The Royale

Take Me Here Using Metro Transit

The Royale, located within walking distance from Tower Grove Park, is a friendly neighborhood bar with a focus on sustainability.

The Royale has phased in LED lights including in the tiny, vintage lamps that grace their tables, and their Christmas lights. Vintage, repurposed décor graces every corner of The Royale, from their church-pew seating to their exit signs. They even have a vintage newspaper stand, ridden with bullet holes, as a stand for their coffee maker. The backstory on this is fascinating – ask their owner Steve Smith for the full story.

They are hyper-aware of their waste footprint, and save all their Hard to Recycle items (like light bulbs, electronics, and batteries) until they have enough to justify a trip to a recycling drive like earthday365’s Recycling Extravaganza. If you’re ordering to-go, you won’t automatically receive plastic cutlery, and your order will come in sustainable packaging, without a plastic bag. Drinks don’t come with straws automatically. Instead, they offer compostable straws on request. They offer small sized beers and single tacos available for those who’d just like a taste, reducing around 60% of their food waste compared to their previous menu. And they compost their customer and kitchen scraps, keeping organic matter out of the landfill.

The Royale encourages sustainable transportation, especially bike riding, by providing customers plenty of bike racks, occasional specials for cycling in, and they even provide helmets and lights to employees who ride their bikes to work.

Veggies, herbs, and flowers from their own garden make their way into the kitchen, and you’ll find Amish-raised chicken and produce from a variety of sources, including Eat Here St. Louis, which is where The Royale gets their local, pasture-raised eggs, produce (during the growing season), and Missouri-grown grits and rice. They use Crooked Creek Beef and Patchwork Family Farms for their meat products, and La Bonne Bouchée and for their bread. They have tons of delicious vegetarian and vegan options – nearly two-thirds of their menu is vegetarian!

The Royale is committed not only to environmental sustainability, but also social sustainability. They host fundraising events, forums to get to know local politicians, and offer meeting spaces for nonprofits in their beautiful meeting room upstairs.

The Royale asks its vendors to carry more sustainable products. It is thanks to the buying power of places like them that environmentally responsible products are available for smaller restaurants from these vendors, making sustainability a realistic, achievable goal for everyone.

We raise our glasses to The Royale, and you should too, because their cocktails and local beer selection are excellent.