A second The Brass Tap location is headed to the St. Louis market after franchisees Kush and Prapti Patel signed a lease at the Crestwood Crossing plaza, 9541 Watson Road, Crestwood, Missouri — their second kitchen buildout in under a year and a step toward a five-unit development commitment in the region.
The Buildout Picture
The Crestwood unit will occupy a brand-new building within the Crestwood Crossing retail plaza, meaning the Patels are working from a cold-shell condition rather than a retrofit — a scenario that gives the design team and equipment specifiers full latitude on kitchen layout, ventilation runs, and utility rough-ins. The Brass Tap's concept calls for a chef-led back-of-house supporting elevated pub fare alongside a craft beer wall and curated cocktail program, a combination that typically requires a full commercial cooking suite, a robust draft-beer glycol system, and dedicated prep and cold-storage capacity. No square footage or specific equipment suppliers were disclosed in the announcement.
The Patels opened their first Brass Tap in Olivette, Missouri, in March — a buildout that provided the operational baseline for the Crestwood project. Kush Patel, who grew up in his family's liquor business, and Prapti Patel, who brings restaurant and corporate IT experience, are moving quickly: with two locations under their belt or in process, three additional St. Louis kitchens remain on their development roadmap.
Franchise Kitchen Pipeline
For equipment dealers and kitchen designers active in the St. Louis corridor, multi-unit franchise commitments like this one represent a predictable pipeline of spec work. Each new Brass Tap shell requires outfitting for a full-service kitchen — cooking, refrigeration, warewashing, and bar equipment — as well as front-of-house draft infrastructure. Operators building toward five units often standardize on equipment packages across locations to simplify training, parts inventory, and service agreements, a dynamic that rewards dealers who engage early in the development cycle.
The Brass Tap is part of FSC Franchise Co., the Tampa-based franchise group that also operates Beef 'O' Brady's and Newk's Eatery. Chris Elliott, CEO of FSC Franchise Co., cited the strength of the brand's business model and growing demand for premium bar-and-grill concepts as drivers behind the Missouri expansion. The chain now counts more than 50 locations across 16 states, and continued franchise growth means a steady stream of new kitchen commissioning projects nationwide — relevant context for dealers and consultants tracking operator expansion in the cooking-equipment segment and those following refrigeration spec demand in bar-and-grill buildouts.
With craft beer culture running deep in St. Louis and the Crestwood building coming out of the ground new, the Patel buildout is one to watch for equipment specifiers looking to stay ahead of multi-unit franchise demand in the Midwest market.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
