If Ernest Hemingway, Dennis Hopper and Hugh Hefner had been college roommates, their place would've looked a lot like Frederick's Music Lounge. On the inside, the club is part kinky rustic cabin and part druken party basement.

You may have noticed Frederick's while traveling on Chippewa Street just east of Kingshighway. The simple brick building doesn't even hint at the eclectic flavor inside. So you didn't stop by until a friend recommended it. "Just ring the door bell, and they'll let you in," the friend probably said.

However, you're confused when owner and operator Fred Boettcher, Jr., a.ka. Fred Friction, asks 'Who is it?' via the intercom. Your friend didn't mention a password. Not to worry, there isn't one. Friction merely wants to know your name. That way, he can say 'hello' while he pours your drink.

Friction's father, Fred Boettcher, Sr., opened the club in 1975 as Frederick's Restaurant and Lounge. It was semi-private back then, which explains the doorbell-intercom system. When Boettcher, Sr., died in May 2000, Friction briefly closed the club and reopened it as Frederick's Music Lounge in July of the same year.

A photograph of Fred Boettcher, Sr. (far right) hangs behind the bar.

Regulars who were around during his father's day will notice that Friction hasn't changed the place much. The once-living Locust tree, decorated with hornet's nests and Christmas lights, still stands at the bottom of the entry stairs. The bumper pool table is still bumpin'. And the black-and-white photograph of Boettcher, Sr., taken by St. Louis musician Bob Reuter, still hangs behind the bar.

So what has changed? The music is louder, says Friction, who is the drummer in the local band Highway Matrons. A neon Stag beer sign has replaced the Budweiser one in the front window. And the undergarments hanging from the two ceiling fans? Also new. Friction says anyone is welcome to leave their underwear in lieu of paying the $2 "exit charge."

Any other recent additions to the decor likely were donated by friends. The mounted teddy bear head above the women's restroom and the cardboard spark plug hung near the stage are examples. On the wall right behind the front door, you'll see the first sample of this eclectic decor. Promo posters hang from mouse traps and wilted, fake fern palms stick out above a Michelob sign. And this is only the beginning.

Descend the stairs and you're standing right by the rustic wooden stage. If it's a Thursday, the weekly Noiseday Hootenanny open mic show will be going on. And it's not just any open mic. It's the one that the best musicians in town play. Friction says a saxophone player from the St. Louis Symphony has even stopped by.

A beer sign on the front of owner Fred Friction's house is one of the only indications that there's a bar in the small building attached to his house.

No matter the night, you can easily put a smile on Friciton's face - but possibly not yours - by ordering a specialty drink. For $4.50 you can torture your tastebuds with a Cock Soup, a mix of Fighting Cock Whiskey, worchestershire sauce, oriental rooster hot sauce and chicken broth. Or try a Pabst-Smir, made with Pabst beer and Smirnoff vodka, for $4. A more popular specialty is the $1 Butt Pucker shot, which contains Butterscotch and Sour Apple Pucker schnapps.

If you're still thirsty, you might want to look into joining the Alcoholics Unanimous club. It was founded by Friction and friend Paul Stark, a promoter of ska music and the man behind the Ska's the Limit show on St. Louis radio station KDHX 88.1. To join, you have to buy a drink for every other member who is present at the time. "Together we stand. United we fall," is the club's slogan.

Frederick's shares its clientel, a mix of musicians, people in the music industry and rock 'n' roll fanatics, with the Way Out Club and Rocket Bar. The mix of patrons is fitting for such a mixed-up place.

- Sarah Settle, Post-Dispatch Online Music Editor