Balaban's Hires Event Manager

Balaban’s® wine cellar & tapas in Chesterfield hired Corinne McDonnell as their new event manager to run events in their new banquet and private event space.

McDonnell comes to Balaban’s® with project management, floral design and restaurant experience and will work closely with D. Scott Phillips, formerly of Provisions Gourmet Market in Creve Coeur, who started as banquet and catering chef at Balaban’s® last month.

McDonnell will schedule and initiate special events in Balaban’s® new rooms, oversee off site catering in conjunction with Phillips, manage a gourmet box lunch program and create Balaban’s® seasonal gift baskets.

Through college at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, where she earned a B.S. in Speech Communications, and after, McDonnell worked in the restaurant industry with her family and picked up design experience at Ladue Florist.

For Balaban’s® holiday gift baskets, McDonnell refined some of the product selections and sourced others from St. Louis neighborhoods.

“The Italian way of life and Italian foods pair well with wine.  I wanted the new basket designs and their products to reflect the fabric and history of St. Louis as Balaban’s® does,” McDonnell said. 

McDonnell’s personal favorite she calls the Judgment of Paris basket which contains Chateau Montelena wines. 

The basket’s name refers to the 1976 contest which put Napa Valley’s California wine industry on the map when Chateau Montelena won blind tastings outside Paris against more established and then recognized French wines.

Co-owned by partners Steve McIntyre and Brian Underwood, Balaban’s® increased its footprint this autumn with the expansion of a private Wine Room, seating eight and storing Balaban’s® Library Wines, and additional space for 80 seated, 100 for cocktails, with state of the art audio visual equipment.

Balaban’s®, after relocating and opening in Chesterfield in late 2009, garnered a 2012 best award of excellence and a 2011 award of excellence from Wine Spectator for their wine cellar, recognition from St. Louis Magazine in 2012 and 2011 as a best restaurant and a best new restaurant respectively among other awards.