“It was crazy. You just don’t see deer this deep in the inner city,” said one neighbor.
ST. LOUIS — It was one dandy of a day at The Gin Room in south St. Louis.
“There is a deer in the dining room,” shouted the chef in the unbelievable video he captured on his cellphone.
Just after 11 Wednesday morning, a deer smashed through the front glass window at the restaurant near South Grand and Wyoming Street.
“Alright little fellow. Stop! Stop! Stop,” continued the chef.
No way could he stop the unexpected visitor.
“A deer busting through your windows might make quite a large crash. He thought someone was breaking in. Yes, he thought it was a human,” owner Natasha Bahrami said.
Bahrami said the disoriented deer ran around their 42-year-old, family-owned business.
“It spent a lot of time throughout the dining room areas,” she said.
The four-legged intruder then tried to hop over their bar.
“I guess it wanted its breakfast martini and was trying to get served. The deer news was definitely hopping,” said Bahrami.
Dozens of dogs live in the neighborhood, but no one has ever seen anything like this.
“Certainly not this far in the city,” said one man who lives above the restaurant.
“I’m just blown away,” said another neighbor.
“Yes, I do think it was looking for Rudolph or Bambi even,” said another neighbor laughingly.
Neighbors said there were actually four deer roaming around the area at the time.
The Gin Room’s owner believes the one that caused at least $2,000 in damage to her business may have gotten spooked by traffic.
Others wonder if the deer “freaked out when it saw its reflection in the glass window?”
“We also have our video from our surveillance as well which shows that the deer was approximately here for about ten minutes,” added Bahrami.
“I’ve never seen anything like that. I think it’s absurd,” said a neighbor.
“I just want to know how did it get here?” asked a woman.
“Ah, that’s sad. It looks scared,” said one lady.
The Gin Room’s chef finally helped the “scared” deer out of the big hole it left behind
“I don’t know if it’s still around. I just hope it’s okay,” added another neighbor.
“Yeah, as best as it could, our chef helped it out of the same window. It suffered some minor cuts likely from the broken glass, but we think it should be okay. This is definitely one for the record books,” added Bahrami.
Workers spent hours giving the restaurant a deep cleaning after the deer break-in before opening for customers this evening.
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