St. Louis’ Chase Park Plaza has hosted its share of headline-making guests and events over the past century. Now, diners and cocktail enthusiasts can get a taste of that history at The Preston, the hotel’s fine-dining restaurant, through two new experiences rooted in the hotel’s rich history.
Dining Through the Decades pairs five-course dinners with dishes inspired by the hotel’s past, period cocktails and behind-the-scenes glimpses of its historic spaces. Meanwhile, The 1917 Cocktail Society offers hands-on classes exploring the history and craft of classic cocktails.
The dinner series kicks off Nov. 7 with “A Headline-Making Prohibition Party & The Sazerac,” an evening inspired by the hotel’s early years and a notorious New Year’s Eve raid that made the pages of The New York Times hardly two months after The Chase opened in 1922.
The five-course menu takes inspiration from a New Year’s Eve dinner served in the hotel’s Palm Room, with dishes including Oysters Rockefeller, Lobster Thermidor with Dijon mustard, mushrooms and Parmesan, and filet mignon Bordelaise with Duchess potatoes and buttered asparagus. A sazerac and other period-inspired drinks will accompany the meal as guests learn about the raid and the underground drinking culture of the Prohibition era.
The dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. and costs $125 per person. The series continues Dec. 19 with an evening focused on the 1930s, with future dinners planned around other chapters of The Chase’s history, including its glamorous 1950s nightclub era, when the Chase Club attracted performers such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bob Hope and Ethel Merman.
The 1917 Cocktail Society series draws inspiration from a different piece of local history. Its name references a 1917 gathering at the Central West End home of Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. on Lindell Boulevard, an event often credited as the first cocktail party on record.
Led by mixologist Jeremiah Townsend, The 1917 Cocktail Society combines cocktail tastings, demonstrations and personalized instruction, with each class exploring the techniques and traditions behind classic drinks. Guests also receive a curated takeaway gift.
Upcoming classes are scheduled for Nov. 14 and Dec. 19, with tickets priced at $65 per person. Seating is limited.
Both experiences take place at The Preston inside The Royal Sonesta Chase Park Plaza, the historic hotel built in 1922 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Reservations for the Nov. 7 dinner are available through OpenTable, or by calling 314-633-1186. Tickets for the cocktail classes are also available through OpenTable.
