From St. Louis Business Journal

Weber-Stephen products is moving into a 9,000 sq. ft. space in the Galleria in St. Louis, Missouri. TheWeber Grill Restaurant will open this fall in the space, which has been vacant for more than a year. It will have room to seat about 200 diners, with an outdoor area that can seat another 130. It will be the fifth Weber Grill Restaurant in the U.S., and the second outside the Chicago area, according to a release from the company.

Other Weber restaurants are in Chicago, Lombard and Schaumburg, Illinois, as well as in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The restaurant will focus on standard grilling fare – burgers, steaks, barbecue and grilled seafood cooked over Weber grills.

Along with the restaurant, Weber will include an interactive grilling facility and cooking school devoted to outdoor cooking called the “Grill Academy.” It will include classes, interactive dining and private events.

In all, Weber plans to hire about 100 employees to staff the restaurant and cooking school; it will hold a job fair this summer to recruit new staff.

Based in the Chicago area, the Weber Grill Restaurants was founded in 1989. Company president R. Bryan Gerrish noted that St. Louis is a strong market for Weber products.

“We considered a number of Midwestern cities and St. Louis became our top choice based on the culinary traditions, casual dining lifestyle, affinity for patio dining and love for great barbecue and grilling,” he said. “We love the central location of the St. Louis Galleria as well as the strong mall traffic, ease of parking and variety of shopping, dining and entertainment that it offers.”