ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

Sure, fancy cocktail bars with the frou-frou drinks that you can post on Instagram have their place. But sometimes you don’t want to get gussied up to pay too much for booze.

For a night out where you can wear a hoodie and grab a $3 beer, head to your humble dive bar. And it doesn’t have to just be a night of drinks. Many dive bars also offer trivia, arcade games, karaoke, pool and more. Some of them are even free.

We went to the city’s dives to find out who offered the best evening of entertainment. We weren’t disappointed.

Karaoke

Iowa Buffet

The competition is stiff for karaoke because lots of dive bars offer it. But Iowa Buffet takes the cake mostly because Iowa Buffet is the quintessential dive bar, and karaoke is one of its only activities. (You might also catch the occasional open mic night there on Thursdays.)

Iowa Buffet’s tagline is “not in Iowa and not a buffet.� It doesn’t have a kitchen, just a small grill that the bartender says has been around since the 1920s, but it makes some of the best burgers in town.

Get there early because the place is small and fills up with regulars ready to belt out some off-key tunes. Order your burger or the secret-menu-item toasted ravioli and sign up on the whiteboard to sing. Song requests are free.

2727 Winnebago St., 314-776-8000, . Karaoke 8 p.m. to midnight on Monday nights. Open 11 a.m.-1:30 a.m. Monday through Saturday.

Honorable mention: Stan’s

Stan’s is a pretty nondescript bar in the Southhampton area of the city and has pool tables in a room lined with trophies from its bar league.

But the real draw here is the karaoke on Fridays and Saturdays. A side room fills up with patrons young and old who are prone to dance and shimmy while they rock out.

It’s the kind of place where everyone knows one another, and it attracts a lot of industry regulars. Tragedy struck when the normal DJ for karaoke, Stan Courtway, the son of the bar’s owner, died recently, but a bar regular took on the mantle to keep the crowds singing.

5007 Macklind Avenue, 314-481-9990, . Karaoke Friday and Saturday nights 9 p.m.-1 a.m.

Ping Pong

Arena Bar

There aren’t many dive bars offering ping pong in St. Louis, but at the Arena Bar — named for the St. Louis Arena where the St. Louis Blues used to play — you can get some table time for free.

The attraction draws in customers — the bartender said the place “looks like ‘Forrest Gump’� when people get going.

If you get hungry, you can grab some of the best free popcorn in the city (use the scoop, not your hands) from the bar’s popcorn machine, bring in your own food, or have some delivered.

The patio is 420-friendly and on chillier evenings, it’s not unusual for someone to start a fire in the firepit outside. Some regulars will even do a barbecue every now and then and the bar hosts a potluck for the Super Bowl.

5760 West Park Avenue, 314-646-7171, . Ping pong available during opening hours: 2 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, noon-12:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Bocce Ball

Milo’s Bocce Garden

Yeah, Milo’s Tavern is not a dive bar. It’s a restaurant. But it’s got loyal regulars, fairly low prices and is one of the few public places left where you can play bocce, so it felt wrong to leave it off the list.

Bocce is an Italian game a bit like lawn bowling: Teams throw bocces (or balls) as close as they can to a small target ball called a pallino. Points are scored based on your balls’ proximity to the pallino.

It’s free to play at Milo’s, but there are times the courts aren’t available because of league play. There are also two tournaments, one on Columbus Day (or Indigenous People’s Day) and a Polar Bear one in February. Up for grabs? A beer can trophy and bragging rights.

5201 Wilson Avenue, 314-776-0468, . Bocce ball is available Monday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Piano bar

The Hideaway

If you head into the Hideaway early, you’d be forgiven for thinking you stumbled into a coffee shop. People are on laptops and there’s a dog sitting at the bar. (He’s not being served.)

That’s just how this neighborhood spot is, a mixture of social club, work space and watering hole. And the Hideaway works to build community through regular programming. Best known as a piano bar, patrons can enjoy tunes from Oliver Johnson on Thursdays and Fridays as he plays blues, jazz, Motown and more on the piano and the trumpet. On Saturdays, you can hear other artists tickle the ivories.

