HARRY'S ST. LOUIS GUIDE TO TAVERNS, PUBS SALOONS & OTHER DRINKING ESTABLISHMENTS

By Dan Brenna & Steve Weaver
St. Louis: Knight Publishing Company, 1980

This guide book has two Dogtown taverns in it, McDermotts and O'Shea's. The entries for these places are:

• McDERMOTTS
  6400 Oakland Avenue
  Thomas and Josephine McDermott, prop.
  647-6553
  
  pages 92-93
  
  The McDermotts have been at this Oakland address for Twenty-six years. For nine years before that, the place was Pat's Bar and Grill. The only reason to mention that is the sign from Pat's still hangs above the door. It is probably one of the oldest Budweiser signs in the city.
  
  Sports is spoken here. The t.v. is on for all sports, and the mixed age crowd are staunch fans. Lots of amateur athletes head here after a practice or game. The Blues and the Big Red are also regulars for McDermott's food and drink.
  
  The lunch crowd here comes from all over. Many downtown office workers will call in and order for take-out service. The menu has special Monday -- beef stew, and on Saturdays -- chicken. Both are favorites. McDermotts chicken has been rated by several magazines and newspapers as among the top five in the city. Shrimp and chicket livers are also big hits here.
  
  The Tavern is family style. It is noisy with conversation and cheering poing on during games. It’s a tavern, as the McDermotts wished. for a family meal and gathering place. The decor is nothing special. There are pictures of the Blues, and one of Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. There is a long bar, and there are lots of tables and booths.
  
  People come, not for the decor, but for the food and friends. Lou Adams delightful lady, has worked here for 19 years, and knows most everyone who walks through the door. She can also give you a mini-history of the St. Louis area.
  
  If you haven’t been to McDermotts yet, you are one of the few in St. Louis who hasn’t. Mon -- Sat 8 a.m. - Midnight, 75/$1.00, radio/Lv.

  Bob Corbett comments. If these authors have their facts right, and this book was written in 1980, then:

  • 1945-1954 -- Run as Pat's Bar and Grill.
  • 1954 - 1980 (book's date) The McDermotts took over Pat's in 1954 from Pat and Theresa Connolly.

  However, other data I have fixes the opening of Pat's in 1942. Thus some changing of the dates might work like this: assume the book, published in 1980 was written in 1979. Then try these years:

  • 1942 +9 = 1951 for Pat and Teresa Connolly.
  • 1952 + 26 = 1978 for the McDermotts.
  • Joe Finn wrote to say that Teresa Connolly and Paul Jovanovich owned the bar from 1980 to 1999.

  This would leave only one year of confusion between the data I've collected and that of the authors.

  Joe Finn took over Pat's Bar and Grill in 2000 according to my records, so does anyone know the propritors between 1980 and 1999?

  
  
  
• O'SHEA'S
  1208 Tamm
  William Green, propritor
  647-6085
  pages 105-106.
  
  The story of O’Shea’s would fill volumes. The oldest Irish saloon in continuous operation in the United States, O’Shea’s has the kind of past, rich with drinking lore, that any tavern would envy. Jack 0’ Shed established this joint in 1907 in the original Irish section of St. Louis called “Dogtown.” Through the years, O’Shea’s has hosted illegal gambling in a room upstairs, hidden illegal Irish immigrants, operated illegally on Sundays, caused a Code 2000 alert (police lingo for a riot), had a patron in a rage ram through the front of the building with his automobile, and seen plenty of other notorious goings-on.
  
  Women weren’t allowed in O’Shea’s in times gone by. When they were finally admitted, they were shuttled off to booths, never at the bar. The bar wasn’t particularly suited to them anyway. It was fitted with an inclined trough at foot-level which led out the front door to the street for those who didn’t feel like walking the necessary steps to the men’s room.
  
  Well, we’re all a bit more civilized now, aren’t we? A huge portrait of Jack O’Shea hangs over the bar now along with a massive oil of the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales. About 75 percent of the neighborhood is still Irish and these locals, some of whom have been boozing here for 45 years. make up about 30 percent of O’Shea’s business. The rest come from other areas of the city. Bums and millionaires trade cynical tales at the bar in easy comradery. A genuine, Old World pub atmosphere. In the back room, the place becomes a piano bar on Friday and Saturday nights: on Sundays, blues and jazz. And on St. Patrick’s Day, Lord have mercy! For better or worse, 0’ Sheas started the tradition in St. Louis of serving green beer, dumping green sawdust on the floor, painting the sidewalks green and giving away corned beef and cabbage. Such may be the reason for their commitment to total anarchy on their patron Saint's day. Who knows? What we do know for certain, however, is that O’Shea’s is quite an experience, and quite a juicy slice of St. Louis bar life, both past and present.
  
  Tues - Sat 11 a.m. - 1:30 a.m., Sun 1 p.m. - 12 a.m., 65 cent/$1.25, HH 4 p.m. - 7 p.m., pinball, pool, juke or live music.

Bob Corbett comments: Oh my, the people at O'Shea's had a lot of fun with the authors who were either totally duped by the nonsense fed them or just didn't worry about getting it right.

First of all the business about the longest running Irish bar in the U.S. is simply laughable. Every heard of Boston? Secondly, someone told the authors it was founded in 1907???? Hilarious. The building wasn't even built until 1928 and there was this thing called Prohibition. (Actually O'Shea did open a soft drink place during the last years of Prohibition. Thus, one could make this case: If he opened O'Shea's as a soft drinks place in 1928 and if no other Irish establishment in the U.S. started back up BEFORE 1928, then the claim of oldest continuously running tavern could be maintained. Hilarious.)

However, the 1907 is sheer rot. Next door, where today the Dogtown Gallery is, was opened in 1904 as W.T. Coyne's Saloon. It ran until about 1927 and Jack O'Shea had nothing to do with it.

Much of the rest, however, is defensible, and the authors do say toward the end that some of the patrons had been drinking there for 45 years. Again, using the 1980 date of publication, that would mean 1935, and that is possible.