Blueberry Hill Takeaway. Beers Without Babes After Bedtime. A long-time bar on the Delmar Loop in University City. Cheap beer ($5-6) and bar food that's open late seven days a week. Fries were a disappointing 3.6/10 on the fry scale. The Buffalo Fries came in at 6.2 / 10 for me. My buddies liked the popcorn shrimp. I liked the honey mustard sauce it came with.
It's a college bar. It's huge, well-lit, not loud, and doesn't smell. Great for a couple of dads to grab some beer after bedtime. Friendly, standard service. Open a tab at the beginning of the night, and they will keep track of everything. Darts and billiards are available upon request.
Service is standard. Vibes are vintage. All the tables and chairs are wood. I always park across the street behind Delmar in the big free lots. It's a three-minute walk away.
Blueberry Hill Experience Summary
I visited Blueberry Hill with my buddies again last night. It was our second outing for beers without babes after bedtime.
We started the evening with beers at around 8:15 PM after putting the kids to sleep. Our wives call it a dive bar, but Blueberry Hill very much isn't. A dive bar is dark and dingy. Blueberry Hall spans a city block and is well-lit, clean, and doesn't smell of old beer.
With cheap beer and free darts, it's more of a college bar or a place to hang out with buds. Tap beers cost around $5, while some bottles of local brews go for $6+. I wanted to try the fries after our last visit, but they came in at a disappointing 3.6 / 10 on the fry scale. The Buffalo Fries, their take on curly fries, came in at a much more respectable 6.2 / 10 for me. For comparison's sake, McDonald's fries are a 5 / 10.
They made everything in the bar out of wood. The chairs, the tables, the dart boards, the bar, all wood. After sitting there for three hours, my butt started to hurt.
Everything except for the decorations. They decorated the place with only dead animal heads or vintage toys. It's quite the jarring juxtaposition.
When we came a couple of months ago, a waitress checked on our table every fifteen or twenty minutes. On this visit, we had a server check on us once during the three hours we were there. To place an order, we walked up to the bar, and they provided a pager for when it was ready.
The Food At Blueberry Hill
Come to Blueberry Hill for the beer, not the food.
They have an exhaustive beer menu filled with local craft brews by the bottle or on tap. You can get a pitcher for cheap or opt by the glass. My tab came to about $17 after tax and tip for a beer ($5), fries ($4), and buffalo fries ($4.5).
I top out at one glass of beer per night. A common theme from my reviews is that my buddies do the drinking, and I do the eating.
On the food side, I had high hopes for the fries after seeing them during my first visit. Unfortunately, I give them a mere 3.6 / 10 on the fry scale. That puts them significantly behind McDonald's 5 /10 fries. They were low on salt and lacked crispiness, fluffiness, and any interesting seasonings. The whole table came in at sub-4s.
Even ketchup couldn't redeem them.
Luckily, the "buffalo fries" made up for them. Blueberry's version of a curly fry, came in at 6.2 / 10 for me. The buffalo fries looked more like a fried pickle, without the pickle than a traditional curly fry. However, I enjoyed the seasoning and thought they were nice and crispy. For comparison, the whole table gave them above-average ratings, but I definitely gave them the highest.
My buddies got an order of popcorn shrimp that they all agreed was the best dish on the table. I don't like popcorn shrimp, so I only sampled the honey mustard sauce. That sauce hit the spot for me and I made good use of it for the buffalo fries.
Blueberry Hill Atmosphere And Miscellaneous
If the food was a bit of a miss, I think the atmosphere at Blueberry Hill is spot on. I come here for a place to hang out and talk with buddies for three hours.
It's a great place to do that. Open until 1:30 am every day; no one cares if five dudes sit at a table for three hours.
It's actually quiet, without any needless music playing in the background or people yelling. You can have an extended conversation at room temperature talking levels. I hate going to bars where you lose your voice trying to talk to the person next to you.
While the tables and chairs are made of old-fashioned wood, they keep everything clean. It doesn't have the strong, stale beer smell you might expect in such an establishment.
I've been told that they have slowly expanded the space over the years. It now has five parts to it in my head, starting from east to west:
Dart room
Dinning room
Bar
Billards
Other
You walk into the center bar and go left to darts and dining or right to billiards and extended exploration. We've only ever gone left, so I'm not sure what really exists beyond billiards.
While everything on the floor is made of wood, the decorations on the walls are made of dead animals and old toys. You walk into deer heads and antlers. Last night, I stared at old baseball cards and Disney toys. They even had an old dinosaur that looked like Kermit the Frog.
We ordered drinks and food at the bar. We waited for the drinks, but they gave us a pager for the food. You pick the food up behind the bar, by the kitchen.
They have a couple of servers, but they only checked on us every hour during this visit. I remember the server being a bit more present on the last visit.
Parking At Blueberry Hill
I always park for free in the parking lot across the street on the north side of Delmar. It's a three-minute walk with infinite park spaces. You can also try to find street parking on Delmar proper that might save you a minute or two of walking.
But if you're coming here for beer and fries, get some steps in and park in the parking lot.
Blueberry Hill Receipt
