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Nightlife:

A-

(explain this grade)

Comparable Schools'
Nightlife Grades:

Quick Stats

Useful Resources for Nightlife

  • www.digitalcity.com/stlouis
  • www.riverfronttimes.com

Student Favorites

  • Cicero’s
  • Delmar Lounge
  • Venice Café

Primary Areas with Nightlife

  • Laclede’s Landing
  • The Central West End
  • The Loop

Local Specialties

  • Budweiser
  • Busch
  • Schlafly

Other Places to Check Out

  • BB’s Jazz, Blues, and Soups
  • Blueberry Hill
  • Broadway Oyster Bar
  • Fitz’
  • McGurk’s
  • Mike Duffy’s Pub and Grill
  • MP O’Reillys
  • Schlafly Tap Room
  • The Backstage Bistro
  • The Big Bang
  • Trainwreck Ladede’s Landing

Favorite Drinking Games

  • Beirut (beer pong)
  • Card games (a$$hole)
  • Century Club
  • Power Hour
  • Quarters

Bars Close At

1 a.m. in the county

3 a.m. in the city

Cheapest Place to Get a Drink

VFW on Big Bend

College Prowler Take

Wash U kids take their nightlife seriously. For the first couple of years, most like to stay on or around campus and enjoy the frat parties, sophomore suite parties, and off-campus house parties. Frat Row definitely attracts a crowd every weekend, although it’s not everyone’s scene. There are a few bars around town that don’t card too hard, as well, so it’s possible to start exploring before turning 21 (the VFW is a good place to start). With a real (or quality fake) ID, a lot more of St. Louis nightlife opens up. There are tons of blues bars, like BB’s Jazz, Blues and Soups, and music venues that are more 21-and-over friendly than underage-friendly, like Mississippi Nights, the Pageant, and Broadway Oyster Bar.

For people with more eclectic or refined tastes, St. Louis has some other options besides bars and parties. The Backstage Bistro is a classy jazz club downtown, which features top performers like Ahmad Jamal and Joshua Redman. Next door is the St. Louis Symphony, one of the best in the country, which performs every Friday and Saturday night during the season. There are also a few clubs downtown, for those with a taste for loud music and close quarters. Washington Avenue has a strip of interesting venues, and by keeping an eye on the flyers posted in the Loop, it’s easy to find out about DJ events, the occasional rave (mostly for high school kids, though), and hip-hop parties.

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Students Speak Out

Love your school more than free food? Hate your school more than term papers?
Somewhere in between? Show the world what YOU think of YOUR school:

WasJK says:

Washington University in St. Louis 2016

Computer and Information Sciences

The nightlife at WashU is...

The nightlife at WashU is mediocre. Parties on campus are pretty much always at the frats, and there are also a couple frats that throw good parties just off campus. However, in my opinion, the frat parties can get really old and repetetive. Upperclassmen all go to bars like Morgan Street and they always have a pretty good time there, so I'm really just waiting for the ability to drive there next year.

Nightlife: March 18, 2009
Report

WasRA says:

Washington University in St. Louis 2016

Arts, Visual and Performing

Please don't come to WashU if you...

Please don't come to WashU if you are socially awkward. You will have fun otherwise, but it's no party school. Underclassmen frequent the frat houses and the upperclassmen, for obvious legal reasons, have a broader choice of weekend party destinations (Morgan Street is the spot to go to on Thursday nights).

Nightlife: March 02, 2009
Report

WasCG says:

Washington University in St. Louis 2015

Business

On campus parties are okay. Not...

On campus parties are okay. Not like state schools though. Bars are fun, and the loop is very close. Morgan Street and Big Bang are good spots

Nightlife: March 01, 2009
Report

Anonymous says:

There’s always something to...

There’s always something to do—from frat parties, to off-campus parties, to whatever you’re into. I’ve never had trouble finding somewhere to drink or party.

Nightlife
Report

Anonymous says:

I’ve never been to any of the bars...

I’ve never been to any of the bars or clubs around town. Well, I went to one for a concert, but it was open to all ages at that point. Mississippi Nights has had some good bands come through: Lifehouse and Five for Fighting. You can take the Metrolink downtown to get there (very accessible). Also, a bunch of bands come to the Pageant, which is only about a 15–20-minute walk from campus.

Nightlife
Report

Facts

Club Crawler

Clubbing is not a huge part of the St. Louis nightlife. Beer and blues are more predominant than reflective pants and techno. Among the clubs that do exist, most are located together on the Washington Avenue strip downtown. Here are the best addresses there and around

Bar Prowler

As soon as Wash U students turn 21, bars tend to become a big attraction—so much so that on the weekends, a few popular bars feel like extensions of the frat houses. Below are some names to help you find the scene, or avoid it, if necessary.

Organization Parties

House parties hosted by clubs and organizations are huge at Wash U. There will inevitably be a few happening every weekend in the University City apartments, and they can be a blast. Most will have a keg, and cups are free, but if you’re thirsty, bring your own booze too, because these things sometimes get so packed you can’t move past the foyer. The best way to find out about house parties is just to ask people what they’re up to on a weekend evening, and inevitably word gets out. Some of the most popular house parties are those thrown by sports teams, the sailing club, and KWUR

Club Listings

For a totally transforming experience, just walk through the banal ground floor of Miso and head downstairs. The spacious lounge and bar area hidden below are set in glowing hues of low blue, and the basement’s 4,000 square feet (the space served as a bowling alley after World War II) immediately creates a rich and welcoming atmosphere. Purple and tan plush couches, armchairs, and love seats make loungers want to sink in and stay a while. The cuisine at Miso is surprisingly on par with the gorgeous surroundings. The sushi is excellent and goes down smoothly with their warm house-sake (or one of their eight other varieties of sake). Hip exotica and downbeat music pours softly over the speakers, but Wednesday through Sunday nights, Miso entertains a club crowd, bringing in DJs to spin the latest house music for the photogenic crowd.

