The Filling Station

Nearby my apartment. It’s a dive bar that allows smoking and has fun karaōke. There are cheap drinks and the staff is extremely friendly. They treat us really nicely and we only come here once or twice a month.

This. Is. A. Dive. You will find that the regulars are friendly and the beer is cheap. Don’t come hungry but come plenty thirsty! Kareoke, pool table and it allows smoking! Its a great place for no frills beer drinking!

Not a bad place to be, I hit it when I bar hop around the neighborhood and have even found myself spending an entire night there. Being 24 yrs old I would say I was one of the younger people there. Seems like mostly a neighborhood bar where you can find multiple people visiting it daily: nightly. Keroke is fun large selection. If that is too loud they have a covered patio. Good selection of cheap beers and some craft. Full bar. Smokey, a few pool tables, 8 can’t remember if it is cash only or not.
Over all a fun place to stop in, for me it has yet to be my main destination.

This place is an experience.
My friends and I went for Mardi Gras a year and a half ago and experienced Jackie-​oke — Drag Queen Jackie led karaōke. It was amazing, the crowd was rough around the edges and not what you would expect at drag queen karaōke! We’re talkin’ trucker types, middle-​aged dudes hittin’ on the young ladies in the joint. Jackie was awesome, and so was the clientele. We knew we would return.
Fast-​forward to last month. We went back on a Friday night to experience Jackie-​oke again. Being that this place doesn’t have a website, we were unsure about start time, or whether Jackie was even there, but we risked it. Well, sad news. Jackie moved to Florida to marry his girlfriend, according to the bartender. We grabbed a couple of light beers and snagged a table, intent on doing karaōke anyway despite our disappointment. The new karaōke dude, John I think his name was, was good! He had an excellent voice and was encouraging of the singers. One knock I’ll give him was that his karaōke selections were lacking, to me. There was a LOT of country, but 4 songs I wanted to do were not in his books (stuff I had sung before at other places, so know it’s possible). But maybe who he caters to is happy with the selection.
The highlight of the evening was when Lefty, a tall, really hefty guy wearing a trucker hat and a sloppy t-​shirt, got up and sang «Great Balls of Fire». During the instrumental interlude he stepped away from the mic and dropped to the ground in the «bent-​back-​leg-​rocker-​splits». I kid you not. We were all speechless. This guy had to have been 250 lbs easy.
My husband kept saying to me things like– «This place is… wow…how did you find this place?»
One huge negative for The Filling Station — smoking is allowed. My eyes were burning after 45 minutes there and it wasn’t even full. There were maybe 5 people in there smoking. We all had to shower when we got home. Big bummer, but it does add to the ambiance. If you want a fun, slightly strange and memorable experience, head to the Filling Station! It’s a fun dive!

I LIKED this place! Not as exciting as Venice Café, but maybe more… real? Drank there on a wednesday night with a girlfriend. The crowd was friendly and definitely NOT pretentious or fake (as I sometimes sortof get from some other local bars) and the drinks were GOOD and strong and I felt completely at home. Not tooo sports-​bar, not toooo scummy, DEFINITELY not very hipster. I dig it. I hear they let dogs in there. That’s cool.

I’m a regular here. Surprising. The Filling Station lends its own brand of «everybody knows your name» to Pestalozzli Street. The prices are GREAT and free pool on Wednesday nights. And did I mention that kickin it juke box? What’s not to like? Almost forgot to mention this is a cash only establishment.

The Filling Station is one of those smoky dive bars that has all of the right things wrong with it. Slightly sketchy neighborhood, super rough clientele, several raunchy bartenders, a drag queen karaōke VJ, loud speakers. cash only, and lots and lots of smoke. They definitely attract a strange mix of people that you can’t imagine getting along together, but they do. All of these wrong things that end up being so right result in a good time had by all. Getting home is the real problem…

So my roommate and his lovely lady invited my boyfriend and I out to watch game whatever of the World Series. He wanted to go to the Filling Station, because they had just discovered it and said the Bartender there was really awesome.
I don’t know her name, but she definitely was really nice! The mix of the crowd at the bar was… interesting. There’s no discernible crowd really, just seems like a local bar.
The beer was super cheap, the bartender makes some pretty inventive shots and is really really nice. There were cheap deals during the game too.
It’s a good place to go, but I don’t think I’d frequent the place.

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS BAR!!! I love campy authentic dive bars and this is it!!! Dirty, smokey, crass and home! Its a mix of older and younger people but everyone has one thing in common, they are there to get MESSED UP! Everyone who leaves this bar is pretty smashed, probably because they have awesome drink prices! The bartenders are awesome and treat everyone very nicely. There are so many regulars here you might be intimidated but sing a song during Jakieoke on friday or saturday and your in! Pool tables, darts, patio, happy hour, and open at 6 a.m. This bar is heaven on earth and I am now an instant regular!