But if you stop in on the first Monday of the month, you can play meat bingo and win cuts of meat from Kenrick’s. Every Tuesday is trivia and on Wednesdays is karaoke.

Plus, the bar is known for having rare whiskeys and bourbons for very reasonable prices. Its only food is TJ’s pizza (a fundraiser pizza that some smaller bars serve), but you can have food delivered or bring it in. Now the question is why more people aren’t working from here.

5900 Arsenal St., 314-645-8822, . Live piano is 9 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday. Meat Bingo is 7-9 p.m. the first Monday of the month. Trivia starts at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesdays. Karaoke is from 8:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. on Wednesdays.

Honorable mention: Keypers

When we stopped by, there were no ladies at Keypers, which isn’t surprising since its a gay bar. (Though everyone is welcome.) Known for its live piano on Thursdays and Saturdays, the bar also offers darts and has a patio in the front and back. The bar is surprisingly spacious with at least half a dozen chandeliers, but don’t be confused, this is still a dive, bartender Mikey Kueker says.

“These are all load-bearing chandeliers.�

2280 Jefferson Ave., 314-664-6496, . Live piano music is at 9:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday.

Trivia

The Drawing Board

The Drawing Board is a dive bar trending a little toward hipster cool. But the prices (for rail drinks) are relatively low, and the Thursday night trivia has its own subgroup of focused regulars who know a thing or two about facts: Two of the people who play there have been on “Jeopardy.�

Maybe people play so intently because the losing trivia team is “rewarded� with a (very optional) shot of Jeppson’s Malört. (Trust us, it’s awful.)

Not into trivia? There’s karaoke on Wednesdays, a drink-and-doodle where people doodle on plain white coasters on the first Wednesday of the month, free pool, free darts, a few board games and a Bob Ross corner.

That’s right: When you enter, if you go up to the side of the bar closest the door, you’ll see some Bob Ross memorabilia and a TV that is usually on a 24-hour Bob Ross channel.

4123 Chippewa St., 314-899-9343, . Trivia is 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursdays. Karaoke is 8 p.m. to midnight on Wednesdays. There’s also an open mic from 7 to 10 p.m. on Sundays.

Honorable mention: CBGB

We’d wager not too many people know the ultimate South Grand dive bar, CBGB, has trivia. It’s just 20 questions and you have to wait till midnight on Wednesdays to play it, but it’s a fun diversion to test your skills after a few drinks.

The bar also offers free darts, 25 cent shuffle board and a pinball machine by the door.

3163 South Grand Boulevard, . Trivia is midnight on Wednesdays.

Tabletop games

Grey Fox Pub

Some regulars might even be surprised that Grey Fox Pub offers board games (and video gaming) on Monday nights. Most nights, Grey Fox is an unpretentious gay bar with fun regulars and wild drag shows every Friday and Saturday night. On Sunday, you can do karaoke from 8 p.m. to midnight, but on Monday, the bar puts out games and patrons bring their own (think Codenames or Cards Against Humanity) and lets patrons play video games on the big screen to get a chill start to the week.

3503 S. Spring Ave., 314-772-2150, . Grey Fox is open 2 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. daily. Drag shows are 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Game night starts at 5 p.m. on Mondays.

Pool

Bootleggin’ Bob’s

We’re not sure if the pool table at Bootleggin’ Bob’s is very good, but it’s free on Wednesdays and Thursdays and that makes it a great deal. The industry bar actually offers a lot of activities somewhat irregularly. Follow it on social media so you don’t miss karaoke nights, DJ announcements or the Stella Blues pop-up.

Stella Blues was a dive bar down the street from Bootleggin’ that suffered a kitchen fire. Now the team regularly cooks up its Korean-inspired wings, potstickers and other treats and serves them at Bootleggin’ or other bars around town.

