Hwy 61 Roadhouse
34 S. Orchard AvenuePlans change.
We have been planning a trip to Nashville for a figure skating competition for a couple of months. We had the weekend pretty planned out. Where we were going to eat. When we were going to drive. Everything pretty much planned.
But plans change.
J and the kids were still going to Nashville but work through a wrench in my plans.
I had the opportunity for a big overtime week with a trip to St. Louis. We weren’t sure if it was going to be for the whole weekend or not so there was a contingency for me to bail out of St. Louis on Friday if we were done with job and meet them in Nashville.
Because of that contingency, I had my colleague meet me in Kalamazoo Tuesday morning. We left my work vehicle at home for my usual Kalamazoo area colleague that I share a truck with. We took her company car to St. Louis in case she was driving home by herself Friday morning.
It’s about a six hour drive from Kalamazoo to St. Louis. We left around 10 AM. We made a stop in the Chicago area for gas then a stop at Wally’s in Pontiac to grab something to eat. After that, we stayed on the road until we got East St. Louis where we pulled off just to get some scenic pictures for the ‘Gram because isn’t that some the kids do?
We got to our hotel in Chesterfield around 4:00. Co-worker asked if I wanted to go out for dinner. We’d get some chances to eat out later in the week but the travel day was the day we could really relax and enjoy dinner.
She suggested Italian on The Hill because someone told her she needs to do that. I had another idea with plans to go to The Hill later in the week. I gave her a couple of options and she picked cajun.
We headed to Hwy 61 Roadhouse in Webster Groves to the southwest of St. Louis proper.
Hwy 61 Roadhouse is on South Orchard Avenue and Frisco Avenue backing up to I-44. I’m not familiar with the local geography but I know US-61, or The Blues Highway runs or used to run through the area. The restaurant is in the style of an old roadhouse and it’s tucked tightly on to the corner. Parking was a little confusing. The spots right next to the building were theirs but the ones in the parking lot to the north are for the business next door. We found a spot on the southside of the building then walked around front to Orchard Avenue to find the front door.
The inside of the restaurant is about what I expected. To be fair, I remember seeing this place on Diner’s Drive-In’s and Dives but it was so long ago, I don’t really remember much about it.
The restaurant is part live music venue, part restaurant. There’s a bar to the right when you walk in and that’s where the host stand is. There’s a TV hanging at the bar but just one. This isn’t a sports bar.
The walls are just covered in pictures, murals, neons and pretty much anything that will fit in the space. There’s also a row of chandeliers hanging in the middle of the space that give the place a look and add to the ambience and busy-ness of the decor.
The other side is the main dining room and the stage for the live bands on weekends. A guy came towards the host area and told us to sit wherever and he’d bring menus over. We took a high table for six in the dining room. We didn’t need six seats but the restaurant wasn’t super busy so we didn’t feel bad about taking up a big table.
The menu at Hwy 61 Roadhouse is really what brought us in. There’s some BBQ, there’s some Cajun, there’s some pub food. Co-worker picked this place out of the three places I gave her because of the Cajun.
First though, drinks. I grabbed the beer list and found a couple that sounded good. She stuck to the familiar and ordered an Oberon Eclipse. They still have the winter wheat on sale down here but spring time apparently hasn’t started in Missouri.
I picked the VooDoo Ranger Juicy Haze IPA. Yeah..that didn’t last long. I really had to slow down so I had something for dinner. I don’t drink a lot of beer anymore so one is usually enough but this went down so easy I could have had a couple.
Co-worker did the Cajun thing and ordered the Cajun sampler which came with Red Beans & Rice, Gumbo and Jambalya. It was a lot of food which also included a home made corn muffin. She ate about half of each of the three items on the sampler. The waiter kept asking if she wanted a box but she wasn’t sure how it would heat up in a hotel microwave so she declined.
I did not order a burger which surprised even me. I picked the Bleu on Black Steak Sandwich. This thing is a 1/2lb petite tenderloin that is rolled in Cajun seasoning. I had it grilled to medium rare. It’s topped with a gorgonzola cream sauce and fried onions then put all together on a hoagie bun. The first thing I did was take the fried onions off. There was a lot of them so if you like that, you definitely get your money’s worth. The steak was delicious. It was a perfect medium rare and was still pretty easy to tear off with each bite. The steak was swimming in the gorgonzola sauce and I couldn’t get enough of that. The hoagie roll really needed to be toasted though. It felt like that would have really brought this sandwich together. Instead, I was focusing too much on this soft bun that really couldn’t hold the weight of the steak.
The sandwich comes with waffle fries or cole slaw. I picked the waffle fries. These were really crispy, delicious waffle fries with a dusting of Cajun seasoning. No ketchup needed for this tasty potato slices.
We spent a lot longer at Hwy 61 Roadhose than we expected to. As we were starting to wrap up dinner, we noticed some movement on the stage that wasn’t too far from where we were sitting.
It wasn’t a band but instead, Music Bingo. We weren’t in a really big hurry and our server kind of disappeared so we were having a hard time getting our check so we stuck around and played a few rounds. Co-worker in close to 20 years younger than I am so I just assumed I’d do much better at 80’s/90’s music or music by Elton John or Billy Joel, but she was much better at deducing the name of a song based on the lyrics…either that or I just had really bad cards. Neither one of us won but she did get more squares than me in both games we stayed for.
Our meal was going to be expensed so I just grabbed the check for both us to make it easy on the server who I don’t think is usually a server. He was fine. He just disappeared for a while and we were wanting to grab our check. When he only brought one over, I didn’t want to make it take longer since the company was paying anyway.
The cost for our meals was just a bit over $52.
Hwy 61 Roadhouse was pretty much what I was expected. I should have have watched the Triple D episode just to see what Guy ordered. I really enjoyed the sandwich. It could have been better with a slight change but I was still happy and glad we got a good meal in before a long week of work.
SW Michigan Dining 
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