Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure - Matthew Algeo [92]
The brick terminal at Lambert Field was replaced in 1956 with a striking new building designed by the St. Louis architectural firm of Hellmuth, Yamasaki, and Leinweber. (George Hellmuth would later form HOK, the firm that designed the Abraham Lincoln Museum as well as many ballparks. Minoru Yamasaki went on to design the World Trade Center.) With its vaulted ceilings and glass walls, the terminal suggests a sense of flight. It was one of the firm’s first big projects, and it was an unqualified success. The Lambert Field terminal has been cited as an architectural masterpiece. (Another of the firm’s early projects in St. Louis, the Pruitt-Igoe public housing project, was less well received. It was demolished in 1973.)
Arthur Schneithorst was not awarded the restaurant concession in the new terminal. Undeterred, he built a new, half-million-dollar German restaurant at the intersection of Clayton Road and Lindbergh Boulevard in western St. Louis County. He called it the Hofamberg Inn. St. Louis had never seen anything like it. The sprawling building looked like something straight out of Bavaria, with a clock tower, turrets, and a red-tiled roof. It had three separate dining rooms and two bars, one of which was paneled in walnut and pigskin, with brass figures in bas-relief on the walls. And that was just the first floor. Upstairs were nine banquet rooms. The Hofamberg Inn became a St. Louis institution, but when Arthur’s grandson Jim Schneithorst Jr. took over the business in 2002, the first thing he did was tear the place down. He really didn’t have much choice. The building had become too expensive to maintain, and the demand for schnitzel just wasn’t what it used to be. A “mixed-use development” was built in its place. It includes a very nice restaurant, but, as St. Louisans will tell you, it’s just not the same.
The restaurant concession at Lambert Field is now held by HSMHost, a Maryland-based company that operates restaurants in airports and highway rest stops—sorry, “travel venues”—all over the world. Based on my extensive research, which consisted of asking somebody in the airport’s management office, a restaurant called the Rib Café is roughly where Schneithorst’s used to be. The day I visited happened to be Valentine’s Day, and, by a happy coincidence, Allyson was traveling with me. We planned to return to the airport that night and enjoy a romantic dinner at the Rib Café. Reservations, we assumed, would not be necessary.
If you’ve ever wondered what kind of restaurant would be closed on Valentine’s night, it would be the kind in the St. Louis airport. As Allyson and I discovered when we showed up for dinner at eight, the Rib Café closes at 6:30 P.M. every day. Even Valentine’s Day. How this fits into HSMHost’s master plan, I don’t know.
Disappointed, we took the shuttle back to our hotel, where we had a completely forgettable dining experience.
The next day we returned to the Rib Café—for lunch. And, as airport restaurants go, it wasn’t half bad. It overlooks the runway, just like Schneithorst’s did, so we could watch planes take off and land while we dined. We ordered ribs, naturally, and they were pretty good. We also enjoyed a tangy coleslaw. The service was efficient. All in all, it was a lovely meal—except for the dead bird on the ledge just outside our window. It lay on its back, in the mid-to late stages of decomposition.
After dinner at Schneithorst’s, Harry and Bess signed a few autographs, then walked out to their car. Harry asked the parking lot attendant for directions back to Highway 40. (Highway 40 and Interstate 64 are now the same road