When my husband and I were dating (this would be the late 90s and we were maybe 19 or 20-on a budget and too young for alcohol), I was always trying to find new and often fancy places to go and experience. One summer evening we made reservations to go to dinner at Top of the Riverfront. We got dressed up and when we walked in I was nervous and felt a little out of place with its quiet, classy ambiance. We were seated at a table along the outer edge. I was just in awe. There was a Cardinals baseball game that night abs it was so awesome to see the stadium with its lights and full of people. Such a cool experience for two young adults and with soft music playing and excellent food, it was a date to remember. It was also memorably embarrassing for me because partway through the meal, our server walked up to us holding my purse (not a designer one either)! I was so confused. I put it down on the floor next to my feet between my chair and the wall. It turns out the tables where we were seated rotated around the restaurant (providing spectacular views), but the section right up against the wall did not! We had moved on, but my purse did not! I can still picture the server coming up with my big old purse in his hand—I was mortified! BUT, it was still one of the nicest dates we have been on almost thirty years and triplet sons later!❤️
On December 22, 1990 I brought my wife to be Dara to the Millennium Hotel. The actual proposal was in Bevo Mill. Cold ice storm that made it very difficult to drive that night.
We came back and were in awe of the restaurant on the top floor and we got to see the entire skyline.
My wife announced when and where wr would be married which was the farthest from my mind. September 21, 1991.
35 years 3 kids and 2 grandchildren and this hotel is so very special to our marriage!
We loved the grandier and the rotating restaurant!
Sad to see it going down!
Paul and Dara York
Celebrating my parents anniversary with dinner at the revolving restaurant created a memory we will always treasure. My parents absolutely loved the experience, beautiful views and atmosphere. So grateful for the beautiful anniversary memory.
My husband and I are a military couple but St. Louis is home and of course we wanted a super St. Louis themed wedding! We were married at the Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France church and the reception was at the Millennium Hotel. After our rehearsal dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, we took our bridal party to the Cardinals Game the night before the wedding (the girls got tickets to a better all inclusive area than the guys of course!). Then my husband and I stayed in separate suites at the hotel and used our rooms to get ready in the morning with our bridal party. I will never forget stopping traffic as I walked across Memorial Dr in my wedding dress with my bridesmaids on my way to the church. After the ceremony, we took pictures under the arch and then my husband and I road around downtown in a horse-drawn carriage. A little girl waved at us and asked me if I was Cinderella :). Our reception was in the Meramec Room at the hotel. We couldn't do a receiving line at the Cathedral so our groomsmen made an arch of swords, in the military tradition, for our entrance to the reception. The space was wonderful and had a large dance floor. My husband and I had taken lessons and performed a tango for our first dance. The wonderful evening ended with us retiring to our newlywed suite upstairs. One year later on our first anniversary, my husband and I stayed at the Millennium Hotel - it was so special to be in the same space as we relived all the memories of our special day!
We spent our anniversary weekend 17 years ago being local tourists. Our stay at the Millennium was enjoyable. We went to a Cardinals game and the Botanical Gardens. I remember the weather was extremely hot that weekend! We're no longer married, but that will be a weekend I'll never forget!
My wife Barbara and I chose the restaurant for our 25th wedding anniversary. As we enjoyed our meal we watched another young couple get engaged 💍. We are celebrating or 40th anniversary this year. Hopefully that have been as happy as we have been. We enjoyed seeing a baseball game in the stadium and watching pop-up thunderstorms.
My then boyfriend and I had come to St Louis from Ohio for him to meet my mother for the first 3. While we were visiting he took me out for dinner at the then Stouffers rotating restaurant and proposed!
This was my favorite restaurant as a 12 year old boy who moved to the St. Louis suburbs from rural Connecticut. My Mother and I would regularly visit Soulard Market, the Science Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, the Zoo, St. Louis Center, and go to Cardinals games and I would always try to get her to take me there. The restaurant was on the pricey side, so for the most part visits were reserved for birthdays or other special occasions. While we were waiting for our meal, I liked to play a game where I would put a coin or item from the table like a sugar packet in the corner of one of the windows. The restaurant would make a revolution and I would retrieve whatever I had stashed having wondered during the rotation if someone would notice it and take it before our table would come around to that window again. I believe they rotated the restaurant at two different speeds for lunch and dinner, with dinner being slower. I always figured they made the lunch rotation faster since typically you spend less time in the restaurant for lunch and they wanted to make sure you would get all the way around. I also have memories of a dessert they had called the Mississippi Steamer. I don't remember what the actual dessert was other than they used dry ice in it to make it "steam". Thank you for putting this collection together and also for saving the rotating mechanism. My Mother is gone now and I will certainly go see it at the City Museum and think of our time together at the restaurant.
The very first time I came to St. Louis was for an all-day job interview with Union Electric at 18th and Gratiot. When it came time for lunch, they took me to the Top of the Riverfront so I could see the entire city that I might be moving to. I got the job - spent my entire 36-year career there - and I am still here.
