Description

At first glance the menu may seem small in comparison to some, but our secret is consistency and quality. O'Connell's has been serving the same popular menu with only a few changes for over thirty years. Our 9oz charbroiled Hamburgers are most often featured because of the numerous times they have won first place in the Riverfront Times restaurant poll, but please don't stop there. Our Roast Beef served to order any day and the Fish & Chips on Fridays have no competitors. You may believe that a Coney Island is just a chili cheese dog, but when you start with a gourmet frank and top it with our chili you have an experience you won't forget. Our jumbo shrimp appetizer is always cooked just right and a great value. Customers sometimes ask why we don't serve tomatoes. The answer is easy: O'Connell's understands the need to start with fresh, high quality ingredients. The pale and often mushy tomatoes found in this region for most of the year do not meet this standard. To the new comer another perplexing O'Connellism is that for over thirty years we have only offered one dressing. Our “Mayfair” dressing is made fresh on the premises and we hope that you will believe, as we do, that it speaks for itself.


O'Connell's Pub first opened in 1962, in an area known to St. Louisans as Gaslight Square. Gaslight Square was a bohemian, artistic area, attracting many of St. Louis's most prominent personalities, some of which not only frequented, but also lived in the area. Some of Gaslight Square's residents were Ernie Trova, an American sculptor known for “The Falling Man”; Joe Pollack, noted food critic; Bill Woo, former editor of the St. Louis Post Dispatch; and Leonard Slatkin, who has moved on but was the conductor that brought international recognition to the St. Louis Symphony orchestra. Gaslight Square was also known nationally as an entertainment district, attracting up and coming stars such as Barbara Streisand, The Smothers Brothers, Woody Allen, George Carlin, Lenny Bruce and countless others. Gaslight Square was named for a bar called the Gaslight Bar, owned by Dick Mutrux. Dick's Brother Paul Mutrux later opened the nationally acclaimed Three Fountains Restaurant known for its fine dining. Jay & Fran Landesman who owned the Crystal Palace also wrote a Broadway Show “The Nervous Set” along with Tommy Wolf. Up and down the street you could hear Jazz and Dixieland music spilling out into the streets. Pedestrians would walk cocktail in hand from one club to the next. Even for a time you could get a snow cone made with liquor until it was discovered that this was not exactly legal. The birth of Gaslight Square was between the years 1957 and 1959 but by 1967 problems were already evident and the area began its decline.… Read More

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