Midnight in Galway NYE at The Royale

Midnight in Galway in Saint Louis

An Irish-ish New Year’s Eve Feast presented at the Royale to benefit the Saint Louis–Galway Sister City Committee by Nothing Sacred Kitchen, with harpist Eileen Gannon and fiddle player Robert Ryan with open-mic poetry curated by Eamonn Wall for curious and neighbourly Royale revelers looking for a very special last meal of the year

This celebration is built around Galway’s clock, so “midnight” will strike at 6PM here in Saint Louis. We toast with Ireland, then still get home at a reasonable hour.

Midnight in Galway will be celebrating the renewal of the rebooting of the sister city relationship between Saint Louis and Galway that was first established in 1977. The sister city committee has reformed and is planning on building cultural exchanges that actually matter. We’re talking musicians crossing oceans, bartenders swapping bars, writers trading stories, students landing in new cities, and both towns remembering we’re at our best when we share our work and our people. Including artists finding new stages, breweries and distilleries trading recipes and hosting residencies, bookstores and film series collaborating across the Atlantic, and neighbourhoods in both cities discovering each other through real work. This New Year’s Eve feast is a fundraiser for the startup costs that make those exchanges possible — travel support, early programming, and the first burst of seed funding that gets a real sister-city reboot off the ground.

Midnight in Galway in Saint Louis will be a true smorgasbord of food inspired by the terroir of Ireland and served family style. The menu will reimagine traditional Irish fare using locally sourced MO/IL ingredients, all prepared over wood fire in the Royale garden.

4PM — Live harp happy hour, light snacks provided

5PM — Dinner bell

6PM — Countdown to Irish midnight and champagne toast (Irish midnight at 6PM CST because we value sleep, sanity, and the soft pleasure of being in bed before the fireworks start elsewhere.)

6:30PM — Dessert

8PM — Bedtime

Complimentary champagne will be served for toasting at Irish midnight. Full bar available, sold separately. Bespoke Royale cocktails and recommended pairings will also be available for purchase throughout the event. This event is for all ages. Seating is limited; tickets are $125, with snug booth reservations (up to 6 guests) available as well as two top tables and bar seats.

Open-mic poetry curated by Eamonn Wall will stir the air, the same scholar whose verses trace Ireland’s wild spaces and American echoes.

Robert Ryan on fiddle along with Eileen Gannon is a St. Louis native and one of the top Irish harp players in the country. Nothing Sacred Kitchen (NSK) is the culinary output of STL-based chef and artist Alex Braden. For New Year’s Eve 2023 The Royale hosted one of NSK’s first pop-ups, a Kamayan-style pig roast. Since, NSK has popped up throughout the region, including in Feast Magazine’s summer print edition. The NSK ethos is look closely, work with what you can find nearby, respect tradition but question everything, and never take it too seriously.

A fitting match, really - Galway’s creative unruliness and St. Louis’ stubborn inventiveness both thrive on the same impulse: make something good out of what’s around you, invite the neighbours, and see where the night goes.

Presented by The Royale, Nothing Sacred Kitchen, and the Saint Louis–Galway Sister City Committee

Pray the Rosemary, amen.

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