Baileys' Range (920 Olive Street; 314-241-8121) in downtown St. Louis sees local restaurant impresario Dave Bailey tread into burger and soda-shop territory, offering an impressive selection of burgers (including grass-fed beef, lamb, pork, bison, chicken, goat and vegetarian- and vegan-friendly options) and floats, shakes and sodas. Its food menu alone is enough to make Gut Check a frequent patron of Baileys' Range, so the fact that the restaurant also serves boozy lemonades, ice teas, floats and shakes is just boozy icing on the boozy cake. If that doesn't exactly make sense, it's likely because of Gut Check throwing back one too many of our favorite boozy libation at Baileys', the mojito shake made with cachaca rum, fresh mint leaves and lime sorbet.
The burger joint's food and drink menus are seasonal, and the mojito arrived at Baileys' Range right in time to cool down the sweltering Inferno of '12 with its bright, ice-cold slushed take on a classic summer cocktail. Opting for a sorbet-based boozy shake makes for an ever so slightly lighter choice than some of the heavier ice cream-based floats and shakes, which is ideal, if, like Gut Check, you ever want to walk again. Chunks of fresh mint add crunch and additional texture, and only a faint rum flavor persists -- though just one of these suckers was enough to make Gut Check feel a bit woozy in the head.
That we're able to get halfway soused on just one of these drinks justifies its $9 price tag, though we recommend not pairing it with a burger and French fries unless you're fine with being out of commission (read: comfortable writhing in the familiar, well-earned pain of overeating) for at least twenty minutes. Honestly, with one of these, it's worth it.
