© 2024 St. Louis Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Changes Coming To St. Louis Art Museum Restaurant

St. Louis Art Museum, looking to the west
Provided by the Art Museum

Visitors to the St. Louis Art Museum will see some changes in the museum's Panorama restaurant.

The museum is looking closely at the menu, service and kitchen operations after a six-month review observed a $260,000 loss. The red ink was noted in a Zoo-Museum District audit of the museum, released last week.

Brent Benjamin
Credit Provided by the Art Museum
Brent Benjamin

But even before the audit was made public, the museum was already scrutinizing the restaurant's day-to-day activity, museum director Brent Benjamin told St. Louis Public Radio and the Beacon.

"It's a standard review, what's working, what's not," Benjamin said.

The deficit — and the amount of it — came as no surprise, according to Benjamin. Panorama was never expected to show an immediate profit.

"The five-year projections for the restaurant were that we would have a loss for the first 12 to 18 months, then we would go on a positive cash flow at some point," Benjamin said.

The museum expects to release details in a few weeks about changes to the restaurant.

Nancy is a veteran journalist whose career spans television, radio, print and online media. Her passions include the arts and social justice, and she particularly delights in the stories of people living and working in that intersection.