O’Connell’s Pub

Plates are paper. Service is blunt. The menu is short. Prices are low. The roast beef sandwich is a thing of beauty: abundant slabs of full-flavored beef, glistening with juice, available on whatever bread you like, but best on a length of French bread sturdy enough to withstand all that succulence. If you like it really wet, twenty-five cent side orders of “au jus” are available for dipping. Hamburgers, costing in the mid-single digit range, are awe-inspiring nine-ouncers, beautifully charcoal cooked. On the side you want French fries or fried mushrooms, along with house-made Mayfair sauce. Mayfair is an O’Connell’s trademark, a garlicky ranch-type dressing that is fine as a dip, on salad, and as a quirky condiment for roast beef or burgers.

O’Connell’s menu is limited to sandwiches and a few such daily specials as Monday baked ham, Thursday roast pork, and Saturday rib tips. It really is a pub with a vast inventory of single-malt scotch, Irish whiskey, and bottled and draft beers. And no surprises since it is in St. Louis: you can have a gooey butter cookie for dessert.