This piece is sponsored by Vanguard Hospitality.
Paramount Studio Cocktails & Food will return to serving downtown guests this week.
The lounge adjacent to Minervas at 307 S. Phillips Ave. closed temporarily last year. It’s now redesigned, with a new menu and happy hour features. Opening day will be April 23 at 4 p.m.
“”Even though it’s attached to Minervas, it has its own identity, and we wanted to focus on enhancing that,” co-owner Tim Meagher said.
“We know the team that works at Paramount is super-important and known for building relationships with guests, so we’re at a point where we have those people ready to go, and we’re excited to introduce our guests to what else we’ve been working on here.”
The space has been reconfigured with more soft seating, darker lighting and small cocktail tables instead of high-top seating.
“I wanted to feel more like a lounge — a speakeasy-style place that has a whiskey bar, Prohibition-era feel to it,” Meagher said. “People often want to pop in before or after they eat dinner, and we have more flexible seating that accommodates that.”
In the private dining area, Meagher incorporated paintings of figures from the 1930s: Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and John Dillinger, who famously robbed a bank in downtown Sioux Falls.
“So there’s a little local history there, giving it the feel of a place where you’re there to make a deal or play some poker,” Meagher said. “It feels very private and like something you’ve just discovered.”…