St. Louis has many great little neighborhood commercial streets and Ivanhoe between Arsenal and Fyler is one of the most charming. At this time Ivanhoe is neither bustling with activity or abandoned. Like many of St. Louis’ neighborhood commercial streets it is in that middle ground, just shy of being discovered.
Ivanhoe’s potential is great. Based on the scale it will never be a Delmar Loop or Cherokee Station, but that is OK. What it can be is an excellent street serving the adjacent blocks which contain mostly early 20th century single family residences. It also has the potential to become a place where folks like myself from outside the neighborhood go for shopping or dinner.
Located in the Lindenwood Park neighborhood and in the
23rd Ward the street is surrounded by an increasingly popular area to live. Unfortunately the Lindenwood Park website makes no mention of Ivanhoe. Their December 2004 Newsletter does mention a couple of new restaurants open. I’m not certain whom, if anyone, is working to market this street. On a side note, their newsletter shows bus routes on their map. Good idea!
Buildings on Ivanhoe range in size, height, use and age. This grouping of buildings is one of the best but if you look close you can see that some storefronts have had some unsympathetic remodeling.
Nevertheless, the bones are there for a charming street. Every time I’m on the street I begin to grin uncontrollably. It just feels good.
Sidewalks have a nice width and can certainly accommodate a good many pedestrians or sidewalk dining.
Speaking of sidewalk dining, this is the new Cafe Ivanhoe located at 3257 Ivanhoe. I haven’t eaten there so I can’t vouch for the food. The interior looked very nice but the menu was a bit too meat oriented for me.
Not every building on the street is commercial. Next door to Cafe Ivanhoe is a four family building. It was nice to see that someone had cycled to the area. Hopefully we’ll see bike racks included as part of future improvements.
In the middle of the area is a new mid-block parking lot. I’m not a fan of parking lots but with a couple of restaurants and the popular Babe’s Tavern I can see the street parking all being taken very quickly. Of note is the lack of parking meters both on the street and in the parking lot.
I mixed on the lack of meters. On one hand meters keep things active with people coming and going. It encourages turnover. On the other hand they add to street clutter and discourage some people.
I saved the best for last. Colossus is a new Greek restaurant on Ivanhoe with lots of indoor & sidewalk seating. Three generations of the family owned business were present during my lunch. If you need an excuse to check out the charm of Ivanhoe this is it.
– Steve
