Drinking in St Louis

September 28, 2008

Our eastern neighbor, St. Louis, is a type of beer town. Unfortunately, that type does not mean much for us. Still, the town’s selection continues to get better and some of its bars are carving out reputations as fine places to drink at. The Stable is one such place. Staying at a B&B down the street, we made our way their Saturday night to enjoy some of that reputation. The place was crowded with urbanites and the beer list was not as big as I expected. Indeed, one beer, Duchess, that I was looking forward to having on draught, was no longer on the list. Overall, the list was a fair one (Bear Republic, Bell’s) but hardly extraordinary. I started with a Charleville Hoptimistic (local and fine, if not much more than that). And we sampled some familiar beers after that. If anything, the mark up on the bottles was outrageous. $17 for a Boulevard Smokestack is one memorable pricing for a beer that retails closer to $7. The visit was a bit of a dissapointment. Our local place in Columbia, Sycamore, is far supior with only five taps and a nice bottle list. Its mark ups are far more reasonable.

When we realized the list had done its best for us, we walked several blocks to Mattingly, a bar that is promising to soon be a brew pub as well.  Eight taps. no handles, chalkboard listing. Stylish. We spent several minutes critiquing the taps’ breakdown. Two Boulevards? That’s one too many. A porter and a stout and it’s still 70 degrees at night? Wait on those heavies a bit more. A Flying Dog Wheat? Hardly the brewery’s best choice; in fact, it is one of its weakest. We finally found a breakdown that would best serve these eight taps: Two local, one other domestic (maybe a safe domestic or have one safe local), one safe import, one not so safe import, three “out there” choices that will surprise average drinkers. That’s the way to handle eight taps. Four local/safe….four not so safe. By “not so safe,” we mean beers people won’t yet know or wouldn’t try otherwise. Duchess, for instance, might be such a beer. Boulevard Dry Stout, on the other hand, is a safe choice. Boulevard Wheat is a very safe choice.

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