Courtesy Nico Shumpert
Chef Nico Shumpert loves Halloween, but that’s not the main reason he’s launching a spooky dinner series this Friday, October 9. After months of adapting to serving customers during the pandemic, Shumpert is ready to kick off the fall season with a creative, immersive dining experience.
“I really want people to leave their house for two hours and just sit in a room that makes you feel like you can escape current events and enjoy yourself,” Shumpert says. “I just want to give people a mental break.”
Courtesy Nico Shumpert
This is the first themed dinner series in Shumpert’s new dining club, Taste Buds. The dining club will feature menus developed by Shumpert in collaboration with a rotating list of other chefs. Hosting pop-up dinners isn’t new for the chef, who has been working in the local restaurant industry since he was 16 years old. After graduating from culinary school in 2011, Shumpert worked at spots around town including Sidney Street Cafe, Jilly’s Cupcake Bar & Café, and the former Harrah’s St. Louis casino (now Hollywood Casino & Hotel St. Louis), affording him experience in fine dining, events, and baking and pastry. His last culinary position was at Kaldi’s Coffee, where he worked for about four years and developed a friendship with director of marketing (and former chef) Frank McGinty.
Shumpert began collaborating on pop-up dinners several years ago, “and since then, they have grown into these immersive experiences that appeal to your five senses,” he says.
For his new spooky series, Shumpert will stage each dinner with decor to recreate various movie scenes from popular horror films. He’s even working with Parties & Props Event Production Group in Rock Hill to source props and decorations.
The first dinner, for instance, is themed around The Silence of the Lambs. Shumpert will set a fine-dining scene reminiscent of how the film’s villain, Hannibal Lecter, prefers to dine. “Hannibal is extremely elegant, but he’s also crazy,” Shumpert adds with a laugh. “So we’re going to try to recreate his dining room, use new china, glasses and candles, maybe some statues and photos on the wall, play some creepy symphony music.”
The dinner will feature a menu developed by Shumpert and acclaimed pastry chef Tai Davis. “Chef Tai is extremely artistic and gets creative with his food,” Shumpert says. “We're not going to serve [animal] hearts or anything, but we’re going to play with shapes and sauces to really mimic some of the food that Hannibal Lecter might serve to a guest.” (Will Shumpert be serving Chianti? We didn't have the heart to ask.)
The second dinner in the series, “Camp Crystal Lake,” will be themed around slasher flick Friday the 13th and hosted Friday, October 16. Shumpert will be collaborating with chef Juwan Rice, who, at just 19 years old, has been cooking and baking since launching JR’s Gourmet when he was just 14. “It’s funny—he probably doesn’t know anything about Friday the 13th because he wasn’t born [when it was released],” Shumpert says with a laugh, adding, “but he’s killing it out there right now. We’re going to recreate Camp Crystal Lake; I want to bring in some tree stumps, some shrubs, and just really make it seem like you’re outside at a campsite.”
Shumpert adds that he hopes to include a fake campfire at the “Camp Crystal Lake” dinner, with a menu featuring elevated camp foods. “And I'm going to have an actor come in as Jason [Voorhees], who will pop up and torment guests throughout the night; we’ll have creepy music, all that crazy stuff,” Shumpert says.
Fans of the circus—or, more fittingly, films such as Circus of Fear or Circus of Horrors—should come one, come all to Shumpert’s October 23 dinner, titled “Creepy Circus.” Featuring a creative menu inspired by popular concession stand and carnival fare, the dinner will be developed in partnership with chef Maleeka Harris (known as Chef Rabbit) from California. “We’ll play with cotton candy, peanuts, and all these creative things to really elevate circus food,” Shumpert says. “And I might just dress up as a clown.”
For the final dinner in the series, Shumpert will team up with McGinty. Hosted October 30, the dinner’s theme will be “Zombie Apocalypse." “Basically, we have to ‘scavenge’ for food, so, for example, we’re going to serve a soup out of cans, as in canned goods cans,” Shumpert says. “It's going to be a really nice, elegant soup served out of various cans to make it feel like we’re searching for food. I’m going to make a fried chicken sandwich breaded with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and we’re going to serve it out of [snack-size] Flamin’ Hot Cheetos bags. Just really fun, creative things. We’ll have zombie sounds and make it look like you’re in a boarded-up safe house.”
The first dinner will be hosted at Metropolitan Artist Lofts, at 500 N. Grand, with the remaining three dinners held at the new Noir event space at 509 N. Garrison in Midtown. All of the dinners run from 7–9 p.m.
Courtesy Nico Shumpert
Courtesy Nico Shumpert
The concept isn’t entirely new for Shumpert, who hosted a Halloween-themed dinner last year called "Eat, Drink and Be Scary."
“Basically this [new series] is that times 10,” he says. Last year, courses included a roasted parsnip and apple soup with charred apple spheres and thyme, called “Bobbing For Apples.” For dessert, he served a white chocolate dome with a sweet matcha pound cake, matcha whipped cream, and raspberry sauce, named “The Hills Have Eyes.”
Courtesy Nico Shumpert
The new series is the first that Shumpert will host since the pandemic reached the St. Louis area. As such, he is mindful of adhering to social distancing and increased sanitation guidelines. Guests are required to wear face masks when not seated with their parties.
“People are ready to get out of the house and get back to some kind of normal, and the new normal is you that need to limit the amount of people you can serve and wear masks,” Shumpert says. “I’m super grateful for all of the love and support, and I think people were just as grateful to have something nice to enjoy.”
To buy tickets or learn more about the dinner series, visit nicoshumpert.com.
