St. Louis’s Platypus Is the Greatest Below-the-Radar Bar within the U.S. 2023

When Platypus launched in St. Louis in November 2021, it wasn’t precisely the simplest time to open a bar. Not that opening a bar is ever straightforward, however doing so within the midst of a worldwide pandemic that noticed numerous institutions shutter worldwide and a hospitality business struggling to regain its footing was particularly precarious. However that’s precisely when Meredith Barry and Tony Saputo determined, after a long time of working for different individuals, to construct precisely the type of bar they’d all the time needed for themselves.

“I believe we needed neighborhood, before everything,” says Barry. “I believe that’s why me and Tony, it’s why we’re on this business. Bars are made up of individuals. And so, for us, it was like, how can we create this house that welcomes the neighborhood that we wish to create, that’s right here and wanting it? And an area for employees too, that feels secure for them and good.”

Since then, Platypus has taken off, evolving from native bar to cherished neighborhood lounge. Stay music, comedy, and different occasions are hosted within the house three or 4 nights per week, the partitions are adorned with items from native artists, and a perpetually rotating drinks menu ensures all bartenders have a stake within the drink listing.

It’s an method that has resonated not simply with the native St. Louis neighborhood, however everybody who’s been fortunate sufficient to go to Platypus. In the course of the preliminary spherical of nominations for this yr’s Better of 2023 Liquor Awards, when our panel of roughly 5 dozen bartenders from throughout the U.S. was requested to call one place in the complete nation that they love however by no means get to see on annual year-end lists, the response was overwhelming: Platypus.

Regardless of the outpouring of affection for his or her house, Saputo and Barry make some extent to credit score the bars that impressed them.

“I don’t really feel like [Platypus] is groundbreaking,” says Saputo. “We took slightly bit from a bunch of bars that we like loads. I was good mates with Jason [Kosmas] of The 86 Co., who initially opened Workers Solely. Or, you realize, that entire tremendous comfy environment of Harry’s in Kansas Metropolis.”

“Or like Greatest Intentions, in Chicago,” provides Barry. “That actually comfy really feel.”

Although they’ve taken cues from different bars, Saputo says he aimed to fill a void within the St. Louis drinks house.

“Right here in St. Louis, it looks like if you wish to get a great drink it’s often a really quiet environment, typically stuffy,” says Saputo. “There wasn’t a spot the place you may hang around with 10 of your pals, you may yell and scream, you are able to do pictures, but additionally get a very nice cocktail.”

Whereas they could not have been making an attempt to reinvent cocktail tradition as we all know it, drinks are endlessly creative, owing to a perpetually altering menu that shifts primarily based on elements available and employees enter.

“The cocktail listing is one thing we will rotate every day,” says Barry. “After we first began, it was the tail finish of Covid, so we had been simply being sustainable by seeing what elements we had, making an attempt to maintain as low a inventory as doable, and never being chained to a menu continually… I believe individuals dig it, and it provides the employees the flexibility to all the time have an opportunity to get on the board.”

Whereas bartenders at Platypus are all the time capable of make the classics, and native tastes aren’t myopically fixated on cocktails (“We most likely transfer extra Busch per sq. foot than most locations in St. Louis,” says Saputo), the method has yielded some wildly creative drinks.

“Certainly one of our bar managers, Ryan [Huelsing], took a bunch of leftover wine from bottles we had that had been open and wouldn’t serve, and he cooked it down and made, like, a syrup.” says Barry. “And he’s been doing Outdated Fashioneds with it, but additionally together with, like tea, and taking each tiny little factor that we’re not using…it simply fucking slaps.”

Along with all the same old leisure you’d anticipate from any good native—drinks, mates, a jukebox, and pinball machines—Platypus hosts all the things from native bands to open mic nights, queer mixers, cocktail courses, and extra. The varieties of occasions change as usually because the cocktail menu, and replicate the regulars and scenes they’re concerned in.

“Initially I didn’t wish to be a venue,” says Saputo. “However there was one other venue on the town that closed throughout Covid and it type of left a niche for up-and-coming DIY artists and bands. I used to be a touring musician for eight years as effectively, and I used to be taken care of by a whole lot of good individuals, so it’s my solution to pay it ahead.”

Platypus is the type of bar virtually each bartender has dreamed of opening, the place Barry and Saputo have taken the very best of all the things they’ve discovered by way of years within the business, left behind the crap, and created a community-driven house that mirrors all the things they love.

“I really feel like Platypus is a chunk of us,” says Barry. “I really feel like I see our life on the partitions right here. I see our hearts in every single place. It’s type of grown into its personal entity, which is superb. As a result of on the finish of the day, it’s not likely ours. It’s all people else’s.”