Miso

16 N Meramec Ave.

Clayton

(314) 863-7888

www.misolounge.com

OZ is three nightclubs in one. The main floor has four bars, one dance floor, and a house/classic club DJ. There is also an outdoor Patio Blue lounge with hip-hop and an Emerald City VIP room with a Moroccan twist. The OZ is a popular destination in the late hours, but be prepared for lots of techno.

Oz Nightclub

300 Monsanto Ave.

(618) 274-1464

Rue 13 is a pool hall, bar, cocktail lounge, restaurant, sushi bar, dance club, and music venue. It is famous for its '80s dance parties, dollar sake nights, pole dancing, and projection screens on the walls. Cheap covers, but the drinks are pricey.

Rue 13

1311 Washington Ave.

(314) 588-7070

The Pageant is a large music venue a mile away from campus with an open main floor with plenty of standing room and some seating on a first-come-first-serve basis. There is also an upstairs balcony with limited space, as well as the 21-and-over Halo Bar which serves drinks during shows. The Pageant has seen acts such as Bloc Party, Andrew Bird, Wilco, Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, and Ben Folds. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster or at the door.

The Pageant

6161 Delmar Blvd.

(314) 726-6161

www.thepageant.com

Bar Listings

A dive bar in the grand tradition, the place rocks from low ceiling to cramped wall. Five-dollar pitchers, and raw underground punk and rock bands every weekend make the place one of the best bars in the Wash U area.

The Hi-Pointe

1001 McCausland

(314) 781-4716

www.hi-pointe.com

A real gem, hidden deep in the thick of mid-town St. Louis, Venice Café is well worth the detour. Everything from the booze boat (an ornately decorated skiff transformed into a bar), to the vast patio, complete with bucket seat chairs and a koi pond, makes this place a full-on visual experience. The aural side isn’t bad either—jam sessions, folk bands, and open-mics take to the small stage almost every night of the week.

Venice Café

1905 Pestalozzi

(314) 772-5994

Don’t even attempt to read the lengthy beer menu at Cicero’s, just ask for a recommendation from the able barmen and women and you won’t be disappointed. Besides the bar, this Italian restaurant has a pair of decent pool tables, and a kicking music venue that hosts some of the best underground jam bands around, including Spooky Daly Pride, Jake’s Leg, and Ekoostik Hookah.

Cicero’s

6691 Delmar Blvd.

(314) 862-0009

www.ciceros-stl.com

Don’t look for the young, hip crowd to be hanging around the bar between a pair of Korean War vets, sipping a pint of Pabst Blue Ribbon or playing a game of Buck Hunter on the console. The VFW is a haven for real Missourians—pro-life, pro-NRA, pro-beer. But because of its dirt-cheap brews, it also attracts an occasional college group looking for a pre-party, or just a pitcher to sip on a weeknight. No pretensions, no drink specials, just beer and rugged veterans of foreign wars.

VFW #3500

1717 South Big Bend Blvd.

(314) 645-9509

During the day, the Lounge is a classy place to catch a decent meal, and at night, to watch some excellent jazz acts. On the weekends, though, the bar becomes more of an extension of the frat scene than anything else, so plan accordingly.

Delmar Lounge

6235 Delmar Blvd.

(314) 725-6565

What to Do if You're Not 21

Some of the shows here are 21-and-over only, but most just require a small surcharge. And it’s worth it, because this is one of the best venues in St. Louis. You can see all kinds of music—jazz, rock, blues, jam bands. John Scofield, Leftover Salmon, Ozomatli, and G. Love and Special Sauce have all been recent visitors.

Mississippi Nights

914 N 1st St.

(314) 421-3853

www.mississippinights.com

Sometimes an 18-and-over club or bar just isn’t fun when you’re surrounded by older people with drinks, so why not just do something different? Tropicana has 52 lanes of bowling, but there’s plenty of other things to keep you busy: pool tables, video games, a thuggish Friday night crowd, and pitchers of beer, if someone has a decent fake ID (or a real one).

Tropicana Lanes

7960 Clayton Rd.

(314) 782-0282

The Grind is located right on the edge of the neighborhood known as “the St. Louis Greenwich Village.” The Grind looks like a bar on the weekends, since it’s packed inside and out, and the crowd is hip and attractive. It’s actually a coffee house, though, so students who are 18-and-over are certainly welcome. You can either chill on the big patio and sip an iced coffee or mug of tea, lounge inside on the comfy sofas, or play a game of pool or foosball.

The Grind

56 Maryland Plaza

Central West End

(314) 454-0202

WILD (Walk In Lay Down) is an all-day festival at Wash U, thrown at both the beginning and the end of the school year for students of all ages. Events include concerts, games, raffles, student performances, and free food. To see which bands will be performing the next scheduled dates, visit the production company Team 31’s Web site: team31.wustl.edu

WILD

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