Hi All, The search feature is not giving me much when I search this forum for St. Louis, especially not recently. This is about the only one and it is a few years old: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/st-louis-beercation.534157/. Going there next week and I am looking for the breweries and a beer store to visit. Don't know if things are open upped yet for eating but breweries with great food that a teenager would like would be a huge plus. Which breweries have great beer to go. I saw side project but their offerings seem on the high side. Appreciate any assistance. Cheers, Scot
Urban Chestnut, Schlafly, and Perennial on Lockwood are all great places to get food and beer. Perennial and 2nd Shift are great visits for just beer and great selection to go. Craft beer cellar (2 locations) is my favorite beer store, but I usually get most of mine straight from the breweries these days. The Wine and Cheese Place and St. Louis Hop Shop are also great stores.
These are definitely the best places to stop - I'd say CBC is your best bet though. If they are open for food - Cuginos/Narrow Gauge is my recommendation to stop at. Good food, and the beer to-go is great.
The retail price of beer at Side Project is on the high side but I would be kicking myself all the way back to MN if I visited St Louis and didn't go there. Just one idiot's opinion.
Narrow Gauge and Side Project are the can't miss places but SP isn't open up yet for onsite. Narrow Gauge has great food. For bottle shops, The Wine and Cheese Place is the best and there's a Craft Beer Cellar nearby so you can hit both and CBC has a small draft list. There are several restaurants nearby you can grab food from and eat at CBC. A teenager might like 4 Hands, the beer isn't the best in the city but it's solid and there is an upper floor with free games. Peacemaker runs the food window there and they are great. I wouldn't waste time with Schlafly.
I guess it depends on what you're into. If you're an NEIPA guy go to Narrow Gauge, but if you're like me and just like the occasional haze it's not worth driving the extra 20 minutes. UC and Schlafly are great for true to style variety. I know it's not trendy, but I'll take a great pils or oatmeal stout over 90% of hazy hops.
I know SP might give you a little sticker shock, but right now they have a bourbon BA beer (a unique one at that) easily available to go and the beer it's bundled with is excellent. Add a DH Grisette to your purchase, a tip for the fine people at SP, and you'll walk away with 3 excellent (750 ml) beers for about $100 and supporting a wonderful brewery. Unless you're on a tight budget, and/or don't like saisons, it's worth every penny and then some. Again, just to be candid here, unless you're strapped for cash or actively dislike saisons, you're making a mistake not giving them some of your business and taking their beer home - if it makes it that far. I crushed a DH Grisette in the hotel room after a hot day and getting my kids settled. It was great. They have their curbside down to a science and there's lots of food options in the neighborhood. To the latter, my family took a weekend trip to StL 3 weeks ago. After I did my curbside pick up at SP, we went to the Schlafly in the area. Mainly because we have 3 kids 8 and under, they had safe dining procedures in place, and were able to seat us right away. Staff were friendly, food was fine, the Kolsch I had hit the spot after a warm morning walking around MO Bontanical Garden. I really wanted to go to UC, but we needed to eat ASAP as we were well past normal lunch time for our little gremlins. And yes, if you like haze, you'll need to go to Narrow Gauge. If you don't love haze, skip it.
Side Project is definitely the stop in St. Louis but if their style of beer is not your thing and are more up for hazies then it is Narrow Gauge. If anything else you can't go wrong with Schafly, Urban Chestnut, Heavy Riff, or Civil Life. Maybe more Heavy Riff for a teenager if they are a rocker. A teen would be bored to death at Civil Life.
Schlafly is a good choice for food that would appeal to a teen but their beer is just OK, Narrow Gauge is a good choice too in my opinion but it is pretty far on the North side. Wine and Cheese Place used to be the go-to store but Craft Beer Cellar is also good. For a while Wine and Cheese Place turned into the store that got all the good stuff, but everybody knew that so all the good stuff was gone when you got there. With all the quality beer out there these days that's less of an issue. Randall's Wine and Spirits never gets any love but I stop there when I'm in St Louis. I've heard the neighborhood is sketchy but I've only been there during the day and had no trouble. Make sure to look at the dates on what you're buying if possible.
I'll suggest Square One Brewery and Distillery. Great food and beer as well. Kind of like Schlafly, they make excellent beer, but not hype beers
Thank you all for the great input. My daughter's basketball games are Saturday, none on Friday. Still heading down on Friday and expect to be in the area around 7pm. We are staying in a hotel by the baseball park. What would be the best place to grab a bite and beer in that area? Prefer to keep it close but if I have to drive, then I drive. Thank you again.
Does your hotel have in and out privileges with your car? Many we were looking at in that area did not, so we stayed a little farther out in Forest Park neighborhood to avoid all that.
Bridge Tap House & Wine Bar has everything you need. A highly curated tap list. Excellent food. A 10 minute walk from Busch. One of my favorite places in STL. Btw, Cardinals will be on the road. https://www.thebridgestl.com/menu
