Mark, a reader of my website, sent me some photos of corner bars in South St. Louis and Lemay; long-time neighborhood institutions, these taverns are rapidly disappearing.
But luckily, many of them still carry on, beneficiaries of a loyal clientele and stable neighborhoods. It seems like the southern end of our city and the near suburbs have a larger portion of these corner bars, where you could once get brain sandwiches or a bucket of beer delivered by your children to your house, so they say.
I want to thank Mark for taking the time to send me these images, and for reminding me how cool many of these bars are, and how they help anchor the neighborhoods they serve.
All photos by Mark Preston
While I grew up in Kirkwood, we often visited an Aunt and Uncle who lived in a four-family on South Broadway. There were occasions when my younger sister and I were sent to the corner tavern with the bucket for replenishments. No questions asked there – and we were pre-teens. Ahh, simpler days…The tavern and many other buildings were replaced by I-55 and my Uncle kvetched about that for years.I just recalled the address (amazing!) – 5109, and it is still there and looking good! I recall a huge wooden building across the street – some kind of hall. I remember going to a couple of wedding receptions there in the early '50s. There was a series of grand old BIG homes on the East side of Broadway, on the bluffs. I guess they got the breeze off the river. All or most are gone now, replaced by apartments and OF homes.Oh, the stories I could tell about Aunt Ida and Uncle Andrew – being childless and having some bucks, let's just say they "were unaccustomed to having children in the house."
HA!I just noticed the leaning fire hydrant in the first photo. At first I thought "It must be a Holiday prank – someone got busy with Photoshop." But if it was that, it was pretty darned clever; he even got the shadow correct!
Yeah, that's not a Photoshop trick…
I have one word for this post – Nostalgic. Though I did not grow up in St. Louis, it sure did reminded me of my old hood.
I lived at 4607 Louisiana Ave and yes we regularly picked up brain sandwiches for our parents. Fried brains on rye in a brown paper bag.
Does anyone know where you can still brain sandwiches in St. Louis?
Born and raised in St. Louis and attended St. Frances De Sales….But oh, can I remember the fried brain sandwiches.Being a very young girl at the time…I thought they were great. Try and find a place that still does the sandwiches.Especially with all of the mad cow diseases…I know it has been over 65 years since my last sandwich…But I think I can still taste to this day…My kids think I was nuts to enjoy that type of sandwich…Thank you Mom and Dad…
The bar in the top picture (Kickers) used to be Dieckmeyer’s Tavern owned by Bud I think since his return from the Navy in WW2. I remember spending many weekends there while growing up in the 70s since my uncle Bert lived just behind the place on Bowen (now razed). I had my first of many brain sandwiches there. On the corner with the tipped fireplug there used to be a little shoe shine stand. These taverns made great places to get lunch for the factory workers such as at Alumax across Broadway.
Thanks for sharing, Jeff!