Power Ranking Thursday - Main Street St. Charles Bars

Everybody's favorite day (not including Friday, Saturday, or Sunday) is here again -- Power Rankings Thursday! After the success of the STL Bars blog a few weeks ago, I decided to shrink the circle down to St. Charles and talk about the best spots to grab a drink on Main Street.

No honorable mentions today because there's a smaller pool of contenders -- so my sincerest apologies if you're a huge fan of Little Nashville, Schlafly, or whatever "Moonshine Blues Bar" is, because they won't be on this list. Without further ado,

#10 Quintessential (The Q)

Kicking things off with an absolute shitter. The Q is an absolute blast if you're 18 years old and have a decent enough fake ID. But once you're of legal drinking age, I can't think of a bar I want to go to less. Shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers that smell like BO and bad decisions, long ass drink lines, walking through a weirdly elegant dining area to a 2nd-floor shitstorm of toddlers drinking vodka tonics. Any night I've wound up at The Q, I've wished I was anywhere else.

#9 Kubrick's

Kubrick's is actually a pretty decent little bar, just not one I go to hardly ever. They got a little back patio, relatively cool interior, I've never had an issue getting a drink due to an outrageously long line. Kubrick's just doesn't have that IT-factor: no quality that draws me in. Maybe it's the clientele-- which in my experience is definitely an older crowd. Or maybe it's just the multitude of better options on the same street.

#8 Tuner's

Duchesne Bar & Grill will always hold a place in my heart when it comes to cigarette fog and bad karaoke, but Tuner's holds it down in these categories for Main Street. I've never walked into Tuner's before 11 pm, and I never leave without giving the crowd (my friends and the three 70-year-old regulars at the bar) a powerful performance of Drops of Jupiter. Karaoke bars are give or take, I'm a fan, but Tuner's isn't exactly my bar of choice even for that. Smoky, little bit crumby, but plenty of character and plenty of townies.

#7 Llwelyn's

Llwelyn's isn't exactly in the same category as the other bars on this list because I think of it as a restaurant first, bar second. But there's only so many places on Main Street, and I've been here on plenty of non-dinner occasions, so it gets a place. And it's just a rock-solid bar -- nothing too special, but a fun spot to hang. I like their basement a lot, their main bar is huge and has everything on tap, and their outdoor patio fucking rocks, especially when they have good live music out there. And they have the best Guinness posters/signs in town.

#6 Midwestern

If you recall a couple weeks ago, I ranked the Downtown location of Midwestern very high on my STL Bars ranking. So why would the Main Street location be ranked lower in a less competitive ranking? It's simple really: it couldn't be less similar to the downtown spot. Where downtown is a massive bar with a whole different area for live music, massive bar, plenty of seating. Main Street is more of a hallway. Tiny bar, nowhere to sit, the tiniest little stage you'll ever see for the bands. It's still a decent enough time, but it's like comparing the St. Louis Cardinals to the Springfield Cardinals. If they quadrupled the square footage, it might get closer to it's counterpart.

#5 Honky Tonk

Now we're into the heavy hitters of this list in my opinion. And at first glance, this may seem like a low ranking for arguably the most popular current bar at Main Street. And if you're looking for a place to have your eardrums shattered, look no further. But I'm a guy that likes to have conversations with his friends at the bar, and that's a tough task at Honky Tonk. I've had tons of fun here -- and they also have pretty good food as far as Main St bars go -- but if I want to hear incredibly loud music for 2 hours, I'm making the trip to Nashville. I don't need it in St. Chuck.

#4 Old MillStream

From the loudest bar in St. Charles to the most lowkey, the Old Millstream Inn clocks in at #4. On the other end of Main from the majority of the bars, Millstream is the under-appreciated hangout spot in the Chuck. They have the big outdoor patio of course, but the real fun is in the pseudo-underground-bunker bar: complete with Golden Tee, old school decor, and a cool bar. Very small - but if you go at the right time and have a good seating set-up, this is one of my favorite places in the city to grab a beer.

#3 Tony's on Top

Similar to Llwelyn's, Tony's itself would not be a good contender for this list because it's mostly a restaurant. But when you go up top, it's a different ballgame. You walk upstairs to a massive bar with high-top tables all around, a big stage to the right (that I've never actually seen a band play on), but the real star of the show is the outdoor deck. Small, but full of tables, and the best place to hang on a cool summer/fall night. It had a tendency to get over-run with sub-21-year-olds back in the day, but that happens basically anywhere you go on Main, and Tony's on Top brings a unique vibe to the area.

#2 Big A's

The runner-up on my ranking is probably the bar I've spent most of my time at on Main Street. Everything about Big A's screams main street from the back dining room, to the narrow hallway with little tables on the right, to the window round-tops, to the pool tables in the unfinished basement. I've bought more Bud Select Buckets and Irish Car bombs from the bar at Big A's than any place on earth, and I wouldn't have it any other way. And if I had a nickel for every time I've been sitting at a table when they kick everyone out to close, I could buy a round of Vegas bombs for everyone in the place on Skanksgiving. (Wednesday before Thanksgiving for the uncultured readers).

#1 Mr. Thirsty's

How could it be anyone else but the Home of the Pickle Shot? I genuinely don't even like pickle shots, and I don't think I've ever left Thirsty's without drinking at least one. (I prefer a spicy pickle or banana pepper shot personally). Thirsty's may have the biggest dickhead in the world as their bouncer -- you all know who I'm talking about -- but once you get past the old grump, you're in for a good time. Massive space, plenty of seats, Golden Tee, Touch Tunes, Window tables, huge bar -- it checks all the boxes (usually some hot bartenders as well). There's a reason every time your friend says "let's go to Main tonight," that Mr. Thirsty's is the first suggestion. It's the class of Main Street. And it's #1 for a reason

(pro tip -- start your night at Thirsty's and end it at the Casino for a real jambalaya of regret Sunday morning)

And with that, another Power Rankings Thursday has come and gone. As Always, leave your suggestions for future rankings in the comments here or on the Instagram post!