Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of KISS to open Rock & Brews restaurant in Chesterfield 

Gene Simmons (left) and Paul Stanley of the rock band KISS and the restaurant Rock & Brews, slated to open in October in Chesterfield. Handout photo

Rendering of the Rock & Brews restaurant scheduled to open in October in Chesterfield. Handout photo

Paint your face white and black and get ready to rock and roll (and eat) all night. Rock & Brews, the restaurant concept that counts rock superstars Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of KISS among its founding partners, will open this fall in Chesterfield.

“This is more a lifestyle than a restaurant,” Stanley said in an interview Wednesday. “People who come here pretty much make it their home — their hang out.”

In fact, finding a place where Stanley could hang out with his own family helped shape the Rock & Brews concept.

“As I got older, I found that to go out with my kids and spend time during the day meant I’d have to eat cardboard mac and cheese with a waiter dressed like a giant rat,” Stanley said. “So the idea (behind Rock & Brews) was in one sense to address a need I had. If you address your own needs, you address the needs of others.”

Rock & Brews will occupy the stand-alone building at 17258 Chesterfield Airport Road in the Chesterfield Commons shopping plaza.

The space has housed several restaurants in the past but has been vacant since Estancia Mexican Restaurant closed in May 2015. It will be the 18th Rock & Brews chain location. Stanley and Simmons founded the chain with the restaurateur and hotelier Michael Zislis and the concert promoters and brothers Dave and Dell Furano.

The Chesterfield Rock & Brews is not only the chain’s first location in the St. Louis area but also its first in Missouri. There is a location in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kan..

“Our relationship with St. Louis goes back to the KSHE Kite-Flying contest,” Stanley said. At that event, the KISS lead singer remembers “being driven out in a van without windows into a field, not knowing where we were going and playing as a new band cutting our teeth.”

“We’ve been at the Checkerdome, we’ve been all over,” Stanley continued. “I can remember going to salvage yards that had stained-glass windows that came out of the older houses. I’ve spent a good amount of time in St. Louis.”

Stanley described the Rock & Brews menu as high-quality but unpretentious fare — burgers, wings, pizzas, pretzels — that the entire family can enjoy. “Our pretzel dough is flown in from Germany,” he said. “We don’t compromise.”

Of course, St. Louis in general, Chesterfield in particular and Chesterfield Commons especially aren’t lacking in restaurants with similar concepts. Kirk Williams, the franchisee overseeing the Chesterfield location, said he thinks Rock & Brews will stand out among the competition.

“We’re almost exclusively a from-scratch kitchen,” Williams said. “Our sauces are made every day. Our hamburger meat is fresh, never frozen.”

Williams said when Rock & Brews opens — mid-October is the target — it will feature at least 52 beers on draft, including selections from local craft brewers. The 8,600-square-foot space will boast 35 televisions, most of which will play concert footage or music videos synced to the rock music playing on the restaurant’s speakers.

“Our computer has 40,000 music choices,” Williams said. “You can request about anything, and if we’re not too busy our manager will go play that in the playlist.”

Rock & Brews isn’t the first restaurant to embrace the rock ’n’ roll spirit.

Still, without naming any names, Stanley said, “This is no museum where you see dead musicians’ clothes on the wall. This about living today and celebrating today in this atmosphere that is comfortable and pays homage to what we love, but in no way is a maudlin, funereal space.”

Stanley also bristles at Rock & Brew’s inevitable “chain” designation. “We try to be more than a franchise that plops down and obliterates a neighborhood,” he said. “We’re good neighbors.”

Rock & Brew takes special pride in supporting any military members in their communities, Stanley said, and also looks to help area hospitals and charities.

“I’m not in a position where I need to put my name on something and get a check,” Stanley said. “This is a hands-on love of mine and of everybody who’s involved.”

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