This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Business & Tech

Enjoy Huge Sandwiches and Good Conversation at Deaver's Sport's Bar

Affordable prices and huge portions don't overcome the slow, distracted service.

After my disappointment at , I wanted to give local sports bars another try.

I thought we must have a locally grown alternative to the anonymity of TGI Friday's, so I turned to .

This open floor restaurant doesn't compete with big chains on decoration. It’s a big rectangle broken up by three rows of dividers.

Instead of farm implements and random kitsch, flat-panel TVs tuned to an assortment of channels covered the walls. Interspersed throughout those, though, were surprisingly good paintings of crowds at baseball games and the occasional signed jersey or poster of a player.

In keeping with the theme of the restaurant, waiters and bussers wear T-shirts with the word "staff" printed in big letters across the back.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

Unlike most sports bars, Deaver's had impressive sound insulation. I never felt like I was stuck listening to a conversation from across the room, and the mild background music didn't echo. It felt like the kind of place you could go with some friends to enjoy a rollicking conversation, while watching a game without having to listen to every detail of a drunk stranger.

The entire menu is incredibly affordable. All of the dozen appetizers fall at $8 or less. The selection covers all your basic bar food groups: chicken fingers, nachos, sliders and toasted ravioli. The restaurant also offers quesadillas, jalapeño poppers and mozzarella sticks for people who love cheese.

You can pick up a thin crust, provel-topped St. Louis-style pizza for less than $12 or spend two-thirds of that on one of their immense burgers or sandwiches.

I can’t stress enough how large these sandwiches are.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

For $8, you can get a burger topped with a good assortment of cheeses and some bacon or a mix of pepers, onions and mushrooms. Sandwiches include chicken and pepperoncini, chicken cordon bleu and buffalo chicken plus a Reuben, turkey club or cod.

It’s not an exciting menu, but it doesn’t pretend to be. This is staple Americana food served at affordable prices to be consumed with American beer.

As a continuing counterpoint to our columnist, I decided to go for an all-beef meal with ground beef in my cup of chili, sliced beef in my French dip sandwich and cubed beef in my steak bites appetizer. This was solid, stick-to-your ribs food in celebration of our cooling weather.

I'm a big fan of hearty chili. The cup came loaded with equal parts of tomatoes, red beans and thick chunky pieces of ground beef. This is an old school chili—earthy with the use of chili powder and, to my delight, not salty in the slightest.

If you need to warm up in this fall weather, I highly recommend it. There's nothing complicated or fancy about it. Sometimes, you just want a nice, hearty bowl brimming with familiar flavors.

To my surprise, the steak cubes appetizer came with its own side dish. As a known sucker for tater tots, I couldn't resist.

The steak itself was nicely trimmed chunks of grilled meat drowned in A-1 sauce. It was too tough to cut with my provided butter knife, so I got to entertain some of my fellow diners trying to gnaw a bite off the end of my fork. Eventually, I gave in and shoved the entire giant piece into my mouth, much to a nearby kid’s amusement.

Both the $8 price and presence of a side dish made it clear this was meant to be an entrée substitute. I found it a little light as an entrée, but filling as an appetizer.

My French dip came as a pleasant surprise. That's what I call a sandwich.

Three inches of thin sliced roast beef topped with grilled onions came sandwiched between two equally thick slices of hearty Italian bread. I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to get my mouth around it, but I couldn't wait to try.

Thankfully, they provided me with a stack of extra napkins. This sandwich was an immense, tasty mess.

The well-trimmed beef had a pleasant sweetness to it, which paired nicely with the beautifully translucent onions. Honestly, the texture of the meat, onions and bread reminded me of a Chicago-style Italian beef sandwich.

The comparison broke down when it came to the dipping sauce. This was a dark brown cup of salt with no evidence of other flavor. It’s a darn shame because a good au jus can make or break a French dip.

Eyeballing other people's plates, it seemed all the sandwiches here were equally huge. You will get a good value for your money.

The kitchen was obviously on top of its job, but for some reason the service seemed incredibly slow. This surprised me since they seemed to have three people working the floor but only six tables in my section.

After asking, I had to wait more than 15 minutes for someone to persuade my waiter to give me a box and a check. I saw multiple people walk past to survey the diners. I tried making eye contact to indicate I'd really like to pay and leave, but each time I was ignored.

The restaurant has an ATM next to the restrooms. I started to wonder if the employees expected people to leave a random amount of money on the tables and see themselves out. If you’re on any kind of deadline, ask your waiter to bring your check along with your food.

My total came to $21.44 plus a $3 tip for my steak bites, tater tots, chili, massive French dip sandwich and an iced tea. You can eat there for half that much if you simply order one of the giant sandwiches instead of an appetizer.

I wanted to rate Deaver's higher, but the bland steak and cup full of salt in lieu of au jus combined with the frustratingly slow and distracted service pulled it down to a B-.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Florissant