There is a particular kind of evening that Minneapolis is not especially good at hosting. Not a party — a party is easy. Not dinner for two, either. The awkward one is eight or nine people who actually want to hear each other: a milestone birthday, an anniversary, a small team that has just finished something, out-of-town family you only get once a year.

Restaurants seat you in the middle of the room. Event venues want forty guests and a minimum spend. What you want is a door that closes.

At the Pillsbury Club, that room is the Emerald Suite.

What the Emerald Suite is

The Emerald Suite is a private second-floor club room inside the Charles S. Pillsbury Mansion at 100 East 22nd Street. It is set up as a lounge rather than a banquet room — rich finishes, comfortable seating, low light, the kind of space that encourages people to stay in one conversation instead of splitting into three.

It accommodates up to ten guests. That number is the whole design brief. Ten is small enough that nobody is stranded at the far end of a table, and large enough to feel like an occasion.

It is described on our club rooms page as a space for guests who want somewhere more refined to gather before or after a mansion tour — which is exactly how most people use it, though it works perfectly well on its own.

Why a second-floor room in a 1916 manor feels different

Private rooms in most cities are simply smaller versions of the main room. This one is a room in a house — a genuine English manor interior, in a National Register mansion completed in 1916, full of centuries-old oak and carved stone shipped here from England a hundred years ago.

You feel that. Guests arrive, walk through the ground floor, go up the stairs, and by the time they sit down the evening already has a shape to it. Nobody has to be told this is a special occasion; the building has already made the argument.

If the history is the part your group will want to hear about, that is what the History Journal is for — there is a great deal of it, and it is better read than recited.

What to pair it with

A mansion tour first. The year-round guided tour is the natural opener: rooms your guests have never seen, and then a private lounge to sit down in and talk about it. Details are on experiences and tours.

A drink, obviously. The Club’s bar leans speakeasy — seasonal and themed cocktails, made properly, in a room that suits them. See dining for what is currently being served.

Something with a pulse. If your group would rather be unsettled than soothed, the Club also runs paranormal and psychic experiences, and it is the departure point for Minneapolis Trolley Tours — including the Candlelight Ghost Tour, which boards right outside. A private room before a ghost tour is a very good evening.

Occasions it suits

• Milestone birthdays — the fortieth, fiftieth or sixtieth where a restaurant would feel thin
• Anniversaries with the handful of people who were actually there
• Small team dinners and end-of-project nights, where the point is the conversation
• Out-of-town guests you want to show something they cannot get at home
• Engagements and proposals, for which a closing door is not a small detail

How to book it

Two things to know before you plan.

First, the Pillsbury Club is a private club and reservations are required in advance. This is not a room you can walk into on a Friday night — and that is precisely why it is quiet when you get there.

Second, book earlier than you think. October and December go first — ghost-tour season and holiday season respectively — and ten-guest rooms are the first thing to disappear on a weekend.

The Emerald Suite can be booked directly from the club rooms page, or start at reservations. Hours are on the hours page, and everything else you need before you arrive is on plan your visit.

Make an evening of it

Staying over? 300 Clifton is a National Register mansion bed and breakfast in Loring Park, a short ride away, with a garden hot tub and a speakeasy of its own. For a longer stay, Oakland’s on 9th has furnished studios in the middle of downtown.

But start with the room. Reserve the Emerald Suite, bring nine people who like each other, and let the house do the rest.

Keep reading: What Happened When a Training Center for the Blind Moved Into the Pillsbury Mansion?

Keep reading: Where Can You Take a Date to See Holiday Lights in Minneapolis?