Chartreuse Dinner Club draws back the curtain on cannabis-infused dishes (2024)

At Chartreuse Dinner Club, a private dining experience in St. Louis, you’ll find gourmet dishes – think squid ink pasta and roasted Cornish hen – with a twist: each course is infused with cannabis. Founder and chef Aliya Waldman is on a mission to provide special evenings to guests, with a focus on the health benefits of cannabis.

Waldman grew up in St. Louis before moving to New York, where she worked as a private chef and recipe developer, offering a similar dining experience. During the pandemic, she returned home and believed the concept would find an audience here in St. Louis. “I’m three years sober, and I found cannabis to be a much more fulfilling experience than alcohol ever was. I struggle, like anyone, especially chefs, with mental health, and I feel like cannabis is so much [better] for mental health than alcohol will ever be,” Waldman says. “So the fact that I could create a little dinner club that supports that…that was really the reason that I created it in the first place.”

While cooking may be a creative art, working with cannabis is a science. Waldman uses a machine to do all of her infusions; it allows her to know the exact potency and dosage in each dish she serves. She can modify dosages depending on people’s experience with and tolerance to cannabis. “I just wanted to make sure it was really inclusive, because there are people who come to these dinners [and] it’s their first time,” she says. Guests can also opt to forgo THC and have their food infused with CBD instead.

The food itself is elevated and refined, yet not overly stuffy. One of Waldman’s main goals is that when you leave her dinner club, you’re satisfied. “I’ve been to plenty of small tasting menu things where I’ve had to go get a slice of pizza afterwards,” she says. “I want people to leave feeling happy and full.” One of her favorite dishes recently has been the squid ink pasta with miso dashi, pepper, furikake and butter-poached sweet shrimp. She grew up near Olive Boulevard’s many Asian markets and restaurants, where she developed a deep love of Asian cuisines.

In addition to Asian-influenced food, expect some dramatic flair. Take the Applewood-smoked campfire tart, with Graham cracker shell, chocolate ganache filling and torched meringue. It’s served with a glass cloche, which is removed to reveal billowing puffs of smoke.

Because Waldman works on such a small scale, she can source ingredients as locally as possible. In the loft space that houses the dinner, there is a hydroponic garden – named Agatha in honor of agriculture – that supplies fresh herbs and greens. What she can’t grow, Waldman sources from local farmers. “Everything is incredibly fresh. I try to keep everything very seasonal. The mushrooms that I’m using, they’re coming straight from Tower Grove Farmers Market,” she says.

With the recent legalization of recreational cannabis in Missouri, it’s likely that Waldman’s booming business will continue to grow. She offers between 6 and 12 dinners a month, and once she posts dates, they quickly sell out. Someday, she hopes to open what she calls a “canna café.” “I really think that cannabis-infused food is the future and we’re going to see restaurants doing it more and more,” she says.

Waldman says she's proud to offer a space that is safe, inclusive and accessible for people to try and learn more about cannabis. “If you are new to cannabis, it would be a great introduction to go to a dinner like this...You bring your friends, which is the best possible way to experience cannabis. Just put yourself in a good mood with good company and good food. I don’t think you can really go wrong.”