Readers favorite St. Louis beer is…

My poll last week was not about a serious issue facing St. Louis.  Instead the question asked readers to vote for their favorite St. Louis beer.  The winner by a huge margin was Schlafly. For readers from out of town, co-founder Tom Schlafly is a nephew of Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly.   She is not part of the beer business.

I’ve been doing these polls for months now and none has generated as many votes as this. The recent poll on Rush Limbaugh buying the Rams was the top vote getter, over 300 votes.  While that is a great number it is less than 10% of the 3,349 visitors during the week.  Here are the final numbers:

• Schlafly 193 (64%)
• Anheuser Busch 25 (8%)
• Square One Brewery 23 (8%)
• O’Fallon Brewery 17 (6%)
• I don’t drink beer/no opinion 14 (5%)
• Mattingly Brewing 13 (4%)
• Buffalo Brewing 5 (2%)
• Trailhead Brewery 5 (2%)
• Morgan Street Brewery 3 (1%)
• Other answer… 2 (1%)
• Amalgamated Brewery 1 (0%)
• Alandale Brewing 0 (0%)
• Augusta Brewery 0 (0%)

One of the two “other” votes was anything smoke-free.  Agreed.

I too favor Schlafly’s beer but I also like the fact they opened up in December 1991 in a then desolate part of downtown.  There were no lofts.  There were few restaurants and few businesses of any type.   1991 was my first full year living in St. Louis and their place, The Tap Room, made me think downtown would soon be thriving as others joined in.  Downtown is now a great place but it just took 15 more years than I thought.

From Schlafly.com:

The two adjoining buildings that house our location in downtown St. Louis were completed in 1902 and 1904 and had been built with super-heavy steel reinforced beams to house the printing presses that would occupy the space for the next 65 years. The designer was Samuel L. Scherer, a self-educated architect. Scherer was a student of Ruskin, Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement in England. He was known to say that “architecture is the most useful of the fine arts and the finest of the useful arts.” He later became the first Director of the St. Louis Art Museum.

On their website they have great pictures of a massive fire at 21st & Locust (map) in 1976 when a few major buildings were completely destroyed.  For me much of the appeal of a local brewery is how they can fit into our urban neighborhoods.

If you drink please do so responsibly.

– Steve Patterson

Improved sharing & commenting

Very early this morning I found a blog that impressed me based on the comment system employed.  In the footer I could tell the blog was based on WordPress just like this one. I had to have this system.

So tonight I made the change on how comments on this blog are entered and displayed.  As always you can make anonymous comments but now you have the option to register so your profile is saved.  You can reply to a comment from someone else.  Registering allows you to correct your comment after it is posted — helpful if you find a typo.   You can also comment using your Twitter, Yahoo or OpenID accounts.

Separately I added buttons that will appear on each post to allow you too share the post to your Twitter, Buzz or Facebook account. Let me know what you think.

– Steve Patterson

Technology has changed public sidewalks

Remember the corner phone booth?

I can’t remember the last time I saw one much less the last time I used one.   As mobile phones have become commonplace, the once ubiquitous pay phone has disappeared.

Teenagers have previously lagged behind adults in their ownership of cell phones, but several years of survey data collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that those ages 12-17 are closing the gap in cell phone ownership. The Project first began surveying teenagers about their mobile phones in its 2004 Teens and Parents project when a survey showed that 45% of teens had a cell phone. Since that time, mobile phone use has climbed steadily among teens ages 12 to 17 – to 63% in fall of 2006 to 71% in early 2008.

In comparison, 77% of all adults (and 88% of parents) had a cell phone or other mobile device at a similar point in 2008. Cell phone ownership among adults has since risen to 85%, based on the results of our most recent tracking survey of adults conducted in April 2009. The Project is currently conducting a survey of teens and their parents and will be releasing the new figures in early 2010.  (Source: Pew Internet)

Mobile phones are everywhere and the pay phone is not.  Not a bad thing if you are in the 85% of adults that has one but it probably sucks if you don’t have a mobile.

