Antarctica (5226 Gravois), the underground venue you probably never went to, is rising from the ashes as The Heavy Anchor, a new bar and venue that co-owner Jodie Whitworth says will open sometime in April.
"It's a really cool spot," she says. "For probably the last two years we've been considering opening something. We were looking on Cherokee for a while, we wanted to do something in the old Radio Cherokee, but it wasn't going to work out."
Antarctica owner Tim Flynn still owns the building, and the basic layout of the space will remain unchanged. The Heavy Anchor will also still have live music, geared mostly toward the local scene.
Whitworth has worked at Jupiter Studios since moving back to St. Louis three years ago. She had previously spent time in Austin, Texas, working with a music foundation and doing marketing for a jazz musician.
"I think it's going to be more local, but we definitely want to get some national acts in," she says. "Since I have been with [Jupiter] for so long, my partner and I have both been in the music business, we have a lot of connections with just friends who are in national touring bands as well."
The pair are seeking local muralists to lend their talents to the stark white space. Whitworth said there's "no deep meaning" in the name, they were bouncing around suggestions that started sounding increasingly like band names, and the Heavy Anchor "just stuck."
"I knew I wanted to open something, and I wanted to open it in my hometown," she says. "That's part of the reason why I moved back to St. Louis in the first place."
Stay tuned for more opening news as we get it.