Step into The Boom Boom Room through a discreet door off St. Charles and 14th Street through velvety-red, floor to ceiling drapes. Once inside, notice the posh pendant lights over the bar that glitter in a bright cascade, or the twinkle of gilt and crystal chandeliers. A sparkly black drape at the back of the club winks with pinpoints of light.
Light paints the bar with a slow fade rainbow of green, purple, hot pink and blue and as the room comes into focus, you notice the stage, centered in the main room, surrounded by small tables, set cabaret style, where candles cast a warm glow.
Find the best food in St. Louis
Subscribe to the St. Louis Dining In and Dining Out newsletters to stay up-to-date on the local restaurant and culinary scene.
I didn’t know what to expect at The Boom Boom Room, my first live burlesque experience. The over-the-top visuals delighted, the well-mixed drinks went down smooth and the food wowed – perhaps the biggest reveal of the evening, but we’ll tease you with that now. More later.
A pre-show conversation with owners Jim Callahan and Brandy Dunn gave shape to their story.
“We have dinner and a burlesque show on weekends,” Dunn says. “We’re open during the week as well with featured performances every 30 minutes, drinks and food from our menu. What we try to imitate is the entertainment of the 1920s and 30s.”
“The idea for this place came from the dueling pianos scene in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” Callahan says. “It’s kitsch, fun and some people think we’re crazy. We’re not risqué. Pop music performances are so far ahead of us in risqué – we’re risqué for 1928. We say we’re Bugs Bunny hot, or like the vintage pin-up girls.”
Callahan and Dunn (right) transformed the space formerly occupied by Lola throughout the summer and fall into an over-the-top nightclub. They did much of the work themselves, searching Craigslist and thrift stores for everything imaginable from floor to ceiling that could be transformed into a nightclub inexpensively.
They found an old parrot cage to dress up a chandelier, and hung champagne glasses and beads on the other to give it more glitz. They hand-made the sparkling black fiber optic curtain and shared their method on You Tube. Callahan used his talents and knowledge of lighting to enhance the bar and liven up the room.
In real life, Callahan and Dunn are engaged. In past years, they owned a club in Maplewood, they took their burlesque show on the road when that club closed, and when the right opportunity to open a club came along, they jumped at the 14th Street space.
The heart of TBBR is the show, which show rockets to life when emcee LuLu LaToosh, the self-styled society chanteuse, takes the stage. Be warned: there is no fourth wall in burlesque theater. If you’re in the audience, LuLu and crew are going to pull you in. She’s a shameless, funny huckster who titillated with clever bon-mots, twists of a phrases and smidges of saucy humor that never devolved into raunchiness.
The song-and-dance show by the Jumpin’ Jupiters comes off as wholesome fun with a few tassel twirls, with shimmies and shakes, great music, dances choreographed with style and executed with precision and lighting by Callahan that brings a mood and excitement to each act.
Dunn, who performs as Boom Boom LaCoeur, does a turn as Josephine Baker. She appears first onstage in a white evening gown (right) and later dons a banana skirt and dances a la Josephine with verve. The cast includes Lolita Love, Lady Manhattan, Vera Valentinaa, Miguel Scott and Lin Tutu.
Drum roll now: What started out as a food fiasco – their chef walked three days after opening – turned into a culinary coup when Chef Scottie Corrigan stepped into the kitchen. We previewed the show and sampled the original menu a few weeks ago, but when Dunn and Callahan revealed the foods we sampled bore no resemblance to the current menu, we made a return trip.
Sacré bleu! Corrigan, whose culinary curriculum vitae includes a turn as chef de cuisine at Stellina and stints at Wild Flower, Mosaic, Cravings, and most recently at The Libertine created a menu that surprised and delighted from frisée (above) to framboise (below).
The Saturday dinner menu will change seasonally, but all dinner items will be available a la carte throughout the week as well as an enticing, unexpected selection of appetizers and small plates.
Confit de canard (duck confit) and ailes de carnard poele (fried duck wings) as well as rillettes du porc (bacon rillette with crostini) shine on the list of hors d’oeuvres, which also includes spiced olives, a flatbread, a charcuterie board, and a frisée salad.
A full selection of entrees a pork duo (above), flank steak (below), duck, and risotto. As for the buzz food of the moment, poutine, Corrigan serves his up as a burger with Rensing Farms ground beef, fried confit potatoes, Marcoot Farms cheese curds, caramelized onions, and Billy Goat chips. Desserts include a cookies and milk dulce de leche bread pudding with a cookie dough center and chocolate chunk ice cream, maple rum bacon beignets, and white truffle cake. (See food descriptions in gallery above.)
So how does a chef end up in burlesque? “The opportunity to run my own menu, classical French with a modern twist, was too good to pass up,” Corrigan says. “I believe in cooking seasonal, locally grown, foods. We make everything in-house. I have a chance to do things my way here.”
That’s in keeping with the prevailing themes at The Boom Boom Room. It’s ‘Hey, kids, let’s put on a show.’ It’s a nearly-naughty-nightclub mixed with fairy dust. There’s a 42nd Street vibe going where hardworking dancers hoof it waiting for their big break.
At one point in the show, Jim Callahan gave a welcoming speech. He said the time the Jumpin’ Jupiters spent on the road, they felt like the lost puppies in a Disney movie, running from place to place. Now they had a home and he welcomed the city, tourists, parties, and couples out for an interesting date night to stop by.
With the addition of Chef Corrigan’s food, the burlesque joint where red velvet rules and jollity ensues takes on a delicious flavor: The Boom Boom Room is a whole lot more than the twirl of a tassel and a booty shake.
The Boom Boom Room
500 N. 14th Street
314-436-7000
Tickets available through the website for dinner show
Hours:
Tue – Thu: hours 4 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. (open seating, no tickets required, drinks and menu selections available for purchase; shows every 30 minutes)
Fri – Sat: hours for drinks and appetizers, 4 p.m. – 1:30 a.m.
Fri – Sat show info and hours: for dinner show guests, doors open at 7 p.m.; individually plated dinners are served when all guests in a party arrive. The burlesque show begins at 8 p.m. and ends by 9:30 or 10 p.m. Dancing and cocktails after the show.
