New St. Louis Cardinals season brings fresh dining options to Ballpark Village

Opening day for the St. Louis Cardinals 2023 season is here, and Ballpark Village is gearing up to welcome thousands of baseball fans seeking out nourishment and refreshments before, during and after games. If you’re heading downtown for the opening day festivities, look out for some new dining options taking shape, including a massive Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria that is scheduled to open in April.

The most hotly anticipated development at Ballpark Village for this season is that new location of Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria. Situated opposite Gate 4 of Busch Stadium, the 10,000 square-foot restaurant is the third location for Katie’s, and the largest so far by some distance. The restaurant will include a pasta-making station, wood-fired grill, patio and a private events space. Katie’s isn’t ready for opening day, but a statement on the restaurant’s Instagram today said we can look forward to checking it out within “a matter of weeks.”

“She's got a unique focus on really every single detail and making it very special,” said Mike LaMartina, Chief Operating Officer at Ballpark Village, of Katie's co-owner Katie Collier. “They want to make it shine. Obviously they do it with the food product already, it’s fantastic. Now the experience of being here and creating this new, larger format is an opportunity to really do some cool things with design and guest experience.”

LaMartina said he believes Katie’s will follow in the footsteps of Salt + Smoke’s Ballpark Village location, which has proved a hit among baseball fans on game days, residents at the One Cardinal Way apartments, and among the wider public. “They do an excellent job of service and ticket times and getting everything to everyone,” LaMartina said of Salt + Smoke. “The quality is fantastic. The dining room is a real open concept, it's an inviting environment. They’ve got a nice rooftop patio too.”

In addition to Katie’s, Ballpark Village also welcomes a further two additions to its dining lineup. Koibito Poke, an Arizona-based chain founded by former Cardinals pitcher Todd Stottlemyre, is ready for opening day on the north side of Ballpark Village, beside the entrance to Bally Sports Live! On the other side of that entrance, Condado Tacos is preparing to open its first Missouri location in the former Drunken Fish space.

Among the other developments at Ballpark Village for the new season include an enormous new 65-foot screen at Bally Sports Live! (an upgrade on the previous 40-foot iteration), and a new small bites menu available at The Bullock, the second-floor patio bar at Live! By Loews. The Bullock will host events to tie in with Cardinals games throughout the summer, and LaMartina was keen to stress that the bar, like the restaurants at Live! By Loews, is very much open to anyone who is around Ballpark Village for a game or a meal.

Ballpark Village is also embracing fans of the city’s two new sports franchises, St. Louis City SC and the St. Louis Battlehawks, in addition to the St. Louis Blues. Ballpark Village is hosting watch parties for home and away games, but St. Louis City SC fans can also jump on shuttles from Ballpark Village direct to CityPark on game days. Shuttles are also offered to the Enterprise Center for Blues games, and availability permitting, to The Dome at America's Center for Battlehawks games.

LaMartina said that with apartments, office tenants, hotel rooms at Live! by Loews, and a co-working space all now located on site, Ballpark Village has evolved into a “full-blown neighborhood,” and the range of dining options is influenced as much by those needs as by the demands of baseball season. “You can call it a contributing factor as we continue to develop neighborhood amenities,” he said. “We don’t really have slow time anymore.”