Craft beer, craft beer, craft beer. It’s such a driving force in the beverage industry, that, you may have noticed, A-B InBev has taken to running “anti-craft beer” commercials, insinuating that craft beer lovers are effete, persnickety hipsters.
The fad/fashion has hit the world of casino properties, too. Hollywood Casino in Maryland Heights is set to open the doors on the 99 Hops House, a tavern with some 80 bottled beers and 20 on tap, and an menu chock full of dishes made with beer.
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This might just be the “beeriest” food menu ever.
“Beer is in as many of the products in the menu as possible,” confirmed casino GM Todd George. “Salad dressings, cheese sauces, ketchup, beer cheese soup, beer- braised pork, beer-can chicken, Guinness brownies, Guinness ice cream…”
Highlights include “Big Ace Nachos” topped with a Schlafly Pale Ale cheese sauce (it tastes like a Mornay sauce) and a choice of shredded beer-can chicken or Guinness chili. The dressing on the barbecued-chicken salad is made with kriek cherry lambic. The popular Korean short-rib taco (above) is glazed with a hoisin-stout sauce. A luscious “Full Monty” mac and cheese is made with Schlafly Pale Ale cheese sauce, shredded beer-can chicken and beer-candied bacon. (See if you can order a whole plate of the candied bacon. It rocks.)
The formidable Big Stuffed Bacon Burger is stuffed with bacon and cheddar, topped with that pale-ale cheese sauce, more bacon and a bacon aioli. Pretzel-crusted chicken reposes beneath a maple-lager glaze. The “Bratzel” (right) is a beer-braised bratwurst sammie with beer-braised sauerkraut and Hefeweizen mustard between pretzel buns. The pub burger is a cracked pepper-crusted Angus burger topped with melted Bleu cheese and more of that Hefeweizen mustard; it’s a tremendous, juicy burger that delivers a blast of umami from the peppered meat.
Korean short ribs are rested in a soy-ginger marinade, grilled, slathered in a stout-hoisin glaze, and served over almond-scallion rice. The infamous beer-can chicken is made by impaling the bird over a can of Oskar Blues’ Mama’s Little Yella Pils and finished with a quick dip in the fryer; it has that distinctive crispy-chewy skin from the steaming beer infiltrating the flesh.
A massive “applejack pork steak” (above) is marinated in Woodchuck Amber hard cider, glazed in a very sweet porter barbecue sauce, and plated with a different, delightfully tangy and bright applejack barbecue sauce on the side, plus baked beans made with porter, and an excellent slaw made with hard cider. The “turkey club” (not a sandwich, but a bludgeon of meat) is a 24-oz. cudgel that’s smoked, fried and served with a honey-maple glaze.
Desserts include the Angry Orchard Apple Cobbler, made with the titular hard cider; Blue Moon Bread Pudding made with white ale and a whiskey-caramel sauce; the “Beernie” brownie cheesecake (right) made with Schlafly Oatmeal Stout; and beer floats.
About that beer: Look for drafts and bottles from A-B InBev and local outfits 4 Hands Brewery, Schlafly, Urban Chestnut Brewing Co., Excel Bottling, Boulevard Brewing Co., Cathedral Square Brewery and Kirkwood Station Brewing Co., and Chicago’s Two Brothers Brewing Co. A special relationship with O’Fallon Brewery will yield a beer unique to the casino: O’Fallon Hollywood Ale, an amber ale. The menu will recommend various beer pairings, and beer flights will also be available. Patrons may purchase growlers filled with the draft beer of their choice for drinking at home.
The 99 Hops House concept is not exactly new, explained George. The ownership group, Penn National Gaming, has opened an identical resto in its casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, just across the border from Cincinnati.
“We opened a 99 Hops House in Lawrenceburg a year ago, and it’s been remarkably well received,” he said. “If this one does well in St. Louis – which we expect it to, what with the great craft beer scene here – Penn may establish them at all 21 of our properties.”
George (who, in his spare time, also owns Epic Pizza & Subs and East Coast Pizza) is joined by a team in St. Louis that includes Food & Beverage Director Odran Campbell, House Manager Rhaisha “Rae” Dobbs, Room Chef Michael Jackson, Pastry Chef Samantha Gesell, Sous Chef Rob Davis and cook Clinton Owens.
99 Hops House, which occupies the space that once housed Sammy’s Beach Bar & Grill (a restaurant connected to sun-bleached classic-rocker Sammy Hagar), joins other restaurants within the casino including Charlie Gitto’s, Final Cut Steakhouse, Eat Up! Buffet, Phat Tai Asian fusion restaurant, the Celebrity Grill, and the Hollywood & Grind café.
99 Hops House
Scheduled to open by April 1
Mon. and Thu: 4 p.m. – midnight
Fri: 4 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Sat: 11a.m. – 1 a.m.
Sun: 11a.m. – 10 p.m.
Open other hours, in conjunction with concerts at the adjacent Hollywood Casino Amphitheater
Closed Tue. and Wed.
