3 metro-east restaurants close, an anniversary celebration and a new pumpkin ale
It’s been a hot minute since my last business roundup. Here are some recent updates, including closings, an anniversary and other business news.
Burger King
A Burger King restaurant at Green Mount Commons in Belleville is closed.
The Burger King website shows the restaurant located at 2508 Green Mount Commons Drive is closed, and the building looks like it was emptied.
Menu boards in the drive-thru were removed, and a large dumpster was present in the lot.
I received no response to inquiries made to the location’s franchisee, Broadway Restaurant Group, for more information about the closing.
Based in St. Louis, Broadway Restaurant Group owns more than 50 Burger King restaurants in Illinois and Missouri.
For more info about the Broadway Restaurant Group, visit b-restaurants.com. For info about Burger King or to find a location, visit bk.com.
Wang Gang Asian Eats and Chappy’s Fried Chicken & Burgers
After more than 14 years, Wang Gang Asian Eats, 1035 Century Drive in Edwardsville, is closed.
Wang Gang Asian Eats opened in spring 2009 and was originally located at 4 Club Centre Court in Edwardsville.
The restaurant moved to its Century Drive location in spring 2013.
A message on the eatery’s website states that the closing is “due to circumstances beyond our control” and thanks patrons for 14+ years of support.
I was unable to reach owner Ryan O’Day to learn the reason for the closing.
O’Day is also the owner of Chappy’s Fried Chicken & Burgers, which also recently closed.
The website for the family-friendly burger joint displays the same closure message as Wang Gang Asian Eats.
Chappy’s opened next door to the Asian restaurant in 2022, replacing O’Day’s fast-casual pasta concept, So’Pasta, which opened in summer 2020.
Fox 2 reported that O’Day said that the decision to close the restaurants was due to inflation and changes in customer trends following the COVID pandemic.
“The lunchtime crowd basically disintegrated by 50 percent,” O’Day told Fox 2. “Happy Hour has disintegrated, because you work from home and you’re not going to get out of your pajamas—you’ve got a routine now. It’s COVID, and it’s definitely the residual effects of COVID.”
Last August, a Madison County Grand Jury charged O’Day with theft of government funds, sales tax evasion and filing fraudulent sales tax returns in Illinois. O’Day told Fox 2 his decision to close was not related to the indictment. According to Madison County court records, O’Day’s trial was scheduled to start Monday, Aug. 19, but was continued. The court date is now Monday, Sept. 9.
Mueller Furniture & Mattress Warehouse Showroom
This month, Mueller Furniture celebrates the one-year anniversary of its fourth and latest location at 51 Commerce Lane in Fairview Heights.
Mueller Furniture & Mattress Warehouse Showroom opened Aug. 25, 2023, at the former Weekends Only site.
“We couldn’t be more thankful to the Metro East and the Fairview Heights community for their support for our newest location over the past 12 months,” Mark Mueller, owner and president of Mueller Furniture, stated in a press release.
“We opened up this warehouse to help streamline some of our day-to-day operations. We wanted all of the functions of customer service, sales, delivery and repair housed under one roof. The warehouse has allowed our team to be more efficient while also giving us a bigger footprint in the Metro East. We’re very excited for what the future has in store and we are looking forward to more people coming in to see our new location and what we have to offer.”
The store’s 55,000-square-foot showroom features a wide selection of home furnishings that include a collection of Amish-made furniture, the largest in the Midwest, according to the release.
The 90,000-square-foot store also houses Mueller Furniture, LLC’s centralized operations, administration and support for all locations, which includes the Belleville store and Lake St. Louis and Ellisville, Missouri, stores.
Mueller Furniture was founded by John Mueller in 1927 and first opened at 1004 E. Main St. in Belleville.
His sons, Roland Mueller and Les Mueller, took over the business after his death in 1952.
Lynwood Mueller followed as the third-generation owner and president and retired in 2022.
Mark Mueller is the current and fourth-generation owner and president of the business.
For more information about Mueller Furniture, call 618-233-0667, visit muellerfurniture.com or follow the business on Facebook.
Schlafly Beer
The season of pumpkin spice … well, everything, is here.
Schlafly Beer announced this week the release of its most popular seasonal beer, Pumpkin Ale.
(Admittedly, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, or rather everyone’s pint of beer, but I like it.)
In conjunction with the release of the fall favorite, the St. Louis-based craft beer brewer will also release its new Vanilla Pumpkin Ale.
“Pumpkin Ale continues to be a growth performer beer in our portfolio,” CEO David Schlafly stated in a press release. “While other breweries might have abandoned the style, we’re confident in the exceptional quality of our Pumpkin Ale, but we always want to continue to evolve so this year, we are introducing Vanilla Pumpkin Ale as well. It’s something familiar, yet new for our loyal Pumpkin Ale fans to enjoy.”
The release states that Schlafly’s Pumpkin Ale is described as “pumpkin pie in a glass,” adding that the Vanilla Pumpkin Ale takes it to the next level: pumpkin pie with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
I might have to give it a try.
Schlafly Beer is available at multiple metro-east grocery and convenience stores or at one of its four restaurant and bar locations:
The Schlafly Tap Room, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis;
Schlafly Bottleworks, 7260 Southwest Ave., St. Louis;
Schlafly Bankside, 920 S. Main St., St. Charles, Missouri;
Schlafly Highland Square, 907 Main St., Highland.
For more information about Schlafly Beer, visit schlafly.com.
This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 1:42 PM.
