DeRusha Drop-In: Apostle Supper Club

The coolest-looking spot in St. Paul. So, how’s the food?

Is “drop-in” a good name for this? I’m not giving a full review—it’s an early visit to a new restaurant where we try a few things, have a few drinks, and I tell you what I think. The DeRusha Drop-In. We’ll see how it goes.

Brian Ingram’s Apostle Supper Club in St. Paul is the top restaurant people have been asking me about. It looks so cool! I can’t wait to try it! I hear the food isn’t that great…

Saturday night, my wife and a couple friends had a reservation. We checked it out, sitting at a high-top table in the bar. Be aware that it’s directly across the street from the Xcel Energy Center, there’s no valet, and you’ll need to park in the ramp right behind it. (The state volleyball tournament was happening, and parking was $15, which is about what valet service would cost anyway.)

Inside: Wow. It looks amazing. Shag carpeting on the wall near the bathroom, sexy lounge area—I absolutely love it. Total 1970s/’80s Palm Springs vibes. KARE 11 reporter Eva Anderson was playing the sax at a piano bar that reminded me of Nye’s, and there’s live music at Apostle every night it’s open.

Cocktails ($12-$14) range from classics (the Manhattan and the Ingram’s Old Fashioned were both very nice) to tiki (the mai tai with aged rum was a winner). There’s a supper club menu and then a “False Eyelash” option that’s more of a bar menu.

In true supper club style, the menu is sort of all over the place. Coconut miso noodle salad and oxtail stew? Cheeseburger, steak, game hen, and orzo? Why not! We didn’t go deep into entrees, so I can’t judge, but the food we had was fun and tasty.

I really liked the mushroom orzo entree—creamy, earthy, with a fried medley of mushrooms in the center.

The bar menu had a fried Spam tostada that was awesome: fried cubes of Spam on a rice cracker tostada topped with a citrus aioli. The textures were great—the saltiness of the Spam worked very well with the fat on the sauce. Loved it.

Charred cauliflower was tender and charred, which often isn’t the case when I get this around town. Chili crunch gave it a spicy pop—perfect app or side ($14). The only miss for us was the whipped ricotta. Too sweet and too thin for my taste.

Service was attentive, and they were busy. Our friends said, “Who says St. Paul is dead at night?” This place will be nuts before Wild games and events, and frankly it should be enough of a draw in and of itself to bring people downtown. So many are looking for memorable experiences, and I think Apostle fits the bill.

The Apostle Supper Club, open Wed.-Sun., 4-11 p.m., also open on game and concert days, 253 Kellogg Blvd. W., St. Paul (also in Duluth)