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Photographs by Thomas Crone
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Don’t pass this around, but those of us who grade papers for at least part of our living often do so in unusual environments. Coffeeshops, sure. Those are great places to sit, stretch, sip, and get your grading on. But sometimes you need a bit of the stronger stuff to get your work finished.
During my last quarter of teaching,The Shanti became my go-to place for Tuesday grading, on my prime day to work down those big stacks of paper. And every week, one of the regulars, Lester Cravits, would good-naturedly tell me not to bring work to the bar. I’d weakly argue that I was actually having fun doing so, in a fashion. And he’d concede the point and say that it was okay. Soon enough, we’d be talking about other things and not much grading would happen, though eventually the pen would start moving again.
Between $3 Schlafly draughts and pen strokes, I started to realize that bartender Laurie Anne Beetner had built up an interesting batch of regulars, folks who clock time pretty much every week with her and patio bartender Jessica Ingraham. If The Shanti sorta-rightly gets tagged for being a hippie hangout, that’s not exclusively so; and while the crowd errs on the upper side of 40, that’s not an exclusive thing, either. There are people who are on their pre-baseball game bar crawls through Soulard; those who walk from their house down the block; those who simply come because Beetner’s built the afternoon into her own little oasis, which she calls “Sassy Hour.”
Everything about the afternoon seems a bit complementary, from the crowd to the selections on the jukebox; it tends to rock that classic stuff. Later in the evening, a shift takes place, as Kim Hudgins Vrooman’s 10-years-and-running open mic takes the place of the jukebox, and many of the happy hour attendees segue into the evening with the live music instead of all that pre-recorded Hendrix, Zeppelin and the Dead.
As those of us of who make at least part our living from the service industry know, there really are no two same sorts of weeks. As an example: when I asked Beetner if I could take photos of her crowd over two Tuesday afternoons, she agreed, helping me wrangle the subjects. My hope was to document the mood of the place, but also the makeup of the patrons. On the first Tuesday, the sun was out and the Cardinals were in town; Ingraham had a full outside bar and about 30 to 40 people were cruising around at the afternoon’s peak. A week later, there was an overcast sky, no baseball, no outside bar, no “crowd,” just a succession of singles and duos rolling through. One week, a bunch of pics and good energy; the next week, almost pics and a smaller, quieter house. It happens.
Thanks to Beetner and The Shanti for the continued hospitality. If you’ve ever wanted to descend into a tiny scene-unto-itself, with a phriendly group of companions, you have this option.
The Shanti is located at 825 Allen, one block north of Russell, and one block south of Geyer. For more information, call 314-241-4772, or visit soulardshanti.com.
