Irene and I recently received some good news and I decided that we should celebrate by visiting Newstead Tower Public House. In reality we probably would have visited anyway, the celebrate is just an excuse to go. If you’re interested in a review of the food, I’d check in with a couple of guys that will do far better justice than I. But I’ll give you my thoughts from a beer nerd’s perspective.

Newstead Tower Public House
4353 Manchester Avenue (Map It)
St. Louis, MO 63110
(314) 535-7771

Beers: (Menu) The first thing you think of, or at least when I think of, when you hear the word “pub” is beer. Newstead carries 12 draught beers and 14 bottled beers. The 12 draught beers have a heavy emphasis on local and American craft beers, whereas the bottle selection tends toward European beers with a lot of the old standards (Orval, Smithwicks, Guinness, Sammy Smith). I appreciate the selections of the local beers, but I personally would have liked to have seen a couple of export draught selections as well. While by no means a terrible selection of beer, I think a little more creativity could have been put into the bottle selection. Perhaps the addition of a cask beer would have also lended a more authentic feel to the pub.

Food: (Menu) Instead of trying to juggle a number of different dishes, it looks like Chef Anthony Devoti has deicded on concentrating on kicked-up versions of classic pub cuisine. While the menu may seem limited, each dish seems like it’s extremely well put together and well-thought out. Prices are extremely reasonable as well.

Intangibles: This is an extremely beautiful location, with a warm and rich decor. This is a place where if I lived within walking distance I could see visiting on almost a nightly basis. While I’ve never visited a pub in the UK, this is almost exactly what I think of when I think of a pub. And if you’re lucky a Mardi Gras float will stop by.

Interesting Note: If the trend continues, it looks like Newstead will have a beer dinner at least once a month. This is an exciting proposition for those of us who love to see people pair food with beer.

I think Newstead is really on to something here and I can see myself visiting here quite often. The beer menu could perhaps use a little tinkering, but overall I think it’s living up to it’s gastropub moniker nicely.