Carondelet

Carondelet is an interesting part of St. Louis that was originally its own city that was annexed by St. Louis in 1870 (one of the last that ever would be!). It’s a very old, very French village from back in the day.

I didn’t really know there was anything in Carondelet aside from Stacked (burgers) and Sugarwitch (ice cream sandwiches) when I first moved here, but I discovered there’s a whole strip of bars along the riverfront. Most of St. Louis does not have residential areas or restaurants along the riverfront as it’s mostly been historically used for industry, so it’s interesting to see a riverfront neighborhood along the southern edge.

Many locals refer to this whole area as Carondelet, but it’s officially two city neighborhoods, Carondelet and Patch. Historically, Patch was part of Carondelet City before it the whole area was annexed by St. Louis. Much of the retail corridor is in Patch, but a lot of those places refer to themselves as being in Carondelet, such as Stacked. Due to the amount of cultural overlap I’ve included both Carondelet and Patch together in this article, although both are unique entities.

Impressions#

I have not personally explored this area too much outside of driving through and visiting the restaurants along Fanetti plaza in Patch. I noticed a lot of boarded up buildings along the Broadway strip in between the bars and live music venues, so I’m hoping to see a revitalization with more bars and restaurants opening up in that area.