The Haunt dive bar in St. Louis' Dutchtown celebrates Halloween all year

For most of the year, The Haunt gives the impression of a dive bar committed to living its best Halloween life. But The Haunt is no spooky season pop-up: This Dutchtown corner bar is a year-round house of horrors, although the bar’s gallery of ghosts and ghouls is mercifully inanimate. From the spiders and vampire bats that lurk menacingly on the ceiling to the assortment of creatures that meet your gaze when you least expect it, The Haunt is like stumbling into the Hammer Horror prop department and finding a bar inside. You can run to the patio for respite from the terror, but beware, there are still a few frights in store out there. 

The macabre décor belies The Haunt’s jovial ambiance and the friendly, diverse crowd who come to drink, chat and play pool. Dancing threatened to break out on a recent Friday night visit, with the music bouncing from James Brown and Hall & Oates to the Spice Girls and Britney Spears. If you’re feeling peckish, there’s pizza, beef jerky and chips, but you come here mainly to drink. Happily, with beers and rail drinks for $3, your check won’t come with a jump scare. 

5000 Alaska Ave., St. Louis, 314.481.5003, Facebook: The Haunt