Chef Liz Schuster (above) loves movies. And she loves to cook. She combines her passions into unique presentations that combine movies with food and drink. Her Tenacious Eats events have been happening for about a year and a half. (Changes are coming, as detailed below.)

Her venue is Meyer’s Grove, on Manchester at the west end of The Grove neighborhood in St. Louis. (Above pic shows the room before it was filled. Photo below shows the room with people in it.) My wife and I recently enjoyed National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, along with food courses and cocktails matched to movie segments.

The first course, shown below, was a tasty Midwestern Scotch Egg. It’s a boiled egg with sausage around it, plus cheddar grits and grape jelly BBQ sauce. This was paired with a Pumpkin Bloody Mary. Both were hard to beat, but there was much more to come.

The other courses were Christmas Cabbage Rolls, Hickory Smoked Pork Belly (my wife’s favorite), Turkey Pot Pie (below) and, for dessert, Eggnog Cheesecake.

As I pondered the minor challenge of eating (and taking food pics) in the low light, I considered Liz and her two sidemen who were cooking (!) in the low light. They made it possible by wearing