Amazingly good BBQ and more now at Paddy O's

Everyone knows, in St. Louis, ice cream is to Ted Drewes as barbecue is to Paddy O’s.

Wait a minute…

While the analogy may seem off base, those who have made a stop at the iconic Cardinals party bar this season know it’s undergone a heck of a reinvention. All thanks to CJ Baerman — a.k.a., the BBQ Madman.

Baerman (pictured above), who started his business on the BBQ competition circuit, began leasing space at Paddy O’s three years ago. His reputation carried the arrangement so far, but, as he says, “The idea of 80 days a year wasn’t great."

 “When we shut down last year, we all sat down and had a talk about what the future is going to be,” Baerman recalls.

Previously the only game in the area, Paddy O’s could get by with the flood of Cardinal faithful who would flock for beer and bar food during the season. But the establishment suffered at the novelty of Ballpark Village and a boon of other options popping up around Busch Stadium.

So that conversation Baerman had with the team inside the 20 year old bar (including owner Chris Dorr), ended in a few conclusions. Baerman would go full-time, and they would rip out the bar behind the original wooden doors and turn the space into a high efficiency kitchen that could serve lunch and dinner, year-round, to the 20-something bar crowd, young families, and Cardinal nation alike.

Opening Day this year, they set the putsch in motion, with a menu featuring everything from ribs by the bone to a jasmine rice bowl topped with smoked tri-tip — priced at $2, 3, 4, and 5 dollars per item.

Two dollars buys, among other things, an order of corn on the cob, natural cut fries, or a homemade pulled pork egg roll. For $3, four different sliders and  two kinds of signature pork sausage are available, as well as homemade gooey butter cake and bread pudding bites. On the $4 menu are Home Run (read: loaded) Nachos and the aforementioned rice bowl. How about half a smoked chicken for $5, or a pair of tacos stuffed several different ways? (Click here for the entire menu.)

“A big part of the menu is the affordability,” notes Baerman, who says it shouldn’t cost more than $10 to get a good lunch or $100 to enjoy a Cardinal game on a random Monday.

But don’t let the price deceive you; he doesn’t keep costs low by sacrificing quantity, and certainly not quality.

Baerman locally sources the majority of his ingredients and gets to the restaurant every morning at 6:00 to start the smokers. By the time the food hits the table, his signature pork steak (pictured above, along with ribs) is not just fork tender, but plastic fork tender, and the portion size will tide any lunch diner over until dinner.

And, if not, at $2 per bone, why not order a couple of ribs to round out the meal?

While BBQ is Baerman’s trademark, the guy can cook, too. He learned how to successfully combine flavor profiles as a kid in his grandma’s kitchen, a skill he proudly displays in his slider menu: smoked turkey with red pepper aioli (pictured below left), traditional pulled pork you can juice up with any of the house-made BBQ sauces on the table (or the one not on the table — ask a server for the white sauce, which they keep in the fridge), or the beer sausage (pictured below right)– cured for 48 hours, smoked for 10 – with pickled red onions and grain mustard.

Brats he makes in-house. Same with the sausages. He cures the salami.

“Everything is fresh and hand-made; we don’t buy frozen stuff.”

He leaves the skin on the boiled red potatoes he uses for his potato salad. Though mayonnaise-based, he adds a good slug of mustard and dresses it up with “lots and lots” of hard-boiled eggs, onions, celery and fresh dill.

Order that alongside some of pickles he brines in-house — spicy or traditional.

Of course, he’s not entirely a one-man-BBQ-band. He has a crew of eight, with five guys helping him on the line during the busiest hours. Their goal, “lunch and dinner, made fresh daily, in and out in a reasonable amount of time for a reasonable price.”

And in downtown St. Louis on the edge of Soulard, parking plays a critical role in achieving that goal. Paddy O’s has 100 free spots behind the restaurant, fully accessible during lunch and dinner on non-game days. Even when the Cards are in town and there is a charge for parking (starting 3 hours before the first pitch), show your receipt at the bar for a free domestic beer.

While some things have certainly changed, Baerman readily notes some never will, “We are going to be that big party bar, because that’s what we’ve always been.”

So for the Paddy O’s faithful, fear not — the full bar, with around 40 beer options on the menu at a given time, will maintain its reputation and hours.

But one thing’s for sure, Baerman adds, “We’re not just a Cardinals bar anymore.”