Boozy Truffles from Forepaugh’s Restaurant in Saint Paul

Forepaugh’s Restaurant is housed in a mansion situated on the western corner of Saint Paul’s stately Irvine Park. The mansion was built in 1870 for 36-year-old Joseph Forepaugh and his family. After arriving in St. Paul in 1858, Forepaugh opened a dry goods store. J.L. Forepaugh and Company grew to become one of the largest stores of its kind in the upper midwest. The company was grossing more than half a million dollars in annual sales by 1865. After just ten years of work, Forepaugh retired.  

The Irvine Park neighborhood began to lose its luster by the late 1880s. In 1886, Forepaugh auctioned off all of the elegant furnishings left in the home and sold the mansion. The family only took their personal belongings with them.

Forepaugh, his wife Mary, and their five children spent time in Europe. Newspaper reports suggest the trip was taken so Forepaugh could get help for depression, an illness that he struggled with most of his entire life. He returned to St. Paul with renewed energy and ready to take on the next phase of his life. 

In 1889, construction began on a grand new home for the Forepaugh family at 302 Summit Avenue. The family moved into the new mansion in 1891. On July 8, 1892, Forepaugh’s granddaughter saw him climb onto a streetcar on Selby Avenue traveling west. He was never seen alive again. His body was found two days later on Selby Avenue near Hamline. He died by suicide.

Civil War veteran General John Henry Hammond purchased the Irvine Park mansion from the Forepaughs in 1886. He lived in the home until his death in 1890. The mansion stayed in the Hammond family for many years. It was eventually divided into several units and used as a boarding house and low-income apartments until the 1970s. By 1972 was in such a state of disrepair that it was considered for demolition. Thankfully, a private company purchased it in 1976. They gutted the home and refurbished it into a restaurant.  

In 2007, Bruce Taher purchased the restaurant and invested $2 million to renovate and reinvent the mansion restaurant into a white-tablecloth establishment. After 11 years of running the restaurant, Taher closed Forepaugh’s in March 2019. The house sat vacant for several years.

Neighbors began noticing improvements to the old house in late-2023. Paint was stripped from the exterior, the porch was removed, and the carport was being steadied. We began asking if Forepaugh’s was going to reopen.

Spring and summer 2024 saw a moody paint color covering the house and warm light coming from inside once again. News articles started popping up that Taher was indeed reopening the beloved restaurant by fall.

According the an article in the Star Tribune by Joy Summers: “There will be two menus, one with small plates that diners can order in the bar, on the porch or up on the deck. Another will be served in the dining rooms. Food will be familiar American dishes with a little bit of an Italian bent.”

We couldn’t be happier to see the old house being used once again and once of Saint Paul’s finest restaurants carrying on in this location.