The Dam St. Louis Burger: Michele Coen's Story and Where to Eat It Now
The Tower Grove South burger joint closed in 2022. Its triple burger, fries and joppiesaus live on at The Key STL in Grand Center, St. Louis.
The Dam in St. Louis is closed for good. It served its last burger on Saturday, May 14, 2022, after nine years at 3173 Morgan Ford Road in Tower Grove South. The joint belonged to chef and caterer Michele Coen, and her burgers did not disappear with it: since October 29, 2025, you can eat them at The Key STL Burger Bar & Boogie in Grand Center. Coen developed that menu, and its triple burger is a close cousin of The Dam’s famous Animal.
Is The Dam in St. Louis still open?
No. The Dam closed permanently on May 14, 2022, and Yelp now marks it as closed. Sauce Magazine broke the news on May 11, 2022, three days before the last service (Sauce Magazine).
Some delivery apps and travel aggregators still list The Dam as if it were open. Ignore them. No kitchen at 3173 Morgan Ford Road serves The Dam’s menu today.
Who was behind The Dam: chef Michele Coen
Chef and caterer Michele Coen founded and owned The Dam. She also runs Michele C. Catering & Events, and both Sauce Magazine (2022) and St. Louis Magazine (2014) name her as the owner.
She opened The Dam in 2013. By July 2014, St. Louis Magazine listed Matt Galati as executive chef (St. Louis Magazine, Byron Kerman, July 18, 2014). Who ran the kitchen after him, and when he left, I could not find out.
The Dam in Tower Grove South: a burger kitchen inside a Dutch tavern
The Dam was the kitchen of Amsterdam Tavern, the Dutch-themed bar next door at 3175 Morgan Ford Road. Coen leased the space from the tavern, which had no kitchen of its own, so its regulars, many of them soccer fans, ate The Dam’s burgers and fries (Sauce Magazine; St. Louis Magazine).
The soccer crowd shaped the menu. Take The Dam Omelet: a bacon cheeseburger wrapped in an omelet with Swiss cheese and special sauce, built for fans up at dawn for European kickoffs (St. Louis Magazine). It sounds like a dare. It was on the menu.
Opening hours in 2014 (historical)
These hours date from July 2014 and are listed as history only: Monday to Wednesday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
If the Dutch theme makes you curious about the real thing, our Amsterdam burger hub starts with Ron Gastrobar, Ron Blaauw’s Michelin-starred burger stop.
What made The Dam’s burgers notable
The Dam built its name on three things: hand-formed patties of premium black Angus beef, Belgian-style fries peeled by hand every day, and a long list of house-made sauces. Sauce Magazine called the beef premium black Angus; St. Louis Magazine added that the patties were hand-formed and hormone-free.
The Animal: The Dam’s signature triple burger
The Animal was The Dam’s signature burger: three hand-formed patties with thick-cut bacon, roasted jalapeños, sweet-hot BBQ sauce, American cheese and grilled onions, on buttered buns from Companion Baking, a St. Louis bakery (St. Louis Magazine, 2014).
Remember that build. The same stack of three patties, bacon, jalapeños, onions and spicy BBQ turns up again in 2025, on Coen’s menu at The Key STL.
Belgian fries in St. Louis, peeled by hand
The Dam’s fries were Belgian-style: peeled and cut by hand every day, fried dark and crisp, and seasoned with kosher salt and pepper. The detail I like most: according to St. Louis Magazine, every staff member had to peel 15 potatoes (St. Louis Magazine, 2014).
Belgian fries tradition: Maison Antoine, a Brussels friterie open since 1948, the style of hand-cut fries with a choice of sauces that The Dam brought to St. Louis (1024×768) (Photo: Vincent Desjardins, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/44613506@N07/4928046562)
Joppiesaus and the house sauces
Joppiesaus is a Dutch fry sauce, and The Dam served it alongside a long list of house-made dips. In 2014 the list read:
- Sweet chili mayo
- Roasted garlic mayo
- Spicy BBQ
- Sriracha mayo
- Joppiesaus
- Special sauce
- House ranch
- Honey-curry mayo
- Caper relish
- Cheese ale sauce
Fries topped with joppiesaus, the Dutch fry sauce The Dam served with its Belgian-style fries and The Key STL still offers (500×500) (Photo: J Wynia, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/73451168@N00/41620916894)
In Amsterdam and Brussels, fries come with a sauce chosen at the counter, and ketchup is only one option among many. Serving them that way next to a bar called Amsterdam was, to me, the smartest idea The Dam had. It gave a Missouri burger counter a real link to the tavern’s theme, not just a name on the door.