3457 Morgan Ford Road, 314-335-7924, . Open 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Monday, 2 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to midnight on Sunday.

Honorable Mention: The Haunt Bar

Other than taco Tuesdays from pop-up caterers Culinary Mercenary, pool, a patio, and occasional bingo, there’s not much to do at the Haunt other than look around in astonishment at all the ghoulish decor. But that’s enough for us.

5000 Alaska Ave., 314-481-5003, . Pool is available during normal operating hours 1 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday. Check their social media for information about bingo.

Honorable Mention: Famous Bar

One of the pool tables in Famous Bar (there are two), was in a bourbon commercial. That makes it almost as iconic as the bar it’s housed in, Famous Bar, which is known for its delicious espresso martinis. That martini is exactly why it’s an honorable mention though, because whoever heard of getting an espresso martini at a dive bar? Famous Bar has a divey vibe and a lot of history (Anheuser-Busch built out the bar in the space after prohibition. Check out the original wooden icebox). But it’s definitely moving more toward cocktail bar than dive. Still a great place to play pool though.

5213 Chippewa St., 314-832-2211, . Pool is available during normal operating hours 3 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. daily.

Pinball

Silver Ballroom

The Silver Ballroom is a punk bar with a twist, and the twist is pinball. With roughly 20 machines and a league, the bar has to be one of the preeminent places for pinball enthusiasts and punk rockers. The free jukebox is all punk rock and new wave, and there’s a soapbox derby car shaped like a coffin hanging from the ceiling. If you aren’t an expert at pinball, that’s OK. You can play for free on Mondays, and any other day most of the games are 50 cents. If you want to watch, the league plays on Wednesdays. Tiny Chef also whips up Korean-inspired street food Friday through Monday.

4701 Morgan Ford Road, 314-832-9223, . Open 3 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Monday and Wednesday through Friday. Open 3 p.m. to midnight Tuesday. Open 1:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. to midnight Sunday.

Shows

The Crack Fox

For 15 years, the Crack Fox has been working hard to bring you whatever is quirky and off-beat. You want to do metal yoga? Head to the Crack Fox. You want to see a guy dressed like a fox belt out “Jolene�? Head to the Crack Fox on karaoke night. You want to catch a drag show or burlesque? Head to the Crack Fox.

The beloved bar (which straddles the line between cocktail bar and true dive), is now adding on. It will expand into the long-empty space next door and sell all kinds of stuff: food, ice cream, coffee, tea and juices. Plus, there will be a crafty corner to color in, live DJs, art from local artists and more. Called Oddities at the Crack Fox, owner Carrie Harris says it’ll be a bit like a bodega — if Meow Wolf designed bodegas.

“We just celebrated 15 years, so I decided, let’s expand,� she says.

1114 Olive Street, 314-828-5064, . The Crack Fox is open 8 p.m.-1:30 a.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 8 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Oddities at the Crack Fox is opening this spring, check out the Crack Fox on social media to learn more.

Honorable Mention: Rehab

Last time we were in Rehab, someone was wearing an outfit made almost entirely of dolls’ heads. It’s a Grove anchor with a DIY vibe and people go all out for a themed night. You can usually catch the Divas of the Grove here on Saturday nights, and there are other drag shows and special events, including an upcoming Alt Ball after party that will be Nordic and fairy themed. Expect horned helmets and body glitter.

4054 Chouteau Ave., 314-652-3700, . Open 11 a.m. to 2:40 a.m. daily. Divas of the Grove is 8 p.m. on Saturdays.

Skeeball

Nick’s Irish Pub

Nick’s has a little bit of everything — darts, pool, shuffleboard and one skeeball game. There are other places to play skeeball, but Nick’s is one of St. Louis’ most beloved 3 a.m. bars. So checking out its upstairs game room is pretty much a right of passage.

6001 Manchester Ave., 314-781-7806. Open 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Monday to Friday and 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.