A restaurant called Aubrey has taken over a century-old storefront at 3001 Locust Street in Midtown St. Louis, serving $68 wagyu tenderloin and $15 whipped feta dip inside a building that once sold Ford automobiles. Co-owners Spencer Strode and Marcus Johnson, both 26 and first-time restaurateurs, opened the dinner spot in May, and it has quickly drawn attention for pairing white-tablecloth service touches with a neighborhood feel.
The pair posed for a portrait at the restaurant in late July, according to photos published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which documented guests dining downstairs, chatting at the bar and being served by staff including Angela Riggle, one of Aubrey's servers. The photos show a downstairs dining area alongside a second-floor space bathed in red lighting, prints covering an entryway wall, and string lights illuminating the sidewalk outside. Riggle is pictured setting down dishes at a guest table as diners sip wine and bartenders mix drinks nearby.
Strode and Johnson designed the interior to channel the intimacy and vintage glamour of European-inspired New York dining rooms while keeping the space approachable, according to Sauce Magazine. The two-level layout and warm lighting were meant to evoke a room with history, which is fitting given what the building actually is.
A Ford Showroom Turned Dinner Destination
The property was constructed in 1913 as a Ford Motor Company sales floor, part of Midtown Alley's historic Automobile Row, a stretch that housed dozens of early 20th-century auto distributors and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, per Missouri State Parks. Before Aubrey moved in, the same storefront spent 11 years as Small Batch Whiskey & Fare, a vegetarian restaurant and whiskey lounge run by Dave and Kara Bailey that closed in May 2025, Sauce Magazine reported at the time. Hoodline profiled that earlier tenant in a 2019 roundup of popular Midtown spots, back when Small Batch anchored the same address Aubrey now occupies.
The neighborhood itself has kept building momentum. Midtown Alley, sandwiched between downtown St. Louis and the Grand Center Arts District, has grown into a dining corridor anchored by longtime destinations like The Fountain on Locust and Urban Chestnut Brewing, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage of the area. Aubrey's debut follows other recent upscale openings nearby, including an R&B-themed lounge that landed in Midtown earlier this summer.
Wagyu, Mussels and a Menu Built for Range
Aubrey's dinner menu stretches from a $15 whipped feta dip to a $54 sea bass and a $68 eight-ounce Icon wagyu tenderloin steak au poivre, according to the restaurant's own listings. The kitchen also turns out an eight-ounce chef burger for $26 and $24 mussels, and the Post-Dispatch photos show the restaurant plating bolognese pasta, shrimp scampi and pork chop alongside its house burger and mussels. The cocktail list includes house creations like The Green Room, a mix of cucumber, lime cordial, Prosecco and mint, and the PM Shift, served with a sparkling wine sidecar, per Sauce Magazine.
The restaurant runs dinner service Wednesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., with late-night bar service continuing until 1 a.m. and three bar seats set aside specifically for walk-in guests, according to Resy. Most dining room tables require reservations in advance.
A Critic Notices the Little Touches
In an August review, Post-Dispatch restaurant critic Ian Froeb praised Aubrey's high-touch service, pointing to a detail as small as servers refolding napkins into fan shapes whenever guests step away from the table. Froeb wrote that the new restaurant already carries itself like a long-standing neighborhood institution, despite having opened just months earlier. For two first-time owners barely a few months into running their own kitchen, that kind of notice suggests Aubrey has settled into Midtown's dining scene faster than most newcomers manage.
