Review: Schlafly Brewery and Tap Room in St. Louis

A decade ago Tom Schlafly opened a microbrewery in a city that has been long known for its history of breweries. This was not an easy feat in a city dominated by the world's largest brewer of beer, Anheuser-Busch. Many legal challenges to opening a new small brewery were thrown in the way of the determined Tom Schlafly. Schlafly prevailed and has made a smashing success of this homegrown brewpub.

The Saint Louis Brewery opened up the Tap Room just north of Union Station on what is now called the Locust business district on the far western end of the Washington Avenue scene. Tom Schlafly, the proprietor of the Saint Louis Brewery is a true Saint Louis patriot. He not only supports but also actively participates in moves for the improvement of downtown and the city. The Tap Room, when it first opened, was located in a barren area in regards to restaurants and nightlife. The Tap Room has spurred development in the area with a series of lofts opening up across the street and the Hot Locust/Side Door (now called Z) a few years later, along with the Rocket Bar and Panama Red's.

The Tap Room is housed in the beautiful old Swift Printing building which was rehabbed in an ongoing effort which is now a fully restored enormous two level brick structure that houses the brewery, game room, meeting rooms, restaurant, live music rooms and commercial office space. Before Schlafly rehabbed the Swift Building, the site was part of the set of the Wes Craven classic movie "Escape From New York". The film was shot in 1981 and was set in the future, which at the time was 1997, and the Tap Room was the spot where the President's escape pod from Air Force One had crashed. The set was perfect for this film because a few years prior much of the area had burned to the ground in a giant fire that turned into what is called a firestorm that consumed a city block and a Saint Louis City Fire pumping truck.

The restaurant has an old world style pub feel with large wood tables and chairs that compliment the wood beams and floors with large glass windows and brick walls. The handcrafted beer gives the place a natural European connection with influences evident from Germany, Ireland and England. The majestic bar is a hand carved with a Schlafly mosaic at the top of the bar. The interior walls have windows where patrons can see the large kettles, vats, pipes and barrels of the actual brewery. There is a gated courtyard with a second level patio off the music room that features blues and roots music. The second floor is often rented out for private parties and is also used as special celebrations. The newly renovated first floor side has pool tables, dartboards and a jukebox.

Patrons range in age and hail from all over the area. The Tap Room is a region-wide destination point with many coming in from the far ends of our region's civilization to the neighborhood loft dwellers. While the place is filled with many well-to-do folks, it does not have the pretentious atmosphere that some exclusive bars and restaurants emanate.

The design of the overall restaurant is timeless, simple, and unique. It ranges from the straightforward classic looking Schlafly logo to the detail of the metal designs directly on the game room bar. There are hand painted signs directing newcomers to the many various amenities that the Tap Room offers. Brushed chrome metal reliefs of the logo are hung at the entrance and above the game room bar. The employees are a diverse crew who are very in the know and genuine folks that are familiar with the establishment and the city at large.

The food is upscale authentic pub grub with staples of English style fish and chips with homemade spicy/sweet ketchup and healthy turkey burgers. The menu contains helpful suggestions on beer selections for each food item. No music is played as background noise of the restaurant; instead just the bustle of the crowd fills the room.

The beer is excellent. There is always a wide array of options of freshly brewed beer including ales, stouts, lagers and pilsners. For the drinkers on the go, growlers are available. The growler is a refillable glass jug. This is in the old time tradition that was common a century ago in Saint Louis when it was full of new German and Irish immigrants, where beer was fetched in a pail at the neighborhood brewpub or buckethouse. The tradition continues today with an evolved modern day big can. Schlafly provides his version that is technically closer in product, but a little further apart in price. The growler, along with all of the Schlafly beers, is more expensive than the standard macro-brew beers. Also available are a smaller keg, about the size of industrial soda canisters and hold about 45 pints, which are handy when a full keg is not necessary.

The Schlafly brand is the dominant micro brew beer in the Saint Louis region with the beer available at most area establishments that offer more than the standard domestics. There are other micro-brews in town, and while some of them produce decent beer and have a good atmosphere, none of them come close to the standard that Schlafly has established in this city. This is by far the best micro-brew in town, and perhaps one of the finest examples of brewpubs in the country.