If you’ve developed cabin fever while sheltering at home, then you’re not alone—and your favorite local chefs, bartenders, wine shop owners, and brewers want to keep socializing even while social distancing.
In the wake of COVID-19, friends, families, and co-workers across the U.S. have turned to video communications services such as Zoom and Google Hangouts to connect. As small businesses face new short-term business models, such as curbside pickup or even outright temporary closures, one creative solution has been hosting online events through those these video platforms.
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Ranging from cooking classes and wine tastings to happy hours and cocktail instructionals, such events can act as revenue drivers for the chefs and bartenders hosting them. Some are free, and others seek to raise funds for the many hospitality workers now out of work due to the pandemic.
Here are a handful of St. Louis-area spots hosting virtual get-togethers and classes where you can connect and engage without leaving your living room.
Wine Tastings & Cocktail Classes
Aerin Soroka is a social person by nature. As commerce manager and shop/bar manager at The Vino Gallery, she revels in hosting the regulars who patronize the Central West End wine shop and tasting room. In the days after COVID-19 hit St. Louis, she transitioned to working from home and managing the shop’s online retail business, Drink Dispatch. Eager to keep connecting with patrons from home, Soroka decided to launch virtual wine tastings through Zoom, with the first event set for April 17.
To participate, patrons must purchase at least one of the tasting’s wines featured through Drink Dispatch or The Vino Gallery. The first event will feature wine education and a Q&A session with winemaker Brandon Allen of SLO Down Wines in Northern California, with between 30 and 35 seats available to reserve.
“The first one with, Brandon Allen, is going to be comedy heavy,” Soroka says with a laugh. “He said he’s got a wife and a nine-month-old baby at home and he can’t drink as much as he used to, so he’s going to turn up.”
She will be hosting the tastings with her sister, Megan Greco, as the pair already have their own wine business, If You Pour It, They Will Come. Depending on how the first event goes, Soroka hopes to continue hosting virtual tastings every two weeks or so.
Jason Main, owner of The Wine Merchant Ltd. in Clayton, recently capped off his first Zoom wine tasting on April 3. The first tasting was themed around wines from Bordeaux, France, and featured education about three bottles of wine and two cheeses to pair with the varietals for $75. Participants signed up in advance by calling in a reservation or via email, then picking up their wine and cheese curbside. To keep updated on future Zoom tastings, call the shop at 314-863-6282.
The owners of The Wine & Cheese Place have partnered with Chris LeBeau of The Manhattan Cocktail Project on a mixology video series titled “Quarantine Cocktail Kitchen.” The first episode in the series, posted on YouTube on March 25, focused on how to make the perfect Old Fashioned, while subsequent videos have explored other classic cocktails such as the Paloma, Daiquiri and Manhattan. If you’ve always wanted to learn how to make these traditional tipples at home, purchase the necessary liquor and mixers via the shop’s concierge and curbside pickup form online, then simply park outside one of the four locations, and your purchase can be packed directly into your trunk.
At 33 Wine Shop & Bar in Lafayette Square, proprietor James Smallwood is keeping the shop’s Tuesday night wine tasting tradition alive via Instagram videos. Wines are listed on online in advance, including pricing, and available for pickup at the shop. Once you’re set at home with the week’s selection, tune in for history, education, tasting notes, and pairing ideas for each wine. To keep updated on future varietals and tastings, call the shop at 314-231-9463.
As local wine shops find creative ways to connect with customers, James Thomas and Drew Chostner, founders of the St. Louis Bourbon Society, are offering members virtual cocktail classes to do the same with spirits. Each class offers expertise from a different local bartender. Early classes have featured Meredith Barry of Taste and Tony Saputo of The Midwestern Meat + Drink. The classes are free, but donations are encouraged, with all proceeds benefiting the Gateway Resilience Fund, which helps local hospitality employees with short-term monetary relief during the COVID-19 crisis.
