Several new restaurants are making their way to Manchester Road.

After a meeting on Jan. 20, Ellisville City Council approved permits for both Arby’s and Starbucks. The new Arby’s will be in the Ellisville Marketplace development where Best Buy once stood, near the Phillips 66 gas station.

“I don’t really eat at Arby’s, but I’ll have to try it out now that it is so close,” Senior Allison Vanhorenbeeck said.

A representative of the Ellisville Marketplace said that it will be different kind of Arby’s compared to others seen in the St. Louis Area. The restaurant will be smaller, and more ‘high tech’.

The Starbucks will be at the former Pizza Hut location near Clarkson Road. It will include indoor and outdoor seating, as well as a drive through.

“The new Starbucks is really cool because when you’re headed down to the West County Mall, you won’t have to backtrack to go to the one in the Wildwood Town Center,” Vanhorenbeeck said.

Another restaurant coming to the West County area is Raising Cane’s, which is more commonly known as the ‘chicken place’ that resides in the Chesterfield Mall. The new place will be where the former site of Long John Silver’s was.

“I think it’s very innovative and really good for our city. It will be nice to have restaurants closer to us and not so out of the way,” Senior Murphy Pool said.

Most students at Lafayette seem excited about the new additions, but others are concerned what the new businesses will bring with them.

“I live right by Manchester, so the way I see it, it will just be a lot more traffic. There is going to be a lot more people on the road causing more accidents,” Junior Megan Armstrong said. Manchester Road is very busy as it is, especially when rush hour traffic hits.

“I like the restaurants being there, but it also causes more problems,” Armstrong said.

The new additions are said to be taking place sometime this year and the next.

“These new restaurants are great for people who live in Wildwood because they won’t have to go all the way down to The Valley. It will be really good for our city,” Van Horenbeeck said.