Forepaugh’s mansion is a beautifully preserved Victorian “Painted Lady” built in the heyday of lumbering, railroad and retail moguls. Joseph Lybrandt Forepaugh was the last and built his first house in St. Paul on Exchange Street. And like many other older homes from that era, it fell into a long period of poor repair until the current owners purchased it in 1983 and lovingly restored it to the turn-of-the-century opulence of the original inhabitants. This was at a time when the Victorian style was a design theme for restaurants. Neighboring WA Frost had just opened its giant oak doors and across the river, Winfield Potter’s had already wowed guests with ornate wood and stained glass. Restaurant names like Blue Horse and Chouette were on the top ten lists and the memory of Charlie’s Cafe Exceptionale was still fresh in the collective culinary consciousness. Good table meant Beef Wellington, Coquille St. Jacques, and Roast Duck Al Orange. Cell phones were the size of small children, televisions were low definition, and Ronald Reagan was chewing candy in the Oval Office. I first visited Forepaugh’s Restaurant when it first opened over twenty years ago. I hadn’t been back since and when I walked in the other night I felt that nothing had changed. And that was a good thing.

Forepaugh is trapped in a kind of double time warp. The surroundings have been purposely maintained to help us relive another time and place. And the menu, while partially updated to 21st century tastes, still has elements of a time when food was rich, indulgent, and had to be continental to be good. It is also a good thing. The food is well prepared and the service is impeccable. And that’s all I’m going to say about it. This is an experience where the sum is definitely greater than its parts. I recommend it? Absolutely. This is a must for anyone who needs to remember what food was like twenty years ago or anyone who needs to feel that there is still a connection to our past that can be experienced in both food and the environment. This is not a virtual experience, it is real. I felt like I was underdressed by 80s standards. I was in pants and a shirt. A boy in our group wore what was necessary for the time, a tie and a jacket, but no women were wearing clothes. An interesting comment on who we are today, I thought. The women looked great though! (if i meant it)

By the way, the group I was with was not my usual dining brigade. I was meeting an old friend from Chicago who was in town to give a lecture on magic. His name is Eugene Berger. He is a master of the foreground and has taught hundreds of magicians around the world. I have hired Eugene and several of his protégés to work in several of the restaurants I have been involved with. Close-up magic is a great form of entertainment for restaurants. It is quiet, entertains adults and children and is cheap. Magicians work mainly for tips. The trick, so to speak, is to find great storytellers who also have good manual skills. The cheesy, flashy wizards twisting balloon animals put me off and most restaurant patrons too. Eugene is a great storyteller. He had my regular companions enthralled with stories that accompanied his magic, as well as stories about Penn and Teller, Sigfreid and Roy, Doug Henning and David Copperfield, all wizards he has worked with or consulted with in his career.

Finally, it was very appropriate to dine at the mansion with a wizard … the place is haunted. Here’s a story I found about the Forepaugh mansion. Enjoy it and when you go to dinner say hi to Molly.

“Many members of the staff believe that it is Molly, a waitress who hanged herself on the third floor, who has returned to the house. The owner of the restaurant, James Crnkovich, recalled an event in which the staff had worn clothing from the 19th century. one of the dining rooms was ready for dinner and he saw an unknown woman in the same type of clothing walking down the hall, where she quickly disappeared.

Staff also reported hearing someone walking in the room above. One day, the staff was opening the restaurant and she heard Molly walking on the third floor. Staff called police, who responded with a K-9 unit. The dog refused to climb higher than the second floor, but was eventually coaxed higher. No one was found in the restaurant and the police accused the staff of filing a false report. “