Tips and Tricks

I got the St. Louis blues, just as blue as I can be.
That man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea,
Or else he wouldn’t have gone so far from me.
- St. Louis Blues, W.C. Handy

W. C. Handy’s song, first published in 1914, has become one of the most performed songs in music history and inspired the name of St. Louis’ National Hockey League team. In the early part of the 1900s, riverboats from New Orleans brought jazz and blues into St. Louis, where it mixed with the local ragtime made famous by Scott Joplin to create the unique St. Louis Blues sound. Later, in the 40s and 50s, the St. Louis sound again morphed, mixing with rhythm and blues to create a “driving dance beat with a bluesy delivery,” exemplified by St. Louis natives Ike and Tine Turner.

St. Louis, Missouri is the Gateway to the West. In 1935, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park was established to celebrate the Westward expansion of the U.S.A. from 1803 to 1890. The park is best known for, and dwarfed by the Gateway Arch. Eero Saarinen designed the Arch in 1947, and construction on the 630 foot high structure was completed in 1965.

Just south of downtown along Broadway Street is BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups. Housed at 700 South Broadway Street in a building dating back to the 1800s that originally was Phil’s Hotel, BB’s provides good food, a well stocked bar and live music from some of the best local blues and jazz artists.

Just down the street from BB’s is the Broadway Oyster Bar at 736 South Broadway. Just as the blues of St. Louis took musical influences from New Orleans, Broadway Oyster Bar takes it’s food and atmosphere influences from the Big Easy. The Cajun and Creole food and cozy interior is good, but it is the exterior that is the best part. Voted the Best Outside Dining by the AOL City Guide (2004), the patio at Broadway’s is a great place to eat and drink under the stars and listen to blues and Cajun music. Oysters, fried alligator and a washboard solo by the zydeco trio playing on the patio, it’s the French Quarter in St. Louis.

Continuing south along Broadway you will find Soulard, a neighborhood with a French flavor, lots of churches and the Soulard Market. The Anheuser-Busch Brewery, home of the world famous Clydesdales horses and their guardians, friendly Dalmatians, borders the neighborhood to the south.

Among the many great pubs, restaurants and bars to see live music is 1860s Hard Shell Café & Bar at 1860 South Ninth Street. Live blues, rock and more, seven nights a week. The bar is small and smoky, but the food is good, the music hot and what better place to see blues than in a smoky, crowded bar!

Heading back North through downtown, right on the banks of the Mississippi is Laclede’s Landing. A nine-block area that originally housed industries and warehouses, the Landing has been transformed into a tourist area with historic touches like cobblestone streets and horse drawn carriages. During the day the streets are filled with tourists looking for lunch at the overpriced chain restaurants or the entrance to the riverboat casino, and at night it is filled with college students looking for a cheap beer buzz. However, once a year during Labor Day weekend, the Landing plays host to the Big Muddy Blues Festival. Blues artists, both local talent and national and international names come and play on numerous outdoor stages that fill the streets, courtyards and parks of the Landing. Great talent playing all day and into the night as well as good food and drink booths make this a must do event for all music lovers.

W.C. Handy wrote in The St. Louis Blues that he hated “to see the evening sun go down,” but given the great music scene that gets going after dark in St. Louis, a music lover finding themselves on the shores of the muddy Mississippi should be counting the hours until they can find themselves a cold beer, a hot meal and some cool blues.

I lived in Downtown Denver, Colorado from July of 2000 until March of 2001. I had a beautiful one-bedroom apartment facing west, so when I woke up in the morning I would look out my window and see the sun shining on the mountains. I must admit, growing up in Toronto (which is pretty flat), it was quite impressive to see those mountains every morning. I never really grew bored of watching the mountains, even though they never really did anything except sit there.

Me and the Stanley Cup at the NHL All-Star Game

Denver is famously known as the “Mile High City,” because it is, more or less, 5,280 feet above sea level. The first few weeks in Denver I was affected by the altitude – I would get winded walking up a single flight of stairs and I would get tipsy after only two or three drinks. That’s good for the budget though. However, within a month my body had adapted to the lower oxygen air by producing more red blood cells, and the altitude no longer affected me.

An offshoot of my high altitude adjustments was that when I returned on the occasional weekend to Toronto, I felt superhuman! I could run around without getting winded, and could drink pitcher after pitcher of beer without feeling drunk at all. I was a shoe-in at drinking contests!

Downtown Denver is one of those places that obviously fell on hard times, and then sometime in the last 10 years or so somebody in city council decided to revitalize downtown. So all the old factories and stuff have been turned into art galleries and restaurants and bars. There aren’t very many people living in downtown yet, but each year more and more people are moving back into the city center.

But back to the bars, one of my favorites is the Sports Column, at 1930 Blake Street. Good chicken wings, cold beer and lots of big screens. Plus, I made out with some chick there the night of Super Bowl 2001. Also good and cheap is the Giggling Grizzly at 1320 20th Street. The Grizzly has lots of drink specials, including “flipping for your drink.” You flip a quarter – if you call it right your drink is a $0.25. If you call it wrong, your drink is full price.

The 16th Street Mall is a pedestrian mall with a bunch of shops and restaurants along it. For food, Marlowe’s is good, and the Paramount Café has a nice patio. A free shuttle runs the length of the Mall.

Denver is obviously gateway to some great skiing. I skied Vail, Aspen (Snowmass) and Winter Park. While Winter Park is less crowded, they only had one chair lift up to the back bowls. Vail has lots of lifts servicing the back bowls, and they are in the sun, which makes for some nice, casual skiing. If you go up for the weekend, though, leave yourself lots of time coming back from the mountains – the traffic from Vail into Denver along highway 70 is very crowded on Sunday nights.