Amsterdam Tavern in Tower Grove | Image via

This Thursday, May 23, soccer hooligans will descend upon Busch Stadium. That's right, the world's most beautiful game will be played on a baseball diamond-turned "pitch" (that's British for "field," you noobs). The match kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and features two of the top contenders in the British Premier League, Manchester City and Chelsea. Tickets sold out almost immediately when they went on sale in early April, so in the likely event that your only chance to watch the game is via TV, Gut Check compiled a list of the best soccer bars in St. Louis. So throw on your kit (jersey), grab your supporter scarf and choose a side.

See also:
- Soccer Bars and Farmers' Markets: An Updated Guide to Tower Grove
- The Dam to Open Next to Amsterdam Tavern

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St. Louis' neighborhoods are gems in their own right: full of history, great people and, as far as Gut Check is concerned, fantastic food. Each week we'll take you into a specific neighborhood and point you in the direction of the best places to grab some bites.

View DeMun in a larger map

DeMun is one of St. Louis' most historic neighborhoods, designed by the famed urban planner Henry Wright, and chock-full of 1920s architecture and peaceful, tree-lined streets. From DeMun Avenue south to Clayton Road is a great collection of restaurants, shops and bars that generally cater to a more upscale clientele. That being said, whether it's modern Italian or fresh seafood, DeMun is a terrific place to treat yourself, because you deserve it.

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"There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars...In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another."

If Chapter 3 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel The Great Gatsby doesn't make you long for a bottle of Champagne or a gin martini, you deserve Prohibition. It throws you headlong into one of Gatsby's famous parties, complete with a seemingly endless supply of bootlegged booze. The narrator, Nick Carraway, describes "floating rounds of cocktails," and a band playing "yellow cocktail music." At one point during the party, a woman "seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and, moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform."

Like the party, Prohibition was in full swing, but the wealthy and careless people of Fitzgerald's novel (and the rest of the country) cared not a whit.

Yummy cocktails after the jump!

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St. Louis' neighborhoods are gems in their own right: full of history, great people and, as far as Gut Check is concerned, fantastic food. Each week we'll take you into a specific neighborhood and point you in the direction of the best places to grab some bites.

View Tower Grove in a larger map

Tower Grove is quickly becoming one of the most exciting neighborhoods in the city, serving as a driving force in the renaissance of south St. Louis. Bordered on the east by the highly trafficked Kingshighway and on the west by the eclectic Grand Boulevard, Tower Grove is a self-contained community, attracting coffee houses, a locally sourced grocery and the best soccer bar in the city. With easy access to Tower Grove Park and the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the neighborhood offers a vibrancy that's easy to enjoy.

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St. Louis' neighborhoods are gems in their own right: full of history, great people and, as far as Gut Check is concerned, fantastic food. Each week we'll take you into a specific neighborhood and point you in the direction of the best places to grab some bites.

View West Delmar in a larger map

The Delmar Loop is one of St. Louis' biggest attractions, and for good reason. But sometimes you have to wander off the beaten path and do some exploring. That's why we suggest you check out Delmar Boulevard, west of the Loop, between Big Bend Boulevard and Interstate 170. Here, you'll find a collection of unique spots including a general store, a taco joint and a pizzeria serving it up New York style. In this post Gut Check will head west to discover Delmar's other side.

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Jennifer Silverberg

Blackberry French toast made with mascarpone and brioche at Half & Half.

Of all the greeting-card company holidays manufactured over the years, Mother's Day remains one we're perennially endeared toward...cause let's face it, moms deserves their own holiday.

Make Mom's day with a meal at any of these eight St. Louis restaurants, which offer outstanding brunch selections in some of the city's most exciting neighborhoods.

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The lobster bisque at Bar Les Frères | Jennifer Silverberg

You could easily spend your entire time at Bar Les Frères (7637 Wydown Boulevard, Clayton; 314-725-8880), the new venture from restaurateur Zoë Robinson Pidgeon and her go-to chef Ny Vongsaly, discussing and (in my case, at least) admiring its quirky décor. Yet to do so would ignore the most important aspect of this tiny new Clayton spot: Its classic French cuisine is really, really good.

See Also:
- Ian Froeb's RFT Review of Bar Les Frères (2013)
- Jennifer Silverberg's RFT Slideshow of Bar Les Frères (2013)

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It's freakin' beer mania here in St. Louis this week! Deschutes Brewery is in town from Portland, Oregon, and they're partnering with various bars and restaurants in town to bring you a plethora of beer-related activities and events.

The festivities, which Deschutes calls Base Camp for Fanatics, officially started on Friday, May 3 with St. Louis Microfest. There are events continuing throughout this week, so to help you decide how best to divide your time, we've created a handy list of all the Deschutes offerings. Of course, to make it simple, you could just go to everything. In fact, we recommend it.

See Also:
- Deschutes Brewery Brings Weeklong Craft-Beer Campaign to St. Louis Beginning Today
- Scenes from the 2013 St. Louis Microfest

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The Gut Check One Hundred is our accounting of the 100 dishes in St. Louis that you must eat right now. These are the best dishes at the newest restaurants and the newest dishes at the best restaurants. These are the 100 dishes that define St. Louis dining in 2013. Our list culminates this fall when the Riverfront Times Best of St. Louis 2013 names the "Best Dish" of the year.

The barbacoa dish at Taste | Ian Froeb

Taste (4584 Laclede Avenue; 314-361-1200) is the latest restaurant to notch a second dish in this accounting of 2013's best. If you're asking yourself, "Why?" then you've been away from Taste too long.

Chef Matthew Daughaday and his crew are killing it.

See Also:
- Taste's Grilled Asparagus with Crisp Poached Egg: One of 100 St. Louis Dishes You Must Eat Right Now
- Chef's Choice Profile: Matthew Daughaday of Taste
- Taste's Kyle Mathis: Winner of Iron Fork's Mixology Competition and Featured Bartender of the Week

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The Gut Check One Hundred is our accounting of the 100 dishes in St. Louis that you must eat right now. These are the best dishes at the newest restaurants and the newest dishes at the best restaurants. These are the 100 dishes that define St. Louis dining in 2013. Our list culminates this fall when the Riverfront Times Best of St. Louis 2013 names the "Best Dish" of the year.

The "Pueblito" salad, unmixed, at Green Bean | Jennifer Silverberg

The Central West End fast-casual restaurant Green Bean (232 North Euclid Avenue; 314-361-4444) prompts the question, "Can salads be cool?"

Actually, it prompts two questions, "Can salads be cool?" and, "What are you doing with your life?"

See Also:
- Ian Froeb's RFT Review of Green Bean (2012)
- Jennifer Silverberg's RFT Review of Green Bean (2012)

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