Review: Sub Zero Vodka Bar in St. Louis

The shoe-fashion-devoted, girls-night-out posse drinks theirs up with triple sec, cranberry juice and sweetened lime juice – to better dish the pre/post-divorce gossip. The drunken frat-boy mooks who roam parts of Soulard drink theirs on the rocks, with Red Bull – to better hit on the girls with fake IDs. (Full disclosure: I was a frat boy. I live in Soulard.) The balding, paunchy, midlevel managers drink theirs on the rocks with tomato juice, Worcestershire and Tabasco – to better negotiate the wife and the dog-leg left on the fourth hole. The men who hang out under Interstate 55 by Stadium Liquor drink theirs straight out of the brown-bag-covered plastic bottle – to better negotiate the day. Face it. Whoever drinks drinks it. Why? Because it’s good. That’s why. But where?

The look …
After being in the bar biz for years, friends and business partners Richard Ross and Derek Gamlin decided to strike out on their own. A Vegas trip played muse, after Ross witnessed the genius of Russian restaurant and vodka bar Red Square in the Mandalay Bay Casino. Liking what he saw in both crowd and concept, Ross brought the idea back to the STL, debuting Sub Zero with Gamlin in August.

At the Central West End nexus of Maryland and Euclid, Sub Zero fits in well among its century-old storefront neighbors. The partners did a quality job of rehabbing the interior, formerly occupied by MacroSun International importers, into something much greater than what it was, with blues, grays, ambers, a huge ice-topped bar, vintage vodka advertisements and steel artwork.

In the rehab, the drop ceilings were removed, revealing 15-foot-plus ceilings of beautiful antique tin. While it’s in a very small space, Sub Zero’s high ceilings give the illusion of much more room. Against the picture windows facing the street are low-slung tables and club chairs.

On the right, the 20-foot ice bar surrounds the huge display vodka freezer that nearly goes to the roof. Blown-glass lamps and track lights illuminate. A partition wall with air-duct bookends separates the wood-floored bar area from four-top tables on the carpeted left side. The sushi bar and more tables hide in the rear.

No video games. No jukebox. Only the glowing plasma wide-screen always showing the game. Well, we are in the midst of the greatest Cardinal season of my lifetime.

The scene …
In St. Louis, it gets no more big-city urbane than the Central West End. Multiple walkable blocks and streets of trendy restaurants, sidewalk cafes, all-night coffee shops, bars, bookstores, art galleries and antique shops. On those streets, a non-homogeneous gene pool – blacks, whites, Asians, foreign-language-speaking immigrants, college students, 40-ish professionals, wealthy retirees, straight, gay, bi. Everything.

While the bar’s patrons tend to tilt 30 to 50 years old, upscale and professional, the last paragraph’s laundry list of CWE denizens is represented at Sub Zero at some point in the night. You’ll see groups of marrieds, groups of singles, first dates, fifth dates, singles after singles, marrieds after singles, big-time local sports celebrities, big-time national sports celebrities, newspaper-reading retirees and shot-swilling mooks. (Man, they’re inescapable.) All and all it’s a great mix that can lead to interesting conversations or more.

Friday and Saturday nights are most popular, with some crowds being so large that, due to fire codes, one patron can’t enter until another leaves. My advice: Come early. I’ve seen suits, shorts, dresses, jeans, t-shirts, buttons downs, flip-flops and ball caps, but I highly suggest looking nice to complement the atmosphere.

This isn’t a club or music venue, so with no noticeable tunes, there’s never a cover.

The products …
Good lord. Sub Zero boasts more than 140 globetrotting labels of vodka. It’s overwhelming at first. Pick from the usuals like the United States’ Skyy or Russia’s Stolichnaya, or the unusuals like Czech’s R. Jelínek or Jamaica’s Kedem kosher vodka. Buy it by the drink ($4 to $7.50) or bottle ($75 to $500).

The drink menu offers 11 specialty cocktails, the most popular being the Pepper-Infused Bloody Mary ($6) and the most interesting being The “Nice” Special (for $15, a dirty Ketel up martini, bottle of Budweiser, either a shot of Grand Marnier or Jagermiester and one Marlboro Red cigarette). The martini list offers the usual sweet/strong/colorful selections. Three everyday vodka flights – yes vodka flights – are offered with a flight of the month.

While vodka dominates the selections, the other customary liquors and wines are offered with the normal bottled and draught beers. Overall Sub Zero stocks an amazing 300+ labels of liquor.

While Sub Zero is a vodka bar, its relatively inexpensive sushi has been incredibly popular, probably due to the skills of top sushi chef Vu Hoang, formally of the Ritz-Carlton.

The straight 411 …
For an over-the-top vodka menu, a diverse, mostly upscale clientele, all in a cosmopolitan setting (in neighborhood, bar and drink), head to Sub Zero.