Forepaugh's

Address

276 S. Exchange St., St. Paul, 651-224-5606

The Scene

This stately Irvine Park grand dame has been given a major facelift and she sparkles with charm and refined elegance. A comfortable lounge and seven separate dining salons are spread over the three floors of the Victorian mansion that was constructed in 1870 by namesake dry-goods magnate Joseph Forepaugh. Each room is handsomely dressed with its own collection of solid, well-upholstered chairs, formal table settings, and period décor. Several have working fireplaces. There’s also a pleasant second-story dining terrace that offers a glimpse of nearby downtown St. Paul and the attractively planted grounds. The clientele tends to be a genteel lot, many diners nattily dressed in blazers and similar sportswear.

Our Take

Taher, Inc., is on a tear. Only last year this Minnetonka–based institutional food service company opened its first standalone restaurant—the widely acclaimed Wayzata Eatery. Forepaugh’s represents its fourth makeover, and the company recently acquired the Timber Lodge Steakhouse chain. Each kitchen has its own resident chef, and in the case of Forepaugh’s, he is a former French Laundry, Waldorf Astoria, and Chambers Kitchen veteran, Donald Gonzalez. Gone is the heavy classical French cuisine of yore and in its place is the cooking style billed as New American. The pleasantest surprise is Gonzalez’s willingness to weight the short, seasonally changing menu with unusual concepts and bold seasonings. The unconventional dimension ranges from a delightfully spicy rendition of poutine—the French Canadian snack combination of French fries, cheese curds, and gravy, adulterated with pickled chilies and chili glaze—to a delicious striped bass pistou of fresh fish immersed in a fumet brimming with baby artichokes, tomatoes, olives, edamame, and beans. The bold dimension segues from an appetizer of two perfectly cooked lamb chops swaddled with a devilishly piquant chimichurri to a wonderful halibut dish featuring a sophisticated coconut curry broth. A few of the dishes had a lot going on, most notably a serving of lamb loin slices that were all but invisible under an overwhelming mantle of vegetables. The other challenge is getting the food to the table before it cools down. The well-trained and personable wait staff get a major workout climbing up and down flights of stairs.

Where’s Molly

Anyone who has dined at Forepaugh’s has heard stories of encounters with Molly, the mansion’s resident poltergeist. As legend has it, the same day her employer-lover shot himself in a nearby park, Molly hung herself from a chandelier in her third-floor bedroom. Reports of haunting have persisted ever since. Our server assured us that during her short tenure, she had already experienced the unexplainable and that Molly’s ghost is still in her ectoplasmic place.