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SHORT ORDERS
[ S T. L O U I S S TA N D A R D S ]
A Taste of Tradition Cyrano’s Café has been serving up sweet treats and treasured memories for 61 years Written by
CHERYL BAEHR
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elissa Downs is used to people pouring their hearts out to her with memories of dining at Cyrano’s Café as soon as they learn she co-owns and manages the beloved dessert and dining destination. Sometimes, however, their timing isn’t the best. “I run into people all over St. Louis from all walks of life who tell me about their memories,” Downs says. “One time, my dentist launched into a long story about how he went there with his wife. When I gave birth to my daughter at St. Mary’s Hospital, and the OB nurses found out I owned Cyrano’s, they all came and told me how they used to come over, get Cleopatras to-go, bring them back and eat it at the nurse’s station.” Downs knows that hearing those stories at every turn comes with the territory of owning a St. Louis dining institution, one that has been serving some of the city’s most iconic desserts since 1960. And that’s one of the things she loves most about her job. Married into the family that has been running Cyrano’s since 1979, Downs understands that she has a responsibility to be a steward of those memories for people, some of whom remember the original location on Clayton Road and Demun Avenue. That spot, which was opened by John and Francis Marshall 61 years ago, was the go-to place in the St. Louis area for desserts and European-style coffee drinks — beverages that may seem ubiquitous today but were ahead of their time in the pre-Starbucks era. Housed in the basement of a building that had a hi-fi stereo store above it, the original Cyrano’s was dimly lit and
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RIVERFRONT TIMES
The desserts will always take a starring role at Cyrano’s, but it is the memories and relationships that keep regulars coming back. | ANDY PAULISSEN intimate, its soundtrack provided by a reel-to-reel tape player that kids in tuxes and formal dresses would sway to as they waited for their tables after attending prom. In 19 9, a fire tore through the building and destroyed the original location, prompting the Marshalls to relocate to a storefront on Big Bend Boulevard just around the corner. Not long after, they opened a sister restaurant in Westport Plaza called De Bergerac’s, but when it failed to take off the way that Cyrano’s did, they shuttered it and decided to reevaluate whether they wanted to keep going in the business. Though
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“People want to hang onto tradition. There’s a lot of meaning and emotion that people associate with food.” they continued to run Cyrano’s for a bit longer, they eventually
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sold in 1985 to the O’Donnell family, who turned the establishment into a place as equally focused on dinner as dessert. Reinvented as a fine-dining restaurant with steaks and seafood, Cyrano’s operated under the O’Donnells’ watch until 1996, when they sold it to Carolyn and Charlie Downs, Melissa Downs’ in-laws. Though the sale gave Carolyn and Charlie the rights and furnishing to Cyrano’s, they were not yet ready to go all-in on running the place. This was because they were focused on helping with another titan of St. Louis’ restaurant history: Harvest. Together, Char-
