The House of Maret Wilhelm August Maret was born in 1840 in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, a city in southwestern Germany. In 1870, on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War, he immigrated to the United States, settling in Chicago. Maret relocated to St. Louis in 1871, where he purchased 20 acres on the west side of Denny Road (now Lindbergh), just south of Rott Road.
In 1875, Wilhelm Maret married a young widow named
Barbara Miller Gartman. Of their five children, only
Charles Francis Maret, born in 1876, survived beyond three years of age.
The 20-acre tract became the Maret family diary farm.
Charles Maret married Anna Vogelsang in August of 1900.
Wilhelm Maret died in 1914 and Barbara died in 1925. Charles and Anna Maret continued working the dairy farm on Denny Road with their seven children. Their herd grew to 100 and hand milking was all consuming for the family. William, the eldest son, was assigned the task of delivering cows to market. He would drive the them north on Denny Road, through the center of Kirkwood, then east on Manchester to St. Louis where the meat packers were located.
William Charles Maret married Bertha Ulreich
Fleck in 1925. They lived with their seven children on 30 acres of
land just north of the Denny Road property.
William (Bill) Maret was not a farmer. He owned a successful plaster and stucco contracting business at Denny and Watson Roads. In 1929, when the stock market crashed, Bill Maret was financially ruined. His father came to his rescue by letting him take over a dilapidated shack of a filling station on his Denny Road property that had been leased to a Vogelsang relative. Maret took over the little station in December of 1930. In 1933, when Prohibition was repealed, Maret purchased a liquor license for 3.2 beer. He began with a few cases of beer iced in a wash tub at his filling station. Golfers from nearby Sunset Country Club would stop for gas and a cold beer, and eventually a sandwich or a bowl of chili.
Over time, the simple tavern food and beverage
business picked up, so Maret added a dining room with a bar to his filling
station. Bill Maret’s "66" Tavern became known for its "delicious thick
sandwiches," including steak, ham and hamburger.
By 1950, Bill Maret had added barbecue to his menu.
He also added an outdoor beer garden, with picnic tables and pecan shells on the
ground. The outdoor pit filled the air with the scent of barbecue
ribs, bathed in Bill Maret's popular barbecue sauce. The menu also
featured old family recipes, including Austrian cabbage and warm
German potato salad. Maret still pumped gas, but at some point he
switched his affiliation from Phillips 66 to Standard Oil.
Robert Leo Maret, Bill and Bertha Maret's
fourth child, was born in 1931. He graduated Christian Brothers
College High School in 1949 and married Rita Jean Johnston in 1951.
After his discharge from the Air Force in 1953, he worked for a
paint company, helping his father at the restaurant on weekends for
extra money. In 1955, he joined his father full-time.
In the early 1960s, the Marets stopped pumping
gas and expanded their restaurant. The original 1930 building was
completely replaced using old wood and stained glass windows
salvaged from historic St. Louis buildings. The restaurant's name
was changed to The House of Maret and
German cuisine was added to the menu.
Bill Maret died of a heart attack in 1966. By that time, Robert and Rita Maret were managing the restaurant. They continued to add German dishes to the menu and dressed the wait staff in German-style clothing.
The
outdoor beer garden was formalized, with a large fountain, an
antique brick floor and wrought iron furniture. It evolved into a
garden courtyard, with hundreds of flowering plants, and became a
popular spot for rehearsal dinners and wedding receptions.
The atmosphere and
the food at The House of Maret gradually became more upscale. The
dining rooms were called the Trier, Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Munich
and Bernstein. There were four wood-burning fireplaces. The
restaurant held "Classic Nights" every six weeks, with a gourmet
menu and St. Louis Symphony musicians providing entertainment.
In the 1980s, The House of Maret's menu became less German-centric and the staff's uniforms changed to black and white dress.
"For a long time, people just thought we served
German food," explained Robert Maret. "But we've expanded the menu and we
think of it as being more European now."
In 1988, Robert and Rita Maret retired. They
leased their restaurant to Damon's for a second barbecue
location. But Bill Maret's barbecue sauce was no longer served at
the 3811 South Lindbergh address.
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