The Mainlander Supper Club is a pop-up dinner series inspired by the often inexplicable dishes of mid-20th century American fine dining cuisine. “If you look at old books from the time, there were a lot of Jell-O molds and kind of weird, made-up dishes,” explained chef Blake Askew (formerly of Bulrush), one of the series’ organizers. Each dinner features three courses with drink pairings of reimagined midcentury cocktails and dishes like a riff on a Painkiller using locally foraged paw-paws and ambrosia salad made with roasted vegetables and mushroom “marshmallows” instead of canned fruit and Cool Whip. For the next several events, The Mainlander Supper Club will operate out of the former West End Grill and Pub space. Sign up for the series’ email list through the website to purchase tickets and receive information about event dates and future locations.
themainlanderstl.com; Instagram: @themainlanderstl
This article appears in April 2022.