The Eat-Rite Diner near downtown St. Louis will reopen sometime in October for the first time in two years, rechristened as Fleur STL.
Tim Eagan purchased the property shortly after it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and had to do a lot of remodeling of the nearly century-old spot.
Eagan also told KMOV-TV in St. Louis he’ll be the one doing the cooking when it’s open.
Fleur STL will not be a 24-hour diner with three-dollar slingers like Eat-Rite. The plan is to serve breakfast and lunch and close before dinner. Eagan has plans to open a patio for brunch and has already gotten the liquor license to serve mimosas and bloody marys.
“It’s gonna be straightforward breakfast and lunch,” Eagan said. “We will have sandwiches, a burger that will rival the best in town, biscuits made fresh every day, slab bacon and house-made jams.” […]
“I wanted to keep as much of the original as we could, but after the roof was gone, and we did have some water issues, the counter is gone, but the metal frame remains. The stools were rusted from being so old, but we powder-coated those black and gave them new life. We put in a new penny tile floor, walnut counters,” Eagan said.
He said they were even able to expose some of the building from the 1950′s that had been covered up.
Those who want the latest on developments at the restaurant should follow its Fleur STL page.
The Eat-Rite Diner was an old-school gem of worn Formica counters and hand-painted menu boards where one could order cheeseburgers by the half-dozen or a slinger (a mess of fried eggs, hash browns, cheese and hamburger patties slathered with chili and onions) made to order.
The Eat-Rite — known for its “Eat Rite or Don’t Eat At All” motto — sat on an old Chouteau alignment of Route 66, only a block from the better-known Tucker Boulevard alignment of 66.
According to Norma Maret Bolin’s “Route 66 St. Louis” book, a business has existed at the Eat-Rite site since 1916. Originally a coal-selling venture, it became a gas station during the 1920s. It converted into a White Kitchen restaurant in 1936, then a Regal Sandwich Restaurant in 1957, then Gateway Sandwich in the 1960s and ’70s. It finally morphed into the Eat-Rite in 1986.
(Image of Tim Eagan guiding positioning of the new signage for Fleur STL restaurant via screen capture from KMOV video)