For 20 years, one organization ran fall on Manchester Avenue. In 2026 that organization is sitting the festival out. Park Central Development announced on Aug. 21 that GroveFest will not return this year. It said it is "stepping back to reorganize the event and ensure it continues to serve our organization's goals moving forward." The bars and restaurants on the street are hosting the weekend themselves. Over the same summer, several of those storefronts changed hands. Both changes point the same way. The people shaping the Grove this fall are the business owners on Manchester, and the business mix is shifting toward full-service dining.
Who Is Hosting This Year
GroveFest was a big event. It usually took over Manchester Avenue each fall with live performances and food and drinks from local restaurants. The festival website lists more than 130 vendors over the years. Park Central Development thanked the Grove Community Improvement District for sponsoring it through those years.
On the scheduled weekend, a group of neighborhood businesses is running a bar crawl instead. Urban Chestnut Brewing Company is holding its Oktoberfest the same weekend. Drew Jameson, managing partner at Atomic by Jamo and one of the crawl's organizers, told St. Louis Public Radio he wants to get back to what made the festival work in the first place:
"I think also losing direct focus on what worked maybe best for the versions of GroveFest that made it what it was known to be wasn't a huge headliner on a stage necessarily. It actually was local and community focused and I think that's where we're trying to find roots on and reestablish connection with."
He also said working as a group across several businesses "doesn't happen as much anymore." The GroveCrawl's own site lists the businesses taking part. They include Trops, Atomic by Jamo, HandleBar, Urban Chestnut, Rehab, Prism, The Vandy, LaCalle, Just John, Sauce on the Side, Sweetwaters, Oni, Gramophone, Serendipity, Crush, Dsquared2Go, Eric Outlaw Business Center, Platypus, Neon Greens, Chico Bueno and La Finca Coffee. The list mixes coffee, nightclubs, a business center and a breakfast-and-salad stop, which is a wider range than a beer-garden lineup.
Here's what the GroveCrawl ticket covers, according to the event page:
- When and where: Saturday, Oct. 3, 4 to 10 p.m., with check-in at 4243 Manchester Ave.
- Price: $8 presale or $10 the day of, plus a small service fee on presale tickets
- At check-in: a wristband, a souvenir mug and a passport listing specials at participating businesses
- Also included: drink discounts from sponsors, no-cover entry to the Grove's nightclubs all night, and rides around the neighborhood by trolley and barcycle
- Age rules: You must be 21 or older to buy drink specials, and individual businesses may turn away guests under 21 under their own policies
The transportation is described a few different ways. The crawl homepage promotes a free Trolley Pub ride with a ticket. The Do314 listing describes a free Manchester Avenue shuttle running between Sarah Street and the Oktoberfest road closure. Check with the organizers the day of for the exact setup.
The Weekend, in Order
Oktoberfest and the crawl overlap, so the weekend runs longer than the crawl's six hours. Pieced together from Urban Chestnut's event page and the crawl schedule, it runs like this:
- Friday, Oct. 2, 2 p.m.: Urban Chestnut's Oktoberfest opens at the Grove Brewery & Bierhall, 4465 Manchester Ave., with music and German food.
- Saturday, noon to 3 p.m.: Ahna Schoenhoff plays at Gramophone.
- Saturday, 3 to 9 p.m.: Just John hosts an Oktoberfest party.
- Saturday, 4 to 10 p.m.: The GroveCrawl. The posted schedule also includes meat bingo at Rehab, a party at HandleBar and a vendor market at Trops.
- Sunday, Oct. 4, until 7 p.m.: Oktoberfest wraps up at the Bierhall.
Urban Chestnut sells VIP Oktoberfest tickets with a commemorative stein, two drink tickets, VIP seating, a private bar and a buffet from Niche Food Group with bratwursts, pretzels, schnitzel and pizza. The brewery's pages we checked didn't list general admission pricing or a named music lineup. Look at the brewery's event page before you go.
