BENJAMIN SIMON
The beloved French restaurant and brunch spot Vin de Set, along with sister spots PW Pizza and 21st Street Brewers Bar, has been closed since an early morning blaze in September.
This is not the ending St. Louis was hoping for.
Paul and Wendy Hamilton announced this afternoon that they will not reopen the trio of restaurants damaged in a catastrophic fire last September. PW Pizza, Vin de Set and the 21st Street Brewers Bar are now permanently closed.
"After months of obtaining bids to rebuild and carry out the necessary fire remediation as well as determining the insurance loss limits, it has become clear that the funds necessary to rebuild the structure as it once was just aren't there to do so," the married couple said in an email to customers today.
The fire broke out in the early hours of the morning of September 19, 2022. It took significant sleuthing for Paul Hamilton to figure out what had happened — a cigarette carelessly tossed in a planter during brunch service on Vin de Set's roof had led to a slow, secretly smoldering blaze that finally burst into flame 13 hours later.
"After making structural repairs, replacing the roof, third floor windows and removing all floors and drywall below, it became very clear that this was an enormous remediation and re-hab undertaking," the Hamiltons wrote. "Our businesses were built over the course of sixteen years through continued re-investment, and now we find ourselves at the very beginning again."
The pair still own two restaurants in the same block of Downtown West, Hamilton's Urban Steakhouse and Winnie's Wine Bar, as well as Eleven Eleven Mississippi, which sits just across Chouteau in Lafayette Square.
"Several of our team members who were displaced by the fire work at these locations and we encourage you to visit them in the near future as they would love to reconnect with all of you who have gotten to know them over the years," the Hamiltons wrote.
Vin de Set first opened 16 years ago and took up the third floor and roof of the building. PW Pizza was a popular pizzeria on the first floor, and 21st Street Brewers Bar offered a basement beer bar with PW's full menu.
Moulin, the Hamilton's second floor event space, now hosts events in different spaces across the city.
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