In 1987, I joined the faculty at Washington University as an Assistant Professor. I came to St. Louis with my wife and our 10-month-old son. When we first looked around the city, we saw this intriguing rotating restaurant that overlooked the downtown area, and my wife and I decided that if we ever received tenure at WashU and became permanent residents of St. Louis, then we would celebrate in that restaurant. We had just purchased our home and figured it would be a while before we could afford to eat there anyway. Time passed, my research group excelled, and I was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1993. We kept our promise to ourselves, and we had dinner celebrating our now permanent home with a rotating view and periodic peaks into a very busy Busch Stadium. It was a wonderful evening, and the setting provided us with a perfect opportunity to embrace the city that we have indeed called home ever since.
We got married at 32 and 34, with lots of financial baggage attached. So, our reception was just cake and punch at the church. We were leaving out of Lambert the next day on our honeymoon, so as a present, 2 of our attendents took us to the restaurant for dinner before heading to the hotel for the night. I had not been married before, so I decided that I wanted to keep my dress on and the others stayed dresssed as well. I have to admit that I was scared that my train would get caught in the mechanism, lol! We came back for dinner in 2000, but didn't make it back again. I'm an avid Cardinals fan and so I loved when the rotation was on that side so that I could see the ballpark from above!
My husband, Michael A. Bennett, Sr and Cynthua R. Bennett selected the Millenium Hotel to have our wedding in the lobby with the backdrop of the Riverfront and Arch and our dinner reception at the Top of the Riverfront Restaurant with 25 of our family and close friends.
I worked -
at JA for a few years- 1978-1981. because “Stouffers” had the largest ballroom seating about 2000, we held our future unlimited banquet there each year plus several other events. business leaders from across the region would attend as we honored highschool students and listened to some of their stories. it was a wonderful celebration!
however my most vivid memory was an event that was scheduled there but did not happen. we were hosting our annual JA dance. I was responsible for it. it was like a prom as the kids got dressed up for it. there were about 1000 teenagers expected to attend. at about 6 am that morning one of our volunteers called me up and said there was a fire at stouffers starting in the kitchen. ! ultimately there was a lot of smoke damage. we had to find another venue post haste. my recollection was the marriott by the airport had an opening and we held the dance there. in pre social media days we were able to get the word out. definitely great memories at stouffers plus one frantic day.
My husband if now 26 years proposed at top of the riverfront September 12, 1998. The ring was o top of a rose in a glass with dry ice. I got so excited I jumped up and he never got on one knee, honestly I might have said yes before he even actually asked.
I am the sone of the on-site architect for the Millennium (then Stouffers) hotel. I saw the article by Luke Davis on Fox 2 News digital and thought you might be interested in the following. My family has original 9MM video of the ongoing going construction (the Arch was still under construction) that was filmed by my father. If you would be interested in digitizing this video (it also contains some unrelated family video) for your preservation efforts, we would be glad to lend you the original tape for that purpose (with proper accreditation to my father). It is one of his best-known hotels (the revolving dining room was a first of its kind) and our family would be thrilled to see him recognized in posterity.
My future husband, my mother, and I stayed there (Stouffers) the night of the 7th game of the 1982 World Series, which the Cardinals won! My father, a life-long Cardinals fan, had passed away 3 months earlier, but we knew he was watching the game with us. That hotel was one big party that night! Good times I will never forget! (We rode up the elevator with Joe Garagiola.)
My Husband surprised me after work one evening by having me meet him for dinner at the Regal Riverfront Hotel Restaurant, called Top of the Riverfront in 1995. I didn't know what he was planning but after we ordered our food, he got down on one knee and proposed. People started clapping for us. It was very romantic and a beautiful place to get engaged. We just celebrated 30 years together! This place holds special memories to us.
My husband and I were just married that Saturday. After the ceremony and reception had ended, we took a limo downtown to have a private dinner that evening at the beautiful rotating restaurant. I remember as a 19 and 21 year old, the only thing we recognized on the menu was the filet mignon. We were blown away to have had our own private waiter, just for us. It was a lovely evening, The view was spectacular, the food delicious, and after 26 years, I am still married to that wonderful man.
On the evening of October 1, 1976, my “date” and I had dinner and a beautiful view of St Louis and the Arch. Afterward, we stood directly under the Arch at midnight, when he proposed and we became officially engaged. The location was significant since he was from Illinois and I was from Missouri - where East met West. On March 5, 2027, we will celebrate 50 years of marriage.
My wife,Carol Ann Morgan and I spent our first honeymoon night in the hotel on June 13, 1969 after getting married at Little Flower Catholic Church in Richmond Heights.
My dad died recently but every time he passed the hotel, he talked about how he used to work as a server at the rotating restaurant on the top floor. He talked about how stressful it was finding the right table because of the way the floor moved. He also told the story of the day he served Mike Tyson. He said they gave him really strict orders, “you will not speak to mr tyson, you will not address mr tyson, and you will not look at mr tyson” he said he even had to hand the food to a third party. He recalled being fairly intimidated but it was one of his favorite stories to tell and I think about it every time I pass the building.
I was privileged to perform a concert at the Stouffer's Riverfront Inn in when I was 16 & a Sophomore at McKinley High School in 1974. Our guitar class, along with our Instructors Mr. Wayne & Mr. Roberts did a concert on the top of the Inn while it rotated around. They provided a free dinner for us to enjoy. The food was great!! It is an experience that I will never forget. I have been there since then, but that was my most memorable time. One that I will always cherish. Oh yeah, we did get extra credit for showing up too! Thanks for letting me share this memory with you.