Why did The Dam close?
The Dam closed because of staffing problems and the growth of Coen’s catering business. Sauce Magazine reported that she cited “ongoing staffing struggles and the demands of her growing catering business” and chose to focus on Michele C. Catering & Events (Sauce Magazine, Iain Shaw, May 11, 2022).
After the closure, Coen moved her catering company into the kitchen of The Dark Room at the Grandel Theatre in Grand Center. As of May 2022, she was still serving some Dam favorites there during performances, burgers and fries included. I could not confirm that this still happens in 2026, so read it as history.
The Grandel Theatre in Grand Center, St. Louis, home of The Dark Room, where Michele Coen moved her catering kitchen and kept serving Dam burgers and fries after May 2022 (1024×683) (Photo: Matthew Black, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/60099286@N00/1236261067)
Where to eat Michele Coen’s burgers now: The Key STL
Go to The Key STL Burger Bar & Boogie in Grand Center. Coen developed its menu, drawing on her years at The Dam and The Dark Room, and partnered on its dozen house-made sauces (St. Louis Magazine, George Mahe, Oct. 29, 2025; Kranzberg Arts Foundation).
Olive Street in Grand Center, St. Louis, with the 1930 Continental Life Building: the Midtown arts district a few blocks from The Key STL Burger Bar & Boogie at 3225 Olive St. (2638×3518) (Photo: Warren LeMay (w_lemay), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=144520012)
One clarification: the Kranzberg Arts Foundation develops and runs The Key. Coen is not the owner, and I could not confirm whether she still works in the kitchen day to day.
The Key STL at a glance
The Key opened on Wednesday, October 29, 2025. It fills 9,000 square feet across two adjacent historic buildings from 1887, with a fast-casual Burger Bar of about 100 seats and a dance hall called The Boogie (Ladue News, Mabel Suen, May 20, 2026). The Kranzberg Arts Foundation gives the address as 3225 Olive St.
Map of St. Louis showing The Dam’s former address, 3173 Morgan Ford Rd. in Tower Grove South, and The Key STL, 3225 Olive St. in Grand Center, about 4 miles apart (Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL)
The burgers are smashburgers, made with pasture-raised beef from Price Family Farms in Troy, Missouri. I found no current menu with prices and no confirmed hours, so check The Key’s own channels before you go.
The Key STL burgers, and the one that echoes The Animal
Three burgers led the menu at opening:
- The Breakaway: two patties, American and Swiss cheese, Key sauce.
- The Hat Trick: three patties, American cheese, grilled onions, jalapeños, bacon, spicy BBQ.
- Magic Mushroom: two patties, Swiss and Gouda, a mushroom mix, garlic mayo.
If you miss The Animal, order The Hat Trick. Same three-patty stack, same bacon, jalapeños, grilled onions and spicy BBQ. What changed is the method: thin smashed patties instead of thick hand-formed ones.
A smash burger with crisp, lacy patty edges, the style The Key STL uses for The Hat Trick, its three-patty heir to The Dam’s Animal (illustrative photo, not taken at The Key; 2267×2267) (Photo: Daderot, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smash\_burger\_-\_Cambridge,\_MA.jpg)
My take: for a 100-seat fast-casual room, that switch makes sense. Smashed patties cook fast and get the crisp crust critics now praise. The cost is the thick, juicy middle that made The Animal a two-handed burger. If you came for that, the Hat Trick will feel lighter, even with three patties.
What critics say about The Key STL
St. Louis Magazine critic Cheryl Baehr reviewed The Key on June 22, 2026. She praised the crisp, lacy edges of the smash patties, the Double Dutch Fries with garlic mayo and scallions, and the joppiesaus, and ranked the fries “among the top fries in town” (St. Louis Magazine). So the fries and the Dutch sauce made the trip from Morgan Ford Road to Olive Street intact.
