Scottrade Center

Scott Trade is just an ok arena in my opinion. It's nice that it's downtown, close to everything. It's nice it's only 4 blocks from work and I can park in my work parking garage. But every time I go, I get 'Row A - Premium Glass Seats'. I don't necessarily feel like the cost is worth it.

The good: Blue Note Lounge opens at a private entrance at 5pm, good place to relax and have a few before the game. The bartenders are all pretty good in the Blue Note lounge, however, the cups are what, 8 ounce cups? I sat on the glass right between the Blue Note Lounge and the smaller Blue Note 'Quick' Lounge on the other side, meaning quite a hike to go grab an 8 ounce beer that lasted only 15-20 minutes. More on that under 'the bad'.

The Bad: The food in the Blue Note Lounge is mediocre at best. Processed cheese to go on chips from a bag. Potato salad that probably came out of a 15lb GFS plastic tub, bread that was stale and meat that was tough and overcooked. I felt like the best thing in the place food wise was a plain old hot dog.. on a stale bun.
Next, onto the drinking situation. I like to go to a game and have a few beers over the 3 hours of a game. What I don't like is 8 ounce cups that you have to walk halfway around the arena to get to. Not only that, but the beer pushers that walk up and down the aisles also try to push their wares ($8.25 each for a plastic bud light) on the first 4 rows as well, screaming in your ear "COLD BEER!" ... Uhm, do they not know we get free beer? Why not have a beer tub guy bringing around refills for your first four rows who have free food and drinks included in their expensive seats? Not sure what they are trying to do here, but how they treat their 'premium glass seat' patrons is kind of a joke.

Last, the bathrooms. Have someone assigned to these pits of despair during games, please. I make sure there is no need for number two, ever, at Scott trade center. I haven't been to these bathrooms once where I thought, "Wow, I want to sit down on that toilet seat". I understand you have a bunch of drunks with no aim, which is why you should have someone assigned to make sure the bathrooms are clean between periods at the minimum. A more private bathroom in the Blue Note Lounge would also be nice, but probably wishful thinking.

Having just reviewed the "hockey" experience here, I am going to switch gears here.  

Before the game last night, the wife and I decided to check out the Bud Light Sports Zone for dinner.  We weren't sure what to expect really, having never been there.  Years ago, as an intern for the Blues, I had walked around the place a few times, but that was about it.  Back then it was a season ticket holders kind of place, and I've never had the money to be a season ticket holder.

Either way, we were seated along the rail overlooking the ice, which is my equivalent to a rooftop view of the sunset dipping behind the French Riviera.  

Service was kind of slow.  Being pre-season, only a few tables were occupied, so I would have expected a bit more from the service staff.  However, slow does not equate to horrible.  

Amanda was our server, and she was exceptionally nice.  She apologized repeatedly for the slow service, and actually spent some time with us, welcoming us to the first game of the season (pre-season home opener) and really answering all of our questions about the food, recommendations, and the drink selection.   It's hard to complain about longer waits between visits when your server is consistently giving each table this kind of attention, so we let it slide.  And really, in fairness, we were waiting for my sister and her friend to show up, and the waits may have seemed longer because of our time crunch.  

As far as the food is concerned, Mrs. S. chose the house side salad with house dressing and flat bread pizza.  I took a burger with fries, and the white chicken nachos for an appetizer.  

Mrs. S was not pleased at all with the salad, and the dressing itself was unappealing to her entirely.  The flat bread pizza was very good though.  My burger was good, but not the best I've had.  It was different, however, as it came with Thousand Island dressing on the side.  That was a first for me, but it was quite tasty!  The nachos were also pretty good, but not what I was hoping for.  

Amanda did us a solid by taking the salad off the ticket.  When she noticed it was pretty much untouched, she asked about it, and promptly offered to remove it from the list.  She also apologized yet again for the slower service, and threw in that she had the owners table, and they were keeping her quite busy.  I had noticed she was making several trips to the table, but it wasn't until she pointed out who they were that I paid any attention to the people sitting at the table and recognized our new owner, Tom Stillman enjoying a beer before the game!  I suppose when you are serving the owners of a professional hockey team, you do tend to make an extra trip or two their way!  

Over all, the food was good.  We wont' be going here for every game, but there are occasions where this is a good option.  Next time I may try the Cher's Buffet, just to try out more things.

Michael Bublé's concert. I was here with my girlfriend and it was an awesome concert. It's not a concert stadium but its manageable. The staging was awesome!