Location:
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Status:
Permanently closed
Dates active:
2007-2019
Forepaugh’s Restaurant was 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. As of July 2023, the house remains vacant.
Forepaugh’s Truffles
Ingredients
- 1½ pounds semisweet chocolate
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ¾ cup Irish cream liqueur (Bailey's)
- ¼ coffee liqueur (Kahlua)
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
- unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
- In a heat-proof bowl, melt chocolate over simmering water. Stir occasionally.
- In a separate bowl, combine heavy cream, Irish cream liqueur, and coffee liqueur; dissolve instant coffee powder in the liquid. Set aside.
- Once the chocolate is melted but still over the simmering water, carefully and slowly add the liquid mixture to the chocolate. When combined, put the mixture in an airtight plastic container and refrigerate overnight.
- When the chocolate mixture is thoroughly chilled, spoon into about one tablespoon balls and roll each in cocoa powder.
- Store in refrigerator.
