illinois and Missouri residents for 20% off bookings with proof of residency. Café la Vie’s hours will be: 6:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. from Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The Sparkling Program will be from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. every day and dinner will be available from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
About Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton: Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton is a hotel destination for creative and culturally-minded travelers and locals alike in downtown Clayton, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis. Located on Bonhomme Avenue just west of Hanley Road (7730 Bonhomme Ave, St. Louis, MO 63105), the 268-room hotel opens October 1, 2020 after a multi-million dollar, full-scale transformation. With a new open-air pool on the 3rd floor roof deck, state-of-the-art fitness center with panoramic views of downtown St. Louis and 17,000 square feet of event space, Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton will blend St. Louis’ rich European heritage with a chic, sophisticated design. The hotel reopens with an entirely new restaurant, cocktail bar and coffee bar–Café la Vie. The design features over 50 works of art, including several by local St. Louis artists. Global design firm HOK led the overall design of Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton and brings an original, refined and forward-looking style to the property. Denver-based Silverwest Hotels purchased the property in 2018, and Crescent Hotels & Resorts manages Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton. For more information, visit www.lemeridienclayton.com.
About Silverwest Hotels: Silverwest Hotels, LLC (“Silverwest”), is a Denver-based investment and management company formed in 2014 by experienced hotel and resort executives Edward Mace and Charles Peck. Silverwest currently owns a growing number of hotels in destinations such as Colorado, Texas, Iowa, Missouri and Hawaii and is actively developing new hotels in California, Colorado and Hawaii. The company is a joint venture that brings Silverwest Hotel Partners LLC together with the institutional management expertise of Platform Ventures LLC and an affiliate of Global Endowment Management. For more information, visit www.silverwesthotels.com
About Crescent Hotels & Resorts: Crescent Hotels & Resorts is an award-winning, nationally recognized, top-3 operator of hotels and resorts. Crescent currently operates over 100 hotels, resorts & conference centers in the US and Canada. Crescent is one of the few elite management companies approved to operate upper-upscale and luxury hotels under the brand families of Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and IHG. Crescent also operates a collection of legendary independent lifestyle hotels and resorts under Latitudes Collection, Lifestyle by Crescent. Crescent’s clients are made up of hotel REITs, private equity firms and major developers. For more information, please visit www.crescenthotels.com or connect with Crescent on LinkedIn.
About HOK: HOK designs buildings and spaces that respond to the needs of people and the environment. HOK designers are rooted in technical excellence, driven by imagination and focused on a solitary goal: to deliver solutions that inspire clients and communities.
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR INTERVIEW REQUESTS, PLEASE CONTACT CAITI CARROW AT 618.670.8876