The Dam vs. The Key STL: what carried over
The Key keeps The Dam’s triple burger, garlic mayo and joppiesaus, but moves to smashburgers and local pasture-raised beef.
| The Dam (2013–2022) | The Key STL (since 2025) | |
|---|---|---|
| Neighborhood | Tower Grove South | Grand Center / Midtown |
| Address | 3173 Morgan Ford Rd. | 3225 Olive St. |
| Status | Permanently closed May 14, 2022 | Open (reviewed June 2026) |
| Coen’s role | Founder and owner | Developed the menu, partnered on sauces |
| Operator | Michele Coen | Kranzberg Arts Foundation |
| Beef | Premium black Angus, hand-formed patties | Pasture-raised, Price Family Farms (Troy, Mo.) |
| Triple burger | The Animal | The Hat Trick |
| Fries | Belgian-style, hand-cut daily | Double Dutch Fries |
| Dutch touch | Joppiesaus, next to Amsterdam Tavern | Joppiesaus |
In my reading, the fries and sauces carried over best. The burger itself changed more than the matching toppings suggest.
Timeline: The Dam and Michele Coen
- 2013: Michele Coen opens The Dam at 3173 Morgan Ford Road, in space leased from Amsterdam Tavern next door.
- July 2014: St. Louis Magazine profiles The Dam; Matt Galati is executive chef.
- May 11, 2022: Sauce Magazine reports the closure.
- May 14, 2022: Last day of service at The Dam.
- 2022: Coen’s catering moves to The Dark Room at the Grandel Theatre.
- Oct. 29, 2025: The Key STL Burger Bar & Boogie opens in Grand Center with Coen’s menu.
- June 22, 2026: St. Louis Magazine reviews The Key STL.
More burgers in St. Louis and Missouri
Every St. Louis piece we publish is filed on our St. Louis burger hub. Heading west across the state? The Kansas City burger hub covers the other end of Missouri, and the Restaurants hub lists every city we cover.
Want to build a multi-patty griddled burger at home? Practice on our Five Guys cheeseburger copycat recipe before you try your own Animal.
How I researched this story
I never ate at The Dam, so this is a reported retrospective, not a review. It is built from the restaurant’s coverage in Sauce Magazine (2022), St. Louis Magazine (2014, 2025 and 2026), Ladue News (2026) and the Kranzberg Arts Foundation’s own announcement (2025). I checked every source on October 7, 2026, and used Yelp only to confirm the closed status.
This story started from a name, Josh Thoennes, given as The Dam’s chef. I found no source linking anyone by that name to The Dam or to any St. Louis restaurant. The verified founder and owner is Michele Coen, so the story is about her. I also left out what I could not verify: The Dam’s prices, the origin of its name, The Key’s current hours and prices, the founding date of Amsterdam Tavern and what it serves today.
FAQ: The Dam St. Louis
Is The Dam on Morgan Ford Road closed?
Yes. The Dam closed permanently on Saturday, May 14, 2022, after nine years in Tower Grove South.
Who owned The Dam in St. Louis?
Chef and caterer Michele Coen founded and owned The Dam. Matt Galati was its executive chef in 2014.
Why did The Dam close?
Coen cited ongoing staffing struggles and the demands of her growing catering business, Michele C. Catering & Events.
What was The Animal burger at The Dam?
The Animal was a triple burger: three hand-formed patties, thick-cut bacon, roasted jalapeños, sweet-hot BBQ sauce, American cheese and grilled onions on buttered Companion Baking buns.
What is joppiesaus?
Joppiesaus is a Dutch fry sauce. The Dam served it with its Belgian-style fries, and The Key STL serves it today.
Where can I eat Michele Coen’s burgers now?
Go to The Key STL Burger Bar & Boogie, 3225 Olive St., in Grand Center. Coen developed its menu, and The Hat Trick is the closest match to The Animal.
What burgers does The Key STL serve?
At opening, The Key served three smashburgers: The Breakaway, The Hat Trick and Magic Mushroom, all made with pasture-raised beef from Price Family Farms.
