On Sunday evening, Mother Nature decided to high-five over 100 of St. Louis' Elites by taking a break from the soaring temps and offering up a gorgeous, breezy, 82 degree night, just in time for our July Elite event on top of the stunning Moonrise Hotel. The Moonrise is located in the heart of the Delmar Loop and welcomed us with opened arms as we enjoyed a night of moonlight, magic, good drinks & great friends! The hotel actually has the world's largest man-made moon spinning on top of the roof. Did we mention the view is also out of this world?
Two go with our magical theme of the night, two signature drinks were flowing from the bar all evening! The "Now You See It" was made with vodka, Aperol, lime juice, and peach schnapps, and the "Now You Don't" was extra boozy with gin, St. Germaine, lemon juice, pomegranate juice, and ginger ale. The drinks were refreshing and kept us extra cool on this warm summer night. The Moonrise created an out-of-this-world menu and we were all impressed by the spread, to say the least. Ready to get hungry? Check out what we got to fill up on: Hummus and pita bread platters, chicken sate with roasted Thai peanut sauce, Missouri beef sliders with horseradish honey mustard sauce, vegetable egg rolls with sweet chili, amd spanakopita with goat cheese and spinach. It was a heavenly selection, and many of us went back for seconds and thirds…
For an extra sweet touch, two of St. Louis' most loved local businesses were on hand to give us sugar highs and all the treats we could handle! Hank's Cheesecakes passed out bite-size cheesecakes, brownies, and other goodies, and Park Avenue Coffee passed out Ann & Allen gooey butter cake. (Did you know the Park Ave Coffee has over 74 types of Gooey Butter Cake?) We know it's a St. Louis thing, but you haven't lived until you've tried it for yourself.
A magician was on hand to do magic tricks for guests, and had everyone stumped! Between watching tricks, Elites played a human bingo game where they had to talk to other Elites to find out whick random fact on the board belonged to them. Did you know that one of our Elites' cousins is a producer on the today show? Or that one won a McDonald's eating contest by eating a big mac, fries, and soda in less than a minute? We had three winners of the evening… Jean P & Ale O took home gift baskets complete with Yelp schwag, Georgia Moon whiskey, and Moonpies, and Julia W won a one night stay at the Moonrise Hotel!
When guests weren't busy getting to know their fellow Elites, eating delicious food, and watching magic tricks, they got to dance along to a special moonlight & magic themed playlist! Do You Believe In Magic? Magic Stick? Can't Fight the Moonlight (straight from the Coyote Ugly soundtrack)? We think yes! Tons of fun was also had at the photo wall, where we saw some pulling-the-rabbit-from-the-hat action.
Our evening was made when special guest Joe Edwards stopped by the party! Joe's a celebrity in St. Louis and is known for his creative vision, risk-taking, and leadership that helped transform The Loop into one of the most vibrant restaurant, shopping, arts & entertainment districts in the United States. It was fun for him to engage with the Yelp community, and he even got some shots in front of the photo wall!
True to the theme, it was a gorgeous, magical night and we owe a huge thank you to the Moonrise Hotel and their world-class staff for hosting the event! Also, a big thank you goes out to DMGillespie Photography for documenting such a memorable evening. For the full spread of photos head here, and to read the glowing five-star reviews, check out the event page!
Until the next one… SYOY!
Aimee K
Yelp St. Louis CM
