What's New, What's Shifting, And What's Free In Webster Groves This Summer

Two of Webster's business districts are moving in opposite directions this year. Old Orchard, the pocket at Big Bend and South Old Orchard, has spent the last eight months absorbing new tenants and a new mural. Old Webster, the historic strip along Lockwood between Gore and Elm, is in the middle of a tenant reshuffle that will change what your Friday night walk looks like.

If you live here, that split matters more than any single opening. It tells you where the foot traffic will be this summer, which storefronts are worth checking back on in the fall, and which of the free standing traditions still anchor the calendar between the two districts.

Old Orchard grew west this winter

The most visible change on Big Bend is the corner where Weber's Front Row used to sit. DD Mau opened its new Webster Groves location at 8169 Big Bend Blvd. on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, after outgrowing its longtime home on Allen Avenue. The Allen Avenue storefront was 20 Allen; the new one is a different animal. The 6,000-square-foot storefront in the former home of Weber's Front Row also features an events space.

That last detail is the one worth holding onto. The spacious dining room, larger kitchen and added event area allow the team to host private dinners, parties and corporate gatherings, something Shih says customers have increasingly asked for. Translation for anyone who has tried to book a graduation lunch in Old Orchard: there is now a room here that can hold one. DD Mau also holds a beer and wine license, giving diners a curated beverage selection to pair with their pho, bánh mì, noodle bowls and wings, and rotating seasonal specials plus a house-made chile oil are part of the expanded menu.

The building itself is worth looking up from your phone for. During the demolition work, crews discovered an exposed brick wall that has been uncovered and restored along the east side of the central dining room. That is a Webster Groves detail. Old Orchard's one-story brick storefronts hide their original bones under decades of drop ceilings and drywall, and every renovation is a coin flip on what shows up behind the plaster.

A block and a half east, another piece of the district's visual identity is going up in real time. A big, bold mural is currently being painted by Webster Groves native and world-renown street artist Peat "Eyez" Wollaeger on the southwestern wall of the Climate Masters building, 8027 Big Bend Blvd. in Old Orchard, approved by Climate Masters founder and owner Tom Becker. If you drive Big Bend on your commute, that wall is the one you can see from the Rock Hill light.

Lockwood is in the middle of a tenant reshuffle

Old Webster is telling a different story. The corner of Gore and Lockwood is still the same corner. The tenants around it are not.

The current iteration of Robust Bistro & Wine Bar, 227 W. Lockwood in Webster Groves, will host patrons through Jan. 31. If you had a standing reservation there, you already know. If you didn't, the address is worth remembering. That storefront has anchored the west end of the Lockwood strip for years, and what fills it will shape which direction the district's dinner traffic flows.

Across the street, the vacancy math has already resolved once. Central Bank now has a branch open at 220 W. Lockwood Ave., between Gray Avenue and Jefferson Road, marking the bank's 18th full-service location in the St. Louis Metro area. A retail bank is not a restaurant. It is, however, a tenant that signs a long lease and keeps consistent daytime hours, and that changes the sidewalk rhythm on that block in a way a rotating retail concept doesn't.

The through line, if you live in one of the streets that feeds Lockwood: the district's storefront mix in July 2026 is not the mix it will have in January 2027. Walk it now while the current lineup is still intact.

The free calendar, in the order you'll actually use it

Webster's summer isn't in the storefronts. It's in three or four repeating dates that a lot of newer residents miss because nobody sends a flyer. Here they are in the order they land on the calendar:

1. Webster Arts Fair. The Webster Arts Fair runs at Eden Theological Seminary starting Fri 05 Jun 2026. Eden's campus at 475 E. Lockwood is a fifteen-minute walk from most of Old Webster. Park at home.
2. Juneteenth Concert in the Park. The city of Webster Groves hosts a Juneteenth Concert in the Park on Thursday, June 18, 6 to 8 p.m., at Ivory Crockett Park, located at Bell and Almentor Avenues in north Webster. Ivory Crockett is the small park with the water tower behind it; the concert is on the lawn.
3. Old Webster Summer Night Street Dance. This year's Old Webster Summer Night Street Dance is Saturday, June 20, held at the corner of Gore and Lockwood avenues in Old Webster from 5:30 to 10 p.m. This one closes Lockwood. If you live on Gore or one of the side streets, plan your driveway accordingly.
4. Community Days Parade. The deadline to enter a float in the 2026 Webster Groves Community Days Parade was Monday, June 15, with applications submitted at webstergrovesmo.gov. If you missed the float window, spectating is the assignment.
5. Old Orchard Gazebo Series. Outdoor concerts and movies are offered on select Friday evenings during June and July in the City's Gazebo Park located in the Old Orchard Business District at Big Bend and South Old Orchard. This is the closest thing Old Orchard has to a standing Friday-night ritual, and it runs right past DD Mau's front door.
6. Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival. The one non-summer date worth pre-loading. The Old Webster Jazz & Blues Festival is a Saturday music festival featuring two stages and a day of noted musical performances held in September in the heart of Old Webster. Scale check: it has grown to well over 12,000 annual attendees and features original music, food and beverage, and shopping.

A quick logistics note that mostly applies to Jazz Fest but is useful for the Street Dance too. Recommended parking includes the Public Parking Garage, the South Gore Parking Lot, and the lot to the west of Straubs on Lockwood Ave., and all parking is FREE. If you know the Straubs lot, you know the trick.

The pattern hiding underneath

None of the above is a single "big" story. Read them together and there is one.

Webster's two commercial districts are diverging. Old Orchard is filling in. A restaurant that outgrew a 20 Allen footprint just tripled its space on Big Bend, and a native muralist is putting a wall-sized piece of work on 8027 Big Bend that will be there for years. Old Webster is churning. A long-tenured restaurant closes at 227 W. Lockwood, a bank opens at 220 W. Lockwood, and the anchor tenant question for the west end of Lockwood is genuinely open for the first time in a while.

For anyone who owns a home within a five-minute walk of either district, that matters in a boring, useful way. Foot traffic patterns follow tenant patterns. The block your kid rides to on their bike in July 2027 will not look identical to the one they ride to now. That is worth noticing while it's happening, not after.

The free calendar is the constant. The storefronts around it are the variable.

If you're the one thinking about the block

Most of this post is written for the resident who is not planning to move. But two things are worth saying to the smaller group of readers who are.

First, if you are watching Lockwood specifically because you are thinking about buying near it, the current vacancy churn is a feature, not a bug. It is the moment when a district's next decade gets set. Second, if you already own here and someone in your family is asking what a home near Ivory Crockett Park or a block off Big Bend looks like on the market right now, that is the exact question a local agent can answer with real comps rather than a portal estimate.

If that is the conversation, Stacy Deutschmann works these blocks every week. Let's connect — find your next home or get a free valuation.