Tim's Chrome Bar Suffers Exterior Damage, Plans Rapid Reopening

The newly rehabbed Bevo Mill bar lost its distinctive sign — and its brick

Apr 5, 2023 at 2:41 pm

SARAH FENSKE

After a bout of windy weather, Tim's Chrome Bar lost a significant number of bricks and its distinctive sign.

Last night or early this morning, the newly rehabbed Tim's Chrome Bar in Bevo Mill lost its face. A heap of bricks from the exterior of the bar facing Gravois, as well as its distinctive rust-colored sign, plummeted from the two-story building to the sidewalk below.

Bar manager Chelsea Pfister says the damage occurred sometime after 9 p.m. on Tuesday, April 4, and before 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 5. A friend driving past first texted her with the news early this morning.

She suspects the damage can be traced to last Friday's storm, which saw much more significant damage.

"On Friday, the winds were really, really bad through here," she observes. "They may have agitated it, and all it needed was one more push to come down."

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SARAH FENSKE

Tim's lost some terra cotta ornamentation along with its iconic sign.

But while the building may look bad right now, Pfister says the building inspector who came by to see it earlier today left co-owner Pat Schuchard in an optimistic mood. A structural engineer and architect are currently on the property doing further assessments, but she's hopeful that Tim's can reopen in a matter of days.

"They'll have to do a little structural work out front, but it doesn't affect the back structure of the building at all," she says. "We will reopen — and we're hoping to do so pretty quickly."

Tim's opened its doors five weeks ago after a major renovation by Schuchard Event Spaces, which also owns Boo Cat Club, Majorette and (right across the street from Tim's) Das Bevo, the historic windmill once owned by the Busch family. Tim's first opened in 1977. Its building, the Irene, dates back to 1923, according to state records.

Pfister says Pat Schuchard left her and others on site this morning with some words of wisdom: "We'll be fine. We're not fragile."

Says Pfister, "Our very first steps this morning were, 'How do we get ahead of this and get open?' We're eager to get open."

Follow Tim's Chrome Bar on Facebook and Instagram for the latest news on that reopening.

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SARAH FENSKE

The sign.

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About The Author

Sarah Fenske

Sarah Fenske is the executive editor of the RFT and its sister papers. She is the former host of St. Louis on the Air and continues to host its Legal Roundtable, as well participating as an occasional panelist on Nine PBS' Donnybrook. She lives in St. Louis.