It's Keiko here with a meetup review! Sorry for the late post, but I was at a meetup last weekend! My comm went to the Saint Paul Hotel in downtown Saint Paul for their Chocolate Lover's Tea special event. This is a 5-course meal tea party in honor of Valentine's Day. The venue was beautifully decadent and the elegant atmosphere was accentuated by a live piano performance throughout the event.
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| I enjoyed their Black Tea blend, but was unable to catch the name of it |
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| Beautiful decor and attention to detail |
The five courses all incorporated chocolate in some way to celebrate the spirit of the holiday. I tried to test it all but, since I'm an extremely picky eater, I can't give a fair review of what the food was like--- but I can show you some pictures of what we had for each meal!
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| Duck and Dark Cocoa Terrine Choco-dipped strawberry with Candied Walnuts Chili dusted shooter with mole soup (Spicy!) |
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| Chocolate citrus glazed veal Osso Bucco with creamy polenta and vegetable garnish |
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| Chocolate Citrus scone with Godiva Chocolate Butter |
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| Raspberry and candied citrus Mendiant Chocolate Caramel Bar Chocolate Mint Marshmallow |
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| Dulce Ganache Chocolate Short Dough Tartlet (My favorite!) |
The Saint Paul Hotel's Valentine's teas are extremely popular each year. They hold around 5-7 events with this theme in February and they each fill up months in advance. For this meetup, we asked all attendees to reserve starting early to mid-January to make sure we got enough spots. In the end, all 9 reservations were filled and there were even more people that wanted to come!
It was a good time to make conversation and enjoy the extravagance of the hotel lobby. The servers were dressed as maids or butlers, which was a neat touch, and they seemed to be from different ethnicities, races, and walks of life. This detail was important to me because seeing only Latinx and African American maids initially made me uncomfortable, given the historically racially charged implications of servitude among those groups. As a Latina myself, it made me feel like I was a European aristocrat at the cost of other people. Thankfully that wasn't the case, but I could write an essay on wanting to feel like a royalty in lolita and not wanting to fall back on the historical ramifications that would entail. Either way, I digress.
Below is a picture of my coordinate that, believe it or not, was taken at the hotel lobby bathroom. It had numerous other golden details and ornate mirrors and stalls. As lolitas, my comm could not pass the photo op up!
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| Headpieces: Pastel Parade, chocomint Blouse: The floral Notebook JSK, Sash, Socks, rings: Angelic Pretty Necklace: Deerstalker Pictures Bracelets, shoes: Offbrand |
Have you been to a meetup recently? How was your experience? Tell me all the details in the comments section below~ <3
Haha, you know a place is posh when the bathrooms are a great photo spot! I would've totally loved to try out this entire course meal, even though I'm a little iffy about mixing sweet and savoury things. It just sounds so decadent and I definitely would've felt like royalty, just like you did!
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