A new wine bar is going to open in the old Peace Institute Press building. The owner, Frank Robbins, is keeping a blog about the progress here: http://stlwinepress.blogspot.com/



That block has seen a lot of renovation including new townhomes across the street. There's a boxing gym workout place going in where Notaa used to be. It's an interesting spot. I'm looking forward to Spring and checking out what Bowood Farms has again. A couple of years ago this area was a ghost town.

Very cool!



I noticed that one of the blog postings shows some new townhouses going up across the street as well.

Bowood looked great the other day when I stopped in. Saw that they stock Seed Savers Exchange heirloom seeds in a P-D article recently.

Hey Stellar, thanks for posting about The Wine Press! The renovation is chugging along and we're looking at an opening in late May. Peace Printing is still going strong, though it's temporarily crushed into the back of the building. The print shop will still be in the building, The Wine Press is just occupying the old printing room. Greg Stevens, the owner, has had this idea for about seven years now and while he is the first union printer to open a wine bar in his space, hopefully he will not be the last.



Frank Robbins

When is the expected open date?

We're going to be doing a soft open on May 28th, which will be a fundraiser for Our Little Haven, a great non-profit and a longtime customer of Peace Printing. If it's all right, I'll post when tickets are available for the fundraiser, which will be a wine tasting. We're looking do do a grand opening on Saturday, May 31st.

This is very exciting.



Will the wine bar be smoke-free?

Hey Debaliver,

Yes, it will be smoke free. We are getting a sidewalk license, so people will be able to sit and smoke outside.

Cigarettes are one thing, but aren't printing plants full of noxious odors? How will you keep the bad smells out of the restaurant area?

It's funny you should ask this. There was actually a snafu as we were getting the permitting done for this where the city thought that we were going to be serving wine in some corner of the print shop. While I kinda like the idea of savoring a glass of riesling while the Heidelberg offset press chugs and whirrs in the background, that just wouldn't fly. The two businesses are completely separate entities separated by fire walls, run off of two different heating and cooling systems etc.



As for toxicity of the printing equipment and chemicals: inks became non-toxic many decades ago, though they used to be pretty awful from what I've heard. The biggest smell that I had to contend with when I first checked out the space was the darkroom where Greg woud develope negatives for printing. If you've ever developed your own pictures, you know the finisher smell, which can be pleasant or horrid depending on your own personal preference. He recently bought a computer-to-plate system which makes plates at the press of a button so there is no more dark room and no more smell.



I think this needs to be the last time I try and explain anything printing related, I am by no stretch of anyone's imagination a printer and everything I know has been gleaned only from being in close proximity of the shop.

Thanks for the info.

I am not sure where this is, can somebody give more details? Address? I looked at the blog and didn't find it.

Thanks

The Wine Press is located at 4436 Olive Street between Taylor and Newstead. If you were to drive by it now, you would see a blue construction facade with fish painted on it compliments of our general concrators' daughters' Brownie troup.

You're next to Wicke on the Olive side, right? Isn't there a castle looking facade in that block?

Definitely an interesting couple of blocks along there. Glad to see it finally coming back. My favorite is that art-deco building with the green tiles.

We are on the same side of the street as Wicke Auto and two buildings down from the Castle. We're right next to the really nicely redone condo building called The Courtyard Lofts.



It is indeed an interesting block.

The Youth Technology Center (fortunately) got shot down in its attempt to demo a handsome building across the street from the Wine Press for "green space and future expansion." This link has some good pics of the Wine Press' surroundings:



http://stlouis.missouri.org/citygov/pla ... 7Olive.pdf



And Ald. Terry Kennedy actually supports the demolition.

lukethedrifter wrote:You're next to Wicke on the Olive side, right? Isn't there a castle looking facade in that block?

Here's the castle facade:



This was taken a couple of years ago, but this is where the Wine Press is going in:



This is next door to the Wine Press:

Hey Stellar,

Thanks for posting the pics there. Now everyone can see what I was pulling up to every morning month after month. By the way, did you know that the castle on Olive has a basement that goes down eight stories underground? It doesn't...but it would be cool if it did.



Here's what is looks like now:

I used to live 2 blocks away on the 4700 block of Olive. It was great to watch the development/rehab of Bowood Farms, Kennedy Park, the Listor building, the Eugene Field School, and the other buildings along the 4400 block while we were living there.



This will be a great addition to the neighborhood and we'll be sure to frequent it.

So what the heck is the castle, anyway?

The castle is actually the headquarters for a home inspection company owned by a gentleman named Carl. Inside the castle is a corrugated barracks looking garage/docking bay where he keeps his truck, tools, office and his very sweet dog, Zoe. When he bought the lot in the 80's he was worried about people breaking into his garage and stealing his tools. He wanted it to be a bit more secure looking, ergo the "castle" idea. Amazingly, the city let him build it and along the way he bought that coat of arms from a place he was inspecting and put it over the entrance.



I was a little reluctant to give away the secret of the castle, but anyone with google maps can see the rest of it from space.

what's the status of this place?



EDIT: Read the blog and it looks like Frank is out of the project, which may also been a sign there is trouble



Post from June 15:

I, (Frank) will no longer be working on The Wine Press. The Wine Press is now entirely in the hands of Mr. Greg Stevens. I wish him the best of luck with the remainder of the project.



-Frank-