A few weeks ago, I was in St. Louis on a weeknight. The hotel I was staying in didn't have the network that was showing an Iowa basketball game that evening, so I looked around for a sports bar that was close by. I found a place on Manchester called The Post. It looked like a good spot to catch a game on TV.
Now, the Post isn't like a lot of other sports bars - well, hang on. Yes, it kind of is. But what makes it unique is that it caters to fantasy sports participants. In fact, it has been named by many media outlets as being the nation's first fantasy sports bar. The Post has a number of fantasy leagues for the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, even NHL hockey. They encourage people to sign up for the various leagues and follow the players they have drafted at The Post. Prizes and even trips are available to league champions. They also have a "superdraft" concept that encompasses all four major league sports where a minimum buy-in of $200 is required. I used to do fantasy baseball years ago, but fell out of favor because it was too time consuming. I just haven't gotten back into it now that fantasy leagues are all computerized and easy to follow.
The brain behind The Post is their 30-something co-owner Adrian Glass. Glass graduated from Saint Louis University in 2004 with a degree in marketing and accounting. He passed his CPA exam and became an auditor for Deloitte, the largest professional network in the world. Glass soon found that he didn't like the buttoned-down corporate world and decided that he wanted to channel his interest into fantasy sports - something he'd been doing since 1991 - into a concept sports bar that catered to fantasy sports participants.
While in college, Glass had worked for awhile at a restaurant in Breckenridge, CO and met a co-worker by the name of Bill Cipriani. Determined to see his fantasy sports bar concept through, Glass contacted Cipriani in 2006 and gave him a rough outline on his idea. It took three years before the pair opened the first Post in what was formerly the second Schottzie's location on Manchester, just east of Big Bend. (see map). In 2013, they opened the second Post location in Creve Coeur. (see map) (Pictured right - Bill Cipriani and Adrian Glass. Photo courtesy Riverfront Times.)
But Glass knew that he couldn't just bank on the fantasy sports crowd to keep The Post in business. Going to other sports bars in the area, he found that the quality of the food and good service is what kept people coming in. Glass and Cipriani made sure that The Post didn't falter in either category and for their efforts they were named The Best New Bar in St. Louis in 2010 by Metromix St. Louis.
I was able to find a parking spot in front of The Post on Manchester. Walking into the place, I was sort of shocked at how small the place was. Most sports bars are cavernous spaces with two or three bar areas. While they did have a number of flat screen televisions on the walls throughout the place, there was really only two dining areas and one bar. But it was cozy without people sitting on top of one another.
I took a seat at the bar which had a number of draft beers and a number of other beers in a glass refrigerator behind the bar. The bartender, Ami, came over to greet me. She was an outgoing-type, calling me "Hon" when she walked over. She apologized for her appearance, she said she was called into work at the last moment and she said she just threw some things on. I thought she looked all right to me.
Their beer selection wasn't bad. I initially ordered a Boulevard Pale Ale in a bottle until I noticed that they had Schlafly American Pale Ale on tap. "Comin' right up, hon," Ami cheerfully replied.
I soon found out that I would probably be the only one in the place interested in the Iowa basketball game that evening. The University of Missouri basketball team was also on one of the ESPN channels, but more importantly to the vast majority of patrons that evening, the St. Louis Blues were getting ready to play hockey. Ami was good enough to have one of the managers tune in the Iowa game on the flat screen directly in front of me at the bar.
I had Ami slide me a menu after a bit. Most of it consisted of your typical sports bar food - appetizers, salads, burgers, sandwiches and pizza. Three young women were seated next to me to my left and they ordered a small pizza to munch on. It was a thin crust and looked pretty good. Interestingly - to me - the Post also features some vegetarian and gluten free options.
The guy to my right had ordered up a turkey reuben sandwich and he also ordered tater tots as a side. That sort of got my attention when Ami brought it out to him - the tater tots more so than the turkey reuben. I was looking at getting one of The Post's burgers that featured half-pound all-beef ground patties. They also had a Bison burger on the menu and that was sort of tempting. But I ended up getting the Farmer burger topped with grilled ham, bacon, cheddar cheese and a farm fresh egg. I asked Ami if I could get my egg over hard (I don't like the yolk dripping all over the place when I'm eating a burger). She said it would be "no problem, hon." And I took my neighbors lead and ordered some tater tots for a side.
After a bit, Ami brought my burger out to me. The cheddar cheese was oozing off the top of the burger patty and the grilled ham, bacon and hard fried egg were sitting on top of the patty. The bun crown was held in place by a toothpick because, well, it would have fallen off trying to balance on all the stuff on the burger.
I'll have to say the burger was very good. There were a lot of taste sensations going on all at once with the cheese and all the toppings. But the burger patty was juicy and had a nice flavor to it. The bun stayed together very well keep all the toppings from flying off with each bite. It was light and somewhat spongy.
The tater tots were a nice diversion. I usually will order fries when offered as a side, but I hardly eat any. The tater tots were piping hot and had a crunchy outer shell and the chewy potato taste inside. It was way too many tater tots, however. Especially after finishing the rather large burger.
For a sports bar, I was very impressed with the food and service at The Post. They were accommodating to me for putting on the Iowa game, and the burger was very good - one of the better ones that I've had at a sports bar. The beer selection was all right, but there wasn't a place in the bar where you couldn't see a television. There are a number of sports bars in the St. Louis area, but I think The Post just became my favorite.
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