Manchester, Block by Block
The crawl runs along a street whose storefronts look different than they did in June. Here's the corridor in address order, using St. Louis Magazine, Sauce and St. Louis Public Radio reporting from July through September 2026:
| Address | Business | What changed in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 4140 Manchester | Atomic Eats, inside Atomic by Jamo | Fast-casual kitchen run by Five Senses hospitality group, scheduled to open July 8 |
| 4145 Manchester | Everest Cafe and Bar | Closed Aug. 21 after 22 years |
| 4156 Manchester | Malo | Mexican tasting menu with a walk-in cocktail bar, opened in July |
| 4199 Manchester | Baia | Italian seafood and pasta, opened Aug. 20 |
| 4270 Manchester | Grace Meat + Three | Last service Sept. 13 after nine years |
| 4353 Manchester | La Crazy Margarita | Second location in the former Creole With A Splash Of Soul space, opened Sept. 2 |
| 4465 Manchester | Urban Chestnut Grove Brewery & Bierhall | Oktoberfest, Oct. 2 to 4 |
| 1072 Tower Grove Ave. | Damn Fine Anytime | Second bakery location, aiming for the first half of October |
St. Louis Magazine described Atomic Eats as elevated comfort food, with signature smashburgers, vegetable options, vegan chili and a kids' menu. Kitchen hours were planned for 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., Wednesday through Sunday, with the bar open until 3 a.m. A late-night kitchen inside a music venue fits the same move toward food seen on the rest of the block.
How One Restaurant Group Reshaped the Strip
Most of the new openings come from one group. Baia, at the corner of Manchester and South Boyle, is one of three Grove restaurants that opened between June and September. All three are backed by Jordan Goodman, co-owner of Good Hospitality. In three years, Goodman and his partners have opened five restaurants and taken over running another. The list includes Good Company, Aperi, Chico Bueno, Malo and Baia in the Grove, plus Trust downtown. St. Louis Public Radio called that pace unprecedented in St. Louis since COVID. Chico Bueno is on the crawl list.
The closings on the same blocks had their own reasons. Grace Meat + Three's lease was up for renewal. Owners Rick and Elisa Lewis decided to move everything to their sister restaurant, Grace Chicken + Fish, at 8654 Watson in Crestwood. They own that building, and it has room for the catering business and food truck. Lewis said sales had slowed while labor and food costs kept rising. He also said the 4,700-square-foot Manchester space had a bar they never fully used. He spoke warmly about the street he's leaving:
"With all of Jordan Goodman's restaurants and Atomic amping up their program, The Grove is definitely moving forward. It just wasn't moving forward for us."
Lewis also called his landlord, Guy Slay, a very good partner. He said "whoever takes that space is a lucky person." Everest Cafe and Bar, known for its Nepalese, Indian and Korean fusion menu, closed on Aug. 21 after 22 years on the street.
Jameson put the backdrop simply. He said the Grove has gone through big changes since the pandemic, including business and music venue closures and shifts across the hospitality industry. A crawl made up of storefronts is the kind of event that street can put on by itself.
What's Still Coming
The calendar keeps going after Oct. 4. These are the dates and plans that have been announced:
- First half of October: Damn Fine Anytime hopes to open at 1072 Tower Grove Ave., the former Vincent Van Doughnuts shop. Sauce reports coffee, pastries, hand pies and breakfast in the morning, with pizza and sandwiches in the evening. That opening window is the owners' goal, not a confirmed date.
- Nov. 11 to 15: The Flyover Comedy Festival returns. Its improv shows are at The Improv Shop in the Grove, and most of the other programming moves to the Delmar Loop.
- Within the next year: Goodman told St. Louis Public Radio he plans two more restaurants, including a Texas-inspired taqueria.
- Next spring: In August, Baia's owners told St. Louis Magazine they're planning a wine garden behind 4199 Manchester for "next spring." Plans call for a patio, a bar, green space and bocce courts for customers.
None of the reporting we found names a new operator for 4270 or 4145 Manchester. Park Central Development's public statement in August said it was reorganizing GroveFest and gave no return date. St. Louis Magazine reported the same day that supporters hope to see the festival back in 2027. Alderman Michael Browning told the magazine his understanding is that GroveFest is moving to an every-other-year format because it "gets more expensive every year." That's his account, and Park Central has not announced that format itself.
If you own a home near Manchester Avenue, the new restaurants, the empty storefronts and the planned 2027 projects all affect how buyers see your block. At Show + Sell STL, we follow those changes block by block. When you're ready to know what your home is worth on a street that's changing this quickly, request your free home valuation and we'll build it around what's actually happening on your block.
