Clayton's summer is easy to read if you only look at the closings. Two well-known dining rooms went dark in May, a corner that once held a corporate coffee shop has sat empty for years, and the block around Bemiston has been quieter than usual at lunch. Read a little closer and a different story shows up. The operators taking those keys are almost all Clayton veterans, and the calendar in Shaw Park and Oak Knoll is denser than it has been in several summers. The neighborhood isn't thinning. It's reshuffling in favor of the independents who already work here.
The Wydown corner is finally coming back, and it's a Wright's Tavern spin-off
The Starbucks at Hanley and Wydown has been dark since 2021. A corporate return through a local franchise was floated and fell apart. In April, Clayton's Plan Commission and Architectural Review Board approved a conditional-use permit for a new tenant at 7645 Wydown Blvd.: Gigi's Cafe, from Matt McGuire, the restaurateur behind Louie and, directly across the street,