Today “smart phones” are becoming increasingly popular.  Before I got an iPhone in January 2008 I had the cheapest, most basic phone possible but now I can’t imagine life without it.

My poll this week asks the operating system your phone uses.  You may not know but give it a shot.

– Steve Patterson

Your favorite St. Louis brewery?

For generations St. Louisans have been brewing and consuming beer.  From the biggest to the smallest, and everything in between, the number of breweries in the St. Louis area is impressive.

The poll this week asks your favorite local brewery.  I’m not asking which you consume the most, but which is your favorite.  They might be the same and they might not.

The list of breweries was taken from participants in the 2009 St. Louis Brewers Heritage Festival (must be 21 to enter site):

• Alandale Brewing
• Amalgamated Brewery
• Anheuser Busch
• Augusta Brewery
• Buffalo Brewing
• Mattingly Brewing
• Morgan Street Brewery
• O’Fallon Brewery
• Schlafly
• Square One Brewery
• Trailhead Brewery

I have tried about 5-6 of them but that means there is that many I haven’t tried.   In the event I omitted a local brewery from the poll I have enabled the “other” field so you can add in one not listed.  The breweries are presented alphabetically.

I see the corner bar/brewery as being part of an urban environment.  Applebee’s says they are a “Neighborhood Grill & Bar”  yet their neighborhood is often a suburban strip mall. Just not the same.

Most of these places are small brewers.  Others started small and expanded.  Most are in the City of St. Louis but there are exceptions.  Whenever I’m on Main Street in St. Charles I usually end up at Trailhead.  Going to Augusta used to be about wine for me but since I discovered Augusta Brewery I go for beer instead.

Brews from some of these brewers are available in other establishments/grocery store while others can only be obtained directly.  You may think it unfair to have A-B compete in the poll with small micro breweries.  Again, I’m asking for your favorite brewer.   I like A-B’s Amber Bach but that doesn’t make A-B my favorite brewer in town.

Fans of local beer can go to the stlhops.com forum where members post what beers pubs have in stock on certain days.  Technology and beer are a nice combination.  As I finish writing this post Halloween night I’m finishing off a local pumpkin ale.

Thanks to contributor Jim Zavist for the idea for this poll & post.  The poll is at the top of the right sidebar. If you chose to drink please do so responsibly.

– Steve Patterson

Fifth anniversary of Urban Review STL

Today is the fifth anniversary of this blog.  Five years!  My life has changed dramatically over those five years, partly because of the blog.

On a personal note my great-nephew was born just after I started the blog, an early post included a pic of him just hours old.  Both of my parents have passed.  I went car-free, lived through a stoke, bought a car, started grad school, and I moved downtown.  In 2005 I  ran for the Board of Aldermen, and lost.  I have connected with so many great people over the years.  Hopefully I’ve made a difference.  Over these five years many more blogs have come on the scene locally.  I love it.  The more ideas and viewpoints being shared, discussed and debated the better off we are as a city and region.

Early on I still had thoughts about moving elsewhere.  But I can tell you today that I will live the rest of my life in St. Louis.  That means this blog will continue to evolve over the next five years and coming decades. Part of that evolution will be a new look that I hope to debut after the first of 2010.  As more contributors join me I hope to make the author of each piece more obvious.

After I posted that first piece five years ago I sent an email to some friends  — my first readers.  This year over 80,000 have visited this blog.  The numbers are staggering, I’m honored. When I started I had no plan for what I wanted to accomplish with the blog other than focus my attention at the moment.

In December I will graduate from Saint Louis University with a Master in Arts in Urban Planning & Real Estate Development (UPRED).  Earlier this week I decided to leave real estate sales so I can focus on consulting to developers and municipalities.  With a large number of municipalities within a 2-hour drive of St. Louis I hope to be busy.

Thank you for participating in my journey: adding your comments, giving me feedback, putting up with my rants and mistakes.

– Steve Patterson