There is always something happening at The Bar Code Bar and Grill in Vandalia.
Melissa Allen was born and raised in Vandalia. She opened The Bar Code Bar and Grill at 1811 W. U.S. Highway 54 in …
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There is always something happening at The Bar Code Bar and Grill in Vandalia.
Melissa Allen was born and raised in Vandalia. She opened The Bar Code Bar and Grill at 1811 W. U.S. Highway 54 in June 2023 after years of making a name for herself as a bartender.
“I have a really big following as far as being a bartender,” Allen said. “I have worked in Laddonia, Hannibal, Elsberry, Clarksville, Louisiana, Lake of the Ozarks, and I have customers who will follow me wherever I’m at.”
Before The Bar Code, she owned Slappy’s Lunch Box, which closed in 2008 because of the economic climate.
After her restaurant closed, she bartended at Goodfellas Bar and Grill in Vandalia on and off for 15 years.
Now, she is back at the helm running The Bar Code with the help of her daughter Kirsten Scott who moved back to Vandalia in April to help her mom run the bar.
“My daughter just turned 21 so I’m kind of passing the hat over a little bit,” Allen said. “Mom’s taking a little bit of a break (from) bartending.”
While she spends less time behind the bar these days, Allen is still in every day creating specials and coming up with fun events for her community including her iconic “Sunday Fundays” that she hosts once a month ever since she opened.
“We always say that no rules apply on Sunday Funday,” Allen said. “We carry in food and everybody just eats and has a good time.”
Over the winter, they decided to add a cookoff to the monthly events and Saturday marked the first annual rib cookoff.
Saturdays are for community fun in the parking lot, and this Saturday, The Bar Code will be back outside once again to celebrate their two-year anniversary party.
“We’re going to have a carnival theme,” Allen said. “We will have actual booths set up like carnivals do.”
Saturday’s carnival, Allen explains, isfocused on adults. Carnival prizes will be shots, buckets of beer, Yaeger bombs and anything in between.
Sundown Shot will play from 5-8 p.m. followed by more music and a party all night long.
Allen said her bar is everything she envisioned and all of her customers and six-person staff are all like family.
“There’s nothing better than just seeing everybody laugh and joke and cut up and dance,” Allen said. “It’s just everybody coming together and enjoying themselves and being lost in the moment.”
