Opening a business in downtown St. Louis and its surrounding neighborhoods is tricky.
Some people are going to celebrate the move, of course. But the downtown doomsayers also come out in force and point to recent closings, like last month’s loss of Ozzy’s Market in Downtown West after less than a year or even the shuttering of Fleur STL, after it moved into the former Eat-Rite Diner location in La Salle Park in late 2022.
When Sam Padilla, operations director for Coffeestamp (including a new location downtown), was asked what she would say to those folks, she sat up a little straighter and leaned in with a hint of a smile…