Dorsa Market opens at 1007 Washington Ave. with a pizza café, fresh produce and a deli

Wash Ave has its own neighborhood market. Dorsa Market opened Thursday, Oct. 29, on the ground floor of the Dorsa building at 1007 Washington Ave., selling produce, household essentials and prepared foods, the St. Louis Business Journal reported.

The sign out front lays out the lineup: a pizza and wings café, fresh produce and a deli, wine and spirits, everyday essentials and local goods. Owner Corey James also runs two other businesses on the corridor, Bella’s Coffee Café and Buddy’s Local Grill & Bar. “We’ll have very fresh produce,” James told First Alert 4 this summer. “We want more traffic down here when it comes to families, for it to become a walkable neighborhood, and this is what it’s becoming.”

The market moves into one of Washington Avenue’s most distinctive buildings. The Dorsa started as a 1902 red-brick wholesale warehouse with terra-cotta ornament by the St. Louis firm Eames and Young. In 1946 it got a bold Art Moderne slipcover facade designed by Meyer Loomstein, with terra cotta by sculptor Sascha Schnittman, green tile on the lower floors and red window sashes above. The first floor was the showroom for the Dorsa Company, which sold women’s dresses, complete with a theater for fashion shows. In the early 1980s, developer Larry Deutsch renovated it as one of downtown’s first loft buildings.

There’s more on the way. James is also planning ATM, short for At The Moment, a speakeasy hidden behind an ATM machine next to the market, the Business Journal reported in May. The market and speakeasy together were expected to cost about $60,000.

Neighbors can help the market grow, too. In a Nov. 1 post thanking opening-weekend shoppers, Dorsa Market asked for signatures for its liquor license from everyone who lives within 650 feet of its door, up to the third floor. Forms are at the market, Bella’s and Buddy’s. See the Dorsa Market listing on Wash Ave.

This week in music

R&B singer, songwriter and producer Clara La San plays The Hawthorn, 2231 Washington Ave., on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, at 8 p.m. (doors 7 p.m.). Her 2023 self-release “In This Darkness” earned hundreds of millions of streams, and her debut album, Made Mistakes, came out in 2024. Tickets and info: thehawthornstl.com

This week in art

21c Museum Hotel St. Louis, 1528 Locust St., in the Wash Ave neighborhood, offers a free guided tour on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, 6–7 p.m., through its exhibition Dress Up, Speak Up: Regalia and Resistance and its site-specific artworks. The show features artists including Titus Kaphar, Firelei Báez and Ebony G. Patterson, whose works use adornment and performance to reclaim identity and history. Tours are first come, first served, with a limit of 25, so RSVP early. Details: 21cmuseumhotels.com

From the ‘gram

Blue hour over the downtown rooftops, with the Gateway Arch glowing in the distance. 📸: @austin_david_walker https://www.instagram.com/washington_avenue/p/Db7HuLNR1Fm/

Sources

Kate Marijolovic, “Grocery and convenience store Dorsa Market opens in downtown St. Louis,” St. Louis Business Journal, Oct. 29, 2026 — https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2026/10/29/dorsa-market-opens-downtown-st-louis.html

Kate Marijolovic, “Downtown St. Louis market to hide speakeasy behind ATM machine,” St. Louis Business Journal, May 25, 2026 — https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/news/2026/05/25/dorsa-market-wash-ave-speakeasy-st-louis.html

Nathan Vickers, “First Alert Forward: Competition in the St. Louis grocery market,” First Alert 4, Aug. 6, 2026 — https://www.firstalert4.com/2026/08/06/first-alert-forward-competition-stl-grocery-market/

Michael R. Allen, “Preserving Which Dorsa Building?,” Preservation Research Office, July 26, 2005 — http://preservationresearch.com/downtown/preserving-which-dorsa-building/

Dorsa Market Facebook post, Nov. 1, 2026 (opening Thursday; liquor-license signatures) — https://www.facebook.com/1086226801246976

The Hawthorn, Clara La San — https://www.thehawthornstl.com/tickets/clara-la-san ; 21c Museum Hotels, Free Guided Museum Tours and Dress Up, Speak Up — https://21cmuseumhotels.com/st-louis/whats-on/free-museum-tours/