“We really want to get the word out about supporting our bourbon family that is out of work,” Chostner says. “Bartenders, waiters, dishwashers, small business owners—they are the lifeblood of the social scene in St. Louis, and they need to get through this together.”
Cooking Classes
In the first episode of Caryn Dugan’s new Plant-Based Quarantine Cooking Show, the vegan chef talks about how smashing potatoes is therapeutic.
“Just give them a really easy mash,” Dugan says. “Have the kids help you out; get out some anger, some frustrations.”
The videos are relatable and funny but also educational, with Dugan sharing the same sorts of quick and easy vegan, oil-free recipes she normally teaches at her Center for Plant-Based Living in Kirkwood.
Streamed on Zoom and Facebook Live, the free videos also offer tips for maximizing your infrequent grocery trips or deliveries during quarantine, such as buying dried mushrooms instead of fresh, as they won’t go bad. Hosted at 2 p.m. on Wednesdays and Sundays, the episodes allow Dugan to continue to connect with the community and her regular class attendees at the center. Although she was motivated to launch the series two weeks ago, due to COVID-19, Dugan says such online cooking classes were always part of her longterm plan for the center.
Although the series is new, Dugan is already finding ways to refine it for viewers. Starting later this week, viewers can pick up ingredients for upcoming episodes from Frida’s Deli in University City, where chef-owner Natasha Kwan is currently offering curbside pickup.
“So if you can’t get to the grocery store or you don’t feel like going to the grocery store because it’s just a taxing thing to do right now, you can go to Frida’s and just pick up a box of ingredients, and then we can all cook together online,” Dugan says.
Soon, another plant-based cooking series may debut from Cara Schloss and Monty Gralnick, owners of Seedz Cafe in Demun. Schloss says the restaurant’s considering the possibility of offering online cooking classes in the near future. Visit the cafe’s Facebook page to keep up to date on developments.
Over at Crispy Edge in Tower Grove South, owner David Dresner is hosting online Crispy Edge @ Home potsticker classes, “straight from our quarantined kitchen to yours.” Dresner and his team deliver all the essential ingredients for the $40, one-hour class, which also includes two 14-oz. bags of potstickers of your choice (a $25 value). The first class sold out immediately, so another was scheduled for April 22 (tickets on Eventbrite here) and keep abreast of upcoming classes and events by signing up for the newsletter here. In the interim, get your ‘sticker fix by calling the restaurant at 314-310-3343 for curbside pickup or delivery Tue.Sun.
Happy Hours
Produced in collaboration with We Are Live, a St. Louis livestream and events company, STL Barkeep, a collaborative of bartenders from around town, is now offering St. Louisans a weekly happy hour, complete with live music and comedy. The free happy hours are hosted every Thursday at 4 p.m. on We Are Live’s Facebook page and sponsored by Beam Suntory. As you might expect, the events include cocktail snack and drink recipes as well as discussions about how to mix drinks at home. The next event is this Thursday, April 9.
In South City, the brewing team at Perennial Artisan Ales is forging ahead amid the COVID-19 crisis by offering to-go and online beer sales, curbside pickup, and virtual beer releases. Every Thursday, Perennial usually hosts a new beer release in its tasting room— and regulars can join in the fun via a virtual happy hour. Patrons must first visit the brewery to snag the new brew from curbside pickup; then, at 5:45 p.m. on Thursdays, the fun begins with a 15-minute bartending stream hosted by Perennial staffer Andy James Alton, followed by a presentation about the new release at 6 p.m. hosted by brewer Chris Kinast. The videos are streamed for free on Perennial’s Instagram Live feed.
During the portion of the stream hosted by Alton, which has been dubbed 5:45 Live, he asks viewers questions—ones often not about beer but maybe professional wrestling, movies, or whatever else is on his mind.
“We’re trying to give people some levity during these dark times,” Alton says. “We were just trying to have some semblance of normalcy during this, so this way our regulars can still join in the [Thursday night release] without having to be unsafe or irresponsible—you can do it from the comfort of your own home.”
