Cyrano's John Bryan Marshall Jr. was born on July 7, 1922 in Mexico, Missouri. After serving 13 years as a Marine Corps fighter pilot in both World War II and the Korean War, he married Frances Huff on April 18, 1953. By 1955, the Marshalls were living in St. Louis.
In 1956, John Marshall opened the High Fidelity
Showroom at 6383 Clayton Road, on the northeast corner of Clayton
and DeMun. It was billed as the first exclusively high fidelity
studio in the St. Louis area.
Marshall's hi-fi business did well. In November of 1957, the Marshalls purchased a home at 1259 Hampton Park Drive in Richmond Heights. But Marshall described himself as a frustrated restaurateur. Through the years he had collected 150 gourmet cookbooks and he wanted to put them to use.
So in 1960, John and Frances Marshall opened a
European-style coffeehouse in the
basement of their Hi-Fi Showroom at Clayton and DeMun. They called
their coffeehouse Cyrano's.
Cyrano's entrance was down a flight of steps on the DeMun side of the building. Inside, a hallway led to a smallish waiting room with bench seats on either side. Against the back wall, a reel-to-reel tape deck behind smoked glass played classical music throughout the restaurant. The dining room was dark and romantic, with exposed pipes overhead, painted the same dark color as the ceiling. Candle-lit wooden tables completed the scene. Cyrano's menu included a few simply prepared sandwiches, 16 types of coffee, a variety of teas and cocoas, and a collection of pastries and ice cream desserts.
Roast beef sandwiches were served two to an
order. The thinly sliced beef was served on mouthwatering floury rolls,
said to be supplied by Pfeiffer's Bakery.
Cyrano's desserts were made with St. Louis based Chapman's ice cream. An early favorite was the World's Fair Éclair – a delicate pastry covered with French vanilla ice cream, milk chocolate and whipped cream.
But the dessert that would become
Cyrano's signature dish was not on the original menu. The Cleopatra
was added sometime after the restaurant opened. An ice cream sundae,
with bananas, whole strawberries, rum sauce, a hard chocolate shell
and a mountain of whipped cream, it was "truly fit for royalty."
Cyrano's was one of Pevely Dairy's biggest whipped cream customers, using over 100 gallons of whipping cream every week. In addition, 40 trays of fresh strawberries were flown in from California weekly. Cyrano's was the place to go for high school and college students after movies, proms and other social events. The wait for a table could be an hour or more, with customers lined up out the door.
In the spring of 1972, the Marshalls
took advantage of Cyrano's popularity and expanded upward.
They converted the east half of their Hi-Fi Showroom into a
second dining room, increasing the restaurant’s seating capacity to
165.
In the new upstairs dining area, tables were
intimately arranged with candles and fresh flowers on their marble
tops. Reproductions of masters were softly illuminated on the walls,
there were beamed ceilings and fine walnut that originally graced
Mill Creek Valley homes, and in the background, classical guitar and
piano music added a soothing touch.
The Marshalls expanded the menu in their upstairs dining room, in part to appeal to an older clientele. The menu included seven soups, all homemade. The two best sellers were New England style clam chowder and split pea with ham, with French onion, navy bean and gazpacho close behind. Entrees included Boeuf Bourguignon, Italian ham and salami, and Crab Louis. And, of course, Cyrano's downstairs desserts were all on the menu.
Cyrano's continued
to thrive. Building on their success, the Marshalls opened
Restaurant de Bergerac at Westport Plaza early in 1974. A distinctly
French restaurant, de Bergerac took Cyrano's upstairs dining room
menu to another level.
On Sunday afternoon, December 23, 1979, a fire
began in Cyrano's lower level, just hours before the restaurant was
scheduled to open. Fire burned up the stairway from the basement and
caused extensive damage to the upstairs dining room and the
neighboring Hi-Fi Showroom.
Damage was estimated at more than $100,000. Most of the damage was done by smoke and water; fire officials determined the main structure to be sound. John Marshall told officials he would rebuild, but shortly thereafter, he sold the property to St. Louis County Bank. * * * * *
The Marshalls reopened Cyrano's in 1980 at 1059
South Big Bend Boulevard, just south of Clayton Road, in a building that had housed a Shakey's
Pizza Parlor. While the new restaurant was less than a mile from the
original and the menu remained the same, the vibe had
changed.
The Marshalls closed Restaurant de Bergerac in 1983. In 1985, they sold Cyrano's to Ray and Fran Gibson and retired from the restaurant business. * * * * * "Our commitment was to leave everything just as it was," said Ray Gibson in 1988. "Cyrano’s has always been known for its desserts, soups, special coffees, continental teas, salads and sandwiches. Consequently, it wouldn’t have been in our best interests to drop any of them. What we did instead was to add a second menu, featuring steaks and fresh seafood."
"That is one of the
few changes we’ve made," Gibson continued. "While we still hire
students, we also have hired professional service people. And I
believe it shows."
* * * * * In 1990, Dr. Francis E. O’Donnell purchased Cyrano's from the Gibsons "with the goal of restoring it to its former level of excellence." O’Donnell greatly expanded the Gibsons' expanded menu. The focus was on full dinners – far beyond the famous roast beef sandwiches – with a wide variety of entrees, including pastas and gourmet pizzas. Still offered were Cyrano's signature ice creams and coffees, although the selections had been trimmed.
On September 15, 1996, Frank O'Donnell closed Cyrano's and sold the space to Charlie Downs, George Mahe and Bob Gontram. The trio would reopen the restaurant that November as Harvest. * * * * * Charlie and Carolyn Downs resurrected Cyrano's in 2003 at 603 East Lockwood in Webster Groves, where it is still in business today. Their website states "former Cyrano's tables, mirrors, artwork and antiques have been restored and intermingled with the bright colors of today, creating an atmosphere that is alive and progressive, but still cozy and romantic." John Marshall died in 2010. His wife Frances had died in 1999. For those who remember the original Cyrano's at Clayton and DeMun, the European-style coffeehouse died when it went up in flames in 1979.
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