Pluses: Cheap drinks, friendly locals, attentive bartender.
Minuses: Smokey and somewhat dirty, cash only, no food.
I had fun because a friend works here. But I’m not sure I’d return on my own accord. The Cards were playing and at every home run there were $ 1 beers and $ 1 shots. Lots of locals came with their own darts. The jukebox alternated country and rap which was odd.

i love south st louis dive bars and this is a favorite. across from venice café, with a spacious patio of its own, you can cross on over to f.s. if the prices &/​or clientele there wears on you. don’t mind the smoke, however, because there will be smoke. here’s why this is a cool dive bar: it’s got what it ought – pool, pinball, darts, cheap drinks, drunken locals, pickups out front, and sassy bartenders. it also has excellent karaōke on fridays hosted by a crossdresser. if that last doesn’t seem to fit, it somehow does, which is why i like this bar.

I love the Filling Station! On any given Friday or Saturday night you will find Jacquie doing karaōke. It does get a bit smokey, but they have an awesome patio and the bartenders are always super nice. They have TJ’s pizza in case you get drunk and need a bit of sobering up. The Station is a fun little bar and the drinks are good and strong. I have only made it to closing time once! I think they have meat shoots there once in a while too.

I hate to say this, but off of some of the reviews I know that most people are okay with this bar. I am used to a non-​smoking bar/​restaurant scene. When we walked into this place we got blasted with second had smoke (mind you we almost went on a mission to rescue the dogs that were in the bar too). Everyone seemed very nice in there, but for happy hour there were the regulars, and smoke. We walked out of there smelling like an ashtray. If you are a smoker and enjoy the conversation in enclosed doors while smoking this is a big find for you.
We didn’t stay long at all. We did make conversation, but we ended up leaving and walking down a block or two to a much more interesting bar.

Went here with with a close group of friends. I agree with Sarah, we thought it might be an old biker bar! But the locals are very nice, and the owners were very welcoming. We actually had someone in our group who doesn’t drink, and when he asked the bartender if she had any lemonade she said no — well before we knew it she was making some in the back for him. Not sure if she had a packet of lemonade in the bark, or had someone grab some near by — but regardless that is pretty nice.
They have a pool table, darts and a pretty big patio — which when we were there had Hillbilly Golf out there to play. Always fun!

Went here last Friday to visit a friend and have a few drinks. When first walking in I thought, maybe I’m in an old biker bar? The crowd looked a little rough, but they were all friendly. They actually had karaōke that night and it started really early. My only complaint is that the karaōke was waaaay too loud. Because of that I had to yell to talk to my friend and nearly lost my voice by the end of the night. The drink specials were pretty good. $ 2 longnecks, $ 2.50 rail drinks. I did come out smelling like an ashtray though… gross.

Hmmm, how to evaluate the filling station. Well, yeah, a dive bar — watered down drinks, cash only, but a neat group of people & Karaōke on Wednesday night. Look, I’ll probably be back in — but only for the beer, not for watered down whiskey.

The Filling Station is my favorite early morning bar. Well, it’s the only early morning bar that I know of in the city. I believe that they open at 6a.m., Monday-​Saturday.
I’ve seen blue collared employees of InBev have a drink or two after working the late shift and a few regulars that post up at the bar. This place is definitely… rustic? It kind of reminds me of a wild west saloon with its squeaking hard wood floors. There is a pool table, juke box and three or four tables. They do have a bulldog standing guard at the bar, but he’s harmless.
Overall, this is a decent spot to grab a cold beer and vent with coworkers and friends. Just don’t expect mimosas at the Hilton!

I came here simply because it was open, and a co-​worker and I were desperately in need of a post work beer one sunny November afternoon.
I can’t say this bar is actually three stars, but I am bumping it simply for the novelty factor and the somewhat intoxicating people watching. The bar itself is nothing special at all. They don’t take cards, only cash, there is only one bar and the place is poorly decorated with sponge paint and bad art. It’s actually pretty hilarious.
The people are obviously neighborhood locals. Mostly old men in dirty t-​shirts and old school Blues and Rams sweatshirts. It’s really quite hoosier, but God love em, they have all probably been drinking here for since the 1980’s when they bought that Brett Hull sweatshirt. Other than the bartender, I was the only female in the place, and my co-​worker was the only person in a collared shirt. (and trust me, we don’t exactly dress up at my office…)
The funniest thing though, the place was swarming with dogs. There were 4 while I was there, ranging in size from a chihuahua to a St. Bernard (who had a beagle mix using it’s tail as a pillow). There was even a dog bowl and a dog bed in the middle of the bar… yea, not the corner the MIDDLE of the bar. This place is so dog friendly you have to step over a fat old bulldog to even get through the door (that is unless the dog is doing laps around the building). It’s so dog friendly, there are literally balls of hair blowing in the breeze from the open back patio.
We had one beer and left, but I must admit, it was quite the experience. The beers were cheap, the people watching was hilarious, the internet jukebox had some decent choices, and the dogs were pure entertainment. Will I go back, not likely… but am I glad I know what The Filling Station holds inside.