Relish

"...cause it's root, root, root for the home team, if they don't win it's a shame..." 

Umm, that depends on who you talk to.

Local restaurateurs--some quietly and others not so--may be rooting for the Washington Nationals tonight. Why? So their business will return to normal sales levels next week. The fact is that playoff (and especially World Series) baseball kills the restaurant business in St. Louis (unless the restaurant is downtown, and still it's a mixed blessing as business often drops off considerably the week following post-season baseball). Most locals tend to do their October baseball viewing in front of the ol' 60-incher in the great room, the net effect being a business decline of 10 to 50% in suburban restaurants... so bad it's caused a universal cry of "We want our restaurants back!" So bad that restaurateurs have begun rooting against the home team.

Restaurant owners have had a tough 12 months. The World Series-winning Cardinals put the hurt on restaurants last fall. This year it was the prolonged summer heat that sapped their business...and now there's a possibility of a business decline lasting a few more weeks. Some owners implore the gods that some of the lost revenue  returns; the veterans are more realistic, knowing that in all likelihood it will not.

So called "off-prime games," those played during the week and/or in the afternoon, have minimal deleterious effects, but as the home team works its way further into the playoffs and all games get played in the evening, the restaurant business takes that hit.

Meanwhile, baseball is good for the bar business. Off-prime games are found money, with business increasing 10-33% during those times, according to bar owners (and this applies to Blues games, Mizzou games, etc., by the way). Customers tend to linger for 9 (or more) innings, or those figures might skew higher. Brant Baldanza, co-owner of the two Corner Pub's, The Tavern, and newly-opened The Shack Pubgrub in Midtown, sees it from all sides. "This year we have three places that will do more business," he said, "but last year The Tavern was off as much as 50% during the games, which tends to make otherwise rosy numbers a bit less rosy."

In the meantime, allow me to offer up my notes for a few places that will welcome you with open arms, tonight or next week...no matter what team you're cheering for:

New:

Where: Circle & Ranch in Ballwin
Why: Slick, new, good food and scenery.

Where: The Shack Pubgrub in Midtown
Why: Great flat grilled burgers, and distractions like the behemoth Shack-Wich and Sh-Bombs.

Tried and True:

Where: Joey B's: 3 locations,
Why:  Wing Ding: 5 # of wings for $24, 3 sauces

Where: Three Sixty
Why:  Home game: outside w/ fire pits, 3 sec delay from stadium roar and what's on the screen.  Away game: great indoor /outdoor space. Great food, too.  

Where: Mike Shannon's
Why: Same thing. Game w/ crowd noise.  

Where: Lester's: 3 locations
Why: Lots of TV's. Volume controls on each table. 

Where: Corner Pub & Grill - 2 locations. Chesterfield and Valley Park.
Why: TV's under an awning, great when weather's good.  Plenty of TV's inside as well. 

Where:  Plaza Grill in Clayton
Why:  TV's everywhere, generally not  crowded. TV's visible from dining room.

Where: The Westin
Why: Right across the street from Stadium. Run across the street and sneak inside. 

Where: The Post
Why: Game time specials on food and booze.

Where: Over Under Bar and Grill
Why: Outdoor projected TV under heated  tent.

Where: Stadium Sports Bar and Grill
Why: 50 TV's, $50 reubens, really good chic wings...and gambling nearby.