St. Louis landmark O’Connell’s Pub is looking for a new owner

It’s safe to say that the news about O’Connell’s Pub at 4652 Shaw Ave. has come as a bit of shock: Owner John Parker Jr. announced on social media late last week that he was looking for a buyer, as reported by St. Louis Magazine. Once he finds one, it will be the end of an era. 

That era began in 1965 when his father Jack Parker graduated from bartender to owner of a place called O’Connell’s Irish Pub in Gaslight Square. Shortly afterward, he moved operations to a building on Shaw Avenue which formerly had been an Anheuser-Busch tavern. It was a smoky old place back then, and until smoking was outlawed in city bars in the mid-90s, Parker Jr. said his "pack-a-day" dad led the charge. “It’s a blessing he made it to 83,” Parker Jr. said.

When his dad started to feel his advanced years, another family member took over. That’s when the flavor changed a little: “It had a reputation for rude waitresses and unruly bartenders,” Parker Jr. said. But four years ago, he changed all that. Now he describes O’Connell’s as an intellectuals’ bar – a place to go where you look each other in the face and talk. “No screens,” he said. “No dumb music.” 

It’s also a place with a knack for a darn good burger, which may be just one of the reasons why so many people in town are a little edgy about O’Connell’s future. Already, Parker Jr. and David Wright at Lawyers Realty Co. have been inundated by interest – people urgent about continuing the life of this St. Louis institution. But Parker Jr.  seems to say he won’t sell to just anyone. “Scores of people who have come here their whole lives are coming forward. And I need someone who really gets it; who won’t just turn it into a gas station,” he said.

And Parker Jr. is a man of principle. He is doing that good thing of leaving a place better than he found it. Over the last four years, and almost single-handedly, he has fixed things and cleaned things. He has had the roof replaced, refinished the floor, tuckpointed the brick; and just last month, he repainted the lines on the parking lot. “I’m good with tools and I don’t mind getting dirty,” he said.  

And he is keen to get his life back, to resume being a dad. “It’s time for me to spend time with my kids,” he said. “Everything’s clean, everything works, the staff is amazing. The place is good to go.”