Review: The Rotten Apple in St. Louis

In my six years of visiting the STL’s clubs, taverns and bars for this column, I have easily grown most fond of grabbing a stool and BSing with the bartender. Amidst normal conversation, I inquire into who frequents the bar, what they do and what they drink.

The Rotten Apple fits this St. Louis Scene vet well. The Rotten Apple is cozy. It’s conversational. It’s a little irreverent. It’s real. No frat boy d-bags. No DJ music mash-ups. No Red Bull-and-vodka-swilling masses. And, most importantly, it serves and promotes great beer.

Jesse Jones is the owner. He’s a thirtysomething Alton native who’s been in the STL restaurant and bar biz for years. He opened The Rotten Apple about 18 months ago in the former home of a Grafton restaurant known for incredible food. He kept that food tradition going with a superb menu (lots of Cajun) dotted with his mother’s recipes. Sit bar-side, and he’ll tell you about them.

Along with the recipes, Jones brought bartender Steve Green to The Rotten Apple. Green is a young, gregarious, self-professed beer nerd, with some serious knowledge of suds. Sit bar-side, and he’ll tutor you on hops.

The Rotten Apple offers Cajun staples like gumbo, étouffée and jambalaya. Hard cider – alluded to in the bar’s name – is an ingredient in much of the food and accompanying house-made sauces. (For instance, the excellent and rightfully popular Cider BBQ Brisket.) Though the operation is less than half restaurant, I can say without a doubt that The Rotten Apple has some of the best bar food I’ve had.

The Rotten Apple offers 16 hard ciders, most bottled with one or two on tap. “If it’s for sale in Illinois, we have it,” Jones said. “The cider outsells domestic beer,” Green added. Among others, look for Wyder’s (peach, pear, apple and raspberry), Woodpecker, Strongbow and the top seller, Original Sin. Jones said that once he obtains the proper licenses and such, the bar will make its own hard cider.

Magnificently, The Rotten Apple has some brews I’ve never had in my entire life and, interestingly, beer that’s just not available on the Missouri side of the river. Twelve beers are on tap, with the selection rotating weekly, depending on what Green has researched. For instance, a Lagunitas IPA, Hobgoblin ale from Wychwood Brewery, Blue Cat’s Big Bad Dog ale, Hazed & Infused ale from Boulder Beer, Founders’ Dry-Hopped Pale Ale and St. Louis Framboise on one visit – though the list may be different when you stop in.

The bar space itself seats no more than 30 in front of and beside a fireplace. The décor features a velvet Elvis, a signed Sopranos poster and a century-old skeleton in a showcase that Jones described as “the oldest woman in the bar.” Summertime more than doubles the square footage with a second outside bar. While locals frequent The Rotten Apple on weekdays, the weekends bring larger crowds and a more diverse mix of patrons: some late-20s/early-30s with tattoos and a higher education; social baby boomers; Harley riders – all socializing with a backdrop of one-person, conversation-level acoustic entertainment, whether jazz, blues or flamenco.

Special events bring in patrons who also stay at some of the local guest houses. For December, The Rotten Apple is hosting a New Year’s Eve party. Expect live music, drink specials, a seafood boil (crab legs, shrimp, etc), a bit of bubbly at midnight and great beer. Consider it an opportunity to take in sleepy wintertime Grafton, its guest houses and The Rotten Apple.