ST. LOUIS – A popular south city pub known for its barbecue abruptly closed its doors over the weekend.
A sign outside Southtown Pub read, ‘Apologies, we’re closed today,’ but it turns out it wasn’t just closed for the day.
‘I didn’t want to believe it but it’s true,’ Maryanne Dersch said on Facebook.
On Aug. 2, BCL Auction shared a video of the pub and said ‘Southtown Pub has permanently closed and our team is there now working hard so you can view the entire catalog online soon! This is a short notice online auction and bidding closes Wednesday, so don’t miss this one!’
According to events on Facebook, there are several events that are supposed to happen at Southtown Pub, including the Hornet’s Rugby bags tournament.
Southtown Pub was established in 1992 by Ed and Ellen Amsler. They maintained the bar for 20 years before passing the torch to Paul and Samantha Perrigue in 2009.
On Aug. 5, Paul and Samantha shared the following message on Facebook,
'With heavy hearts we are officially announcing the closure of Southtown Pub. We have been fortunate to have a great 10 years at STP with many staff, patrons and friends. We were proud to be a part of and have a positive impact on our community. In that endeavor, we took on too much debt for Southtown Pub to handle by trying to expand down the block. We fought the good fight for as long as we could hoping for a different outcome. Unfortunately, we got ourselves in too deep to come back.
To our staff, we want to say, we love you. You were all amazing and we consider you friends for life. Thank you for striving and sacrificing with us always. Wherever you go, you will absolutely flourish and your new employers will be blessed to have you. Letting go of you all was the hardest part of this process.
To our patrons, we couldn’t have felt more supported. We are so glad that we got to celebrate the St.Louis Blues and Cardinals wins together. You have been like family.
To our community, good things are in store for the Southside. Our fantastic landlords, Garcia Properties, will make sure of it.
Thank you for all your support and well wishes. The silver lining is that we can be more focused on our three beautiful children.
We will cherish the time we had and the amazing establishment that we all created together. A farewell party is in the works and will be posted soon.'