Hammerstone's — Restaurant in St. Louis

I love this great Soulard corner bar, and even though I've moved to Illinois, I still drive back to Hammerstones before every Blues game, Cardinals game, or event in Soulard. I used to live across the street, and because they are open from early breakfast till 2am, my neighbor and I kept a spare key to our apartments behind the bar. The staff is friendly, and the family who owns the bar are too! Denny, Lynn, and Cory are ever-present and so welcoming. You can tell how much they care about their customers and feel the love they put into the place.

Let's start with drinks- they have a great selection of both craft and domestic beer and can make just about any mixed drink, including fantastic Moscow Mules. A little known secret special is the $2 mystery beer. It comes wrapped in a popcorn bag and is almost always a delightful craft beer where they happened to have extra. You can't beat $2 for anything these days. There's an Irish pub feel, so there are many Irish whiskeys as well. Shots are popular. Bloody Mary's are solid too!

Food- it's really delicious bar food and a killer breakfast offering. The corn flake breaded chicken fingers are legendary. The honey mustard sauce is fantastically tangy. The pepperoni pizza (thin crust) is another favorite. Salads are good too, and despite them doing fried stuff really well, you CAN eat healthy here if you're dieting.

Atmosphere- fun, inviting, intimate and relaxed with dark wood furniture, a neighborhood feel and nods to Mardi Gras and St. Louis. There's a small stage with great live music every night. It can get really crowded on weekends and during events, but they also have a huge patio with a second bar outside, so it's fun. Breakfast is very popular here, especially on weekends.

This is our go-to for pregaming because they have a shuttle to all the Blues and Cardinals games. Larry, the driver, is another ever present character in the Hammerstones family and a great guy. He always tells it like it is. Be sure to tip Larry, because he will get you to the games faster than anyone.

Thanks for all the great years, Hammerstones, and here's...

My entire family is visiting St. Louis en route to the eclipse tomorrow. We decided to eat at Hammerstone's rather than go around the corner to a grocery store and spend time cooking at our air b n b. What a mistake. At around 5:30, my husband ordered for my 3 year old son and my sister ordered for her 8 year old while they waited for my other sister, niece, and I to arrive (I was feeding my infant daughter at the BNB). We got there around 6. Service was incredibly slow. The two boys had their food before our server came back to get orders for the rest of the table. My mom actually had to get up from our table and go over to a different server, asking him to find our server because we were ready to order. When she finally came back to our table, I requested she put my sandwich on a rush and bring it in a to go box because I wanted to leave, telling her my son was about to crash (he did not nap today). Long story short, by 7:30 my son was finished eating, almost asleep at the table, and my food was nowhere to be found. I took him and left the restaurant. Without my food. Apparently after I left there were multiple other "mishaps" and the food took another hour to arrive (well past 8pm). My "rushed" to go order was the last thing to hit the table. I finally ate my food at 8:45pm. It was cold and soggy. The club sandwich was supposed to have "slices of avocado and spinach" on it. It had exactly 6 spinach leaves and maybe one slice of avocado. I had to take the sandwich apart to find it. I will give props to the garlic Parmesan fries. If I had been able to eat them when they were hot, I think they would have been delicious. Atmosphere: not kid friendly, unless you like your children inhaling cigar...

Had a wonderful server, then it came to ordering time.... and it all went south, she kindly took our order and mentioned she would check with the kitchen about the omelette (it's not on the menu but they have an a la carte brunch section with all the ingredients we requested) she returns with bad news, and tells us the kitchen staff isn't able to make the omelette, but they are able to make all the ingredients and serve them on the side of the plate.... she returns again to inform us the kitchen isn't making any more biscuits for the day and the grapefruit I ordered is also not an option..... she respectfully apologized (even though she did everything is her power to give us what we asked for) and softly after brings out our food.... the kitchen neglected to read her ticket order and therefore both our brunch eggs were served without the cheese we requested and the food itself was subpar at best...... it was a very disappointing experience and it saddneed me to see a server do everything is her power to please us even though the kitchen staff seemed to be working against her..... we observed her speaking to her manager about our issues, but he didn't seem concerned nor did he offer a discount or feel the need to come over and speak with us about the many downfalls of his kitchen staff. All in all, lesson learned, I will not be returning to Hammerstones and I would suggest others...