Bosnian Business

They say there are about 70,000 Bosnians in our area. I've had a number of Bosnian clients and it would be hard to find a nicer, harder working group of people. They are go-getters.

So, of course, they have opened many businesses. These are just a couple of examples in the Bevo neighborhood. The entrance to the store on top has a strange design. It looks like it could have been the entrance to an old movie theater but the building behind did not look big enough to hold a screen. Another architectural mystery.                             

Bevo

Our Bosnian population is centered around the old Bevo Mill, a landmark German restaurant on the south side. It was built in 1915-16 by August Busch, Sr., one of the founders of Anheuser-Busch. The location was chosen because it was about half way between the brewery and Busch's country estate, now known as Grant's Farm. (Apparently Ulysses S. Grant once lived there.) The name of the mill may be a variation on pivo, the Czech word for beer, since its pilsner-style brew was growing in popularity at the time.

(I learned three phrases in Czech when I visited Prague years ago: pivo, prosim - beer, please; jedno pivo prosim - another beer, please; and ucet, prosim - the bill, please. Somehow I failed to learn how to ask directions to the WC. Fortunately, the waiters were always able to tell from the expressions on the tourists' faces. But back to our story.)

The neighborhood was still primarily German and Dutch when I started living on the south side in the mid-70s. Times change, people in the area moved to the suburbs and A-B eventually closed the restaurant. Someone bought it a few years ago and did a fine restoration. Now it is a special events hall, weddings and such, and has a grand Sunday brunch. The neighborhood later filled with Bosnian refugees, who have revitalized the area.

Not The Netherlands

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A windmill in the heart of south St. Louis. The Bevo Mill restaurant began serving Dutch and German food at the corner of Gravois and Morganford in 1917. It was built by August A. Busch, Sr., two generations back from his descendants who sold Anheuser-Busch to the Belgian-Brazilian InBev last year. The story was that this location was half way between the A-B brewery and Grant's Farm, his country home, where President Ulysses S. Grant once lived briefly.

This was a city institution. Everybody dined there. Then the neighborhood changed, it went out of business and the building deteriorated. Last year, a high-end catering company took it over and spent a half-million dollars restoring it. It's now mostly used for wedding receptions and private functions. For most St. Louisans, the important thing is that it has been preserved.