Waitresses in tight tops and short skirts, fried food and violence-as-sport: This extra-manly stop for the St. Louis Blues Cool Bars Tour happens at Hotshots Sports Bar and Grill in Manchester. The Blues are on the road against the Toronto Maple Leafs (the least grammatically correct team in the NHL), and the tour means that you have the chance to enjoy the televised game surrounded by other Blue-blooders.
Cool bars featured in future weeks will include That One Place Bar & Grill in Fenton and Syberg's in Maryland Heights, but it's hard to beat Hotshots. The pub has about twenty TVs and a glutton's paradise of food choices, including hamburgers, ribs, deep-fried shrimp and blackened-chicken sandwiches. If you're not in a food coma when you're done eating, you can take part in the entertainment provided by the Blues staff, including games, trivia contests and raffles for prizes (such as T-shirts and game tickets). But the best part is a tournament on a Bubble Hockey machine, which, for the unfamiliar, is a foosball-style hockey game with a plastic-dome top (Generation Xers have probably played the "U.S. versus Soviets" edition). This one is customized and features Blues players.
The free party begins at 6:30 p.m. Hotshots is located at 14051 Manchester Road, and you can call 636-230-8806 for more information. -- Ben Westhoff
You Can't Lose
When the Otters do
In the spirit of maverick St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck, such local minor-league franchises as the River City Rascals (baseball) and the former River City Renegades (football) have held all sorts of wild stunts to get people out to the park. (We especially enjoyed the Rascals' "Toilet-Paper-the-Park Night"). Our United Hockey League franchise, the Family Arena's Missouri River Otters, are no exception. The Otters' new gimmick: a guaranteed victory while you're in the stands. How can they accomplish that? Simple -- if you go to the game and the Otters lose, you can head to the box office for a free ticket to the next home game. If they're defeated again, you get another free ticket, and so on. It almost makes you want to see the home team lose (2002 South River Road in St. Charles, $7-$22, 314-534-1111, www.riverotters.com). -- Byron Kerman
