Beer Bars – Bridge in St. Louis, Missouri

I recently stumbled into this place after enjoying a Cardinals game at the beautiful Busch Stadium in St. Louis.  It is adjacent to a large book store and features minimal signage out front.  The interior is clean, modern, and urban, and absolutely bathed in darkness.  I was immediately presented with a large, V-shaped, wooden bar that accommodated about a dozen seats.  There are also some tables and chairs scattered here and there, and an entire elevated seating area that I did not really get a good look at.  The tall brick wall behind the bar is covered by shelving that stores much of their bottles and glassware (there is a library-like ladder to get at the higher stuff).  There is additional glassware hanging from above along with some interesting chandeliers.

The Bridge boasts that they have over two hundred beers available, and 55 of them are on tap handles.  Their draft selection included many local breweries like 2nd Shift, 4 Hands, Civil Life, Perennial Ales, Schlafly, Charleville, and Urban Chestnut.  The Midwest was also well represented with Arcadia, Bell's, Founders, and New Holland.  West coast breweries included Brouwerij West, Deschutes, Firestone Walker, Green Flash, and Rogue.  From the east side was He’Brew, Southern Tier, and Stillwater.  Colorado made a good showing with Avery, Great Divide, Left Hand, New Belgium, and Ska.  And there were even some internationals like Belhaven, St. Feuillien, Weihenstephan, St. Bernardus, Van Honsebrouck, Young’s, Thornbridge, and Kiuchi (not very often do I see Japanese kegs floating around places like this).  All in all, I was not left wanting for much.

I gave their list a quick look, but mostly relied on staff recommendations.  The bartender was extremely friendly and very well educated.  I was in the mood for a Saison and was pleasantly surprised to hear that they had three on tap.  I regret not scanning through the bottle list, but I guess now I have a reason to go back. 

I was pretty focused on drinking and socializing, so I didn’t get a great look at the food menu.  But I did want some cheese, so I asked the bartender for a recommendation there as well.  I ended up with a great selection of four different stinky cheeses that worked perfectly with my beers.  The cheeses were about $6.50 a piece, but they were cut fairly generously, and came with dried fruit, nuts, and bread.  Perfection.

Overall I was very impressed and would highly recommend it to any good beer enthusiast.

1004 Locust St.

Saint Louis, Missouri 63101
314-241-8141
http://thebridgestl.com/

-Matt