Two of our favorite St. Louis restaurants are joining forces for one night. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, Casa Don Alfonso will welcome Vicia into its Clayton kitchen for a one-night-only collaboration dinner featuring Executive Chef Yalcin Arslan and Vicia co-owner and chef Michael Gallina. The two restaurants will come together for an à la carte menu that blends Casa Don Alfonso’s Southern Italian cooking with Vicia’s seasonally driven approach to Midwestern ingredients.
We love both of these spots, so seeing two local hospitality heavyweights collaborate feels like a particularly fun way to celebrate what’s happening in St. Louis’ dining scene right now. And Vicia has had quite a year: the restaurant was named one of five finalists nationwide for the James Beard Foundation’s 2026 Outstanding Restaurant award.
For the dinner, Arslan and Gallina will create three new dishes inspired by the season, which will be available alongside selections from each restaurant’s regular menu. The idea is less about one restaurant taking over the other’s kitchen and more about seeing what happens when two distinctly St. Louis culinary perspectives meet at the table.
“At its core, Vicia is a celebration of the tremendous bounty found in St. Louis and across Missouri, and this collaboration with Casa Don Alfonso is an exciting opportunity to creatively explore our local foodways through a new culinary lens,” Gallina said.
That spirit of collaboration is something Arslan is looking forward to as well.
“This dinner is an opportunity to celebrate the creativity and sense of community that make St. Louis such an exciting dining destination,” Arslan said. “The Casa Don Alfonso team is looking forward to bringing our unique culinary perspectives together and creating an experience that feels true to both Casa Don Alfonso and Vicia.”
Vicia has been a fixture of St. Louis’ dining scene since opening in 2017, with Gallina and his team building the restaurant around seasonal Midwestern ingredients and close relationships with local producers. Its 2026 James Beard finalist nod for Outstanding Restaurant marked the first time Vicia advanced to the finalist round in that category.
Casa Don Alfonso, meanwhile, brings a Southern Italian perspective to the collaboration. Located inside The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis in Clayton, the restaurant opened in 2021 and is part of the Iaccarino family’s Don Alfonso 1890 restaurant lineage.
For one evening, those two perspectives will share the same kitchen.
The dinner will take place from 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Casa Don Alfonso inside The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis, at 100 Carondelet Plaza in Clayton. The collaboration menu will be available à la carte throughout dinner service, and reservations are required.
