Review: On Broadway Bistro in St. Louis

On Broadway Bistro is located on North Broadway in a heavily, but not exclusively, industrial area. It is just northwest of Grand and the bar can be seen off of Highway 70. This is quite possibly one of the largest bars in the city by indoor and outdoor square footage. They have an enormous outdoor area that is unreal in its size: two full sized sand volleyball pits with ample area to sit/stand surrounded by numerous decks and benches.

The bar is initially striking: there is painting on the side of the south exterior wall that faces the westbound lanes on Hwy 70. It pictures about five scantily clad women washing a vintage Corvette. It reminds me of a beer commercial. But even more the mural reminds me of the scene in "Cool Hand Luke" where Lucille seductively washes the car for the chain gang. This picture is not all show. They do have a car wash as the mural would suggest, although you probably won't get the same show Paul Newman enjoyed.

The crowd was mostly white, but not exclusively. The patrons ranged in age with the typical split of the older folks earlier and the younger kids later in the evening. The bar's blue collar patrons generally work in the factories and shipping businesses in North Saint Louis and the massive industry along the river. The workers go to On Broadway for a drink after work, which can be almost any time of day, depending on which shift they worked. There were some women inside the bar that resembled the painted ladies on the wall. Well, they were more like they wanted to be the ladies on the wall. You know the type.

The On Broadway is a very tough and wild Union bar. You won't see any suits sipping cocktails here. There are signs posted for Union meetings that are held in the back room. A bumper sticker behind the bar sternly states "Divided we beg, United we bargain". Union graffiti is scrawled on the bathroom walls like fraternity symbols etched in college bar urinals. They have a full kitchen with typical bar food and BBQ in the summer. The Busch beer was cold (no tap!), but the music was a bit loud. Bands will often play in the warmer months outside and will play in the indoor meeting hall during the winter. They are mostly typical bar room rock bands.

This place can get pretty wild on Saturdays. Why, you ask? Five bucks all you can drink for the ladies from 8pm-2am on Saturdays. This would explain the dozen or so bras and few panties tacked to the ceiling above the bar.

The bar's immediate neighborhood has a very odd combination of buildings. This area was created before zoning was specific about mixing residential with these massive worksites. All along north and south Broadway there is major industry, but very few homes are on the east side of Broadway. Some of the industry is river related, but much of it is of all sorts ranging from bread baking to soap manufacturing to the City Workhouse (where there is no work). In general the neighborhood is almost all industrial, but there is a smattering of houses wedged in by these older massive industrial parks. One of the homes had a nearly Holly-Hills-style trimmed lawn and shaped bushes and across the side street was a nasty, ugly, burnt out woodframe home. Next to the trimmed lawn was an even more out of place, very neatly maintained, Asian Temple/compound of several woodframe homes. There were only about 10 or so residential units in this site-- it is dominated by the highway, industrial parks and this industrial sized bar.

This bar didn't exactly give out the warmest of greetings, but it was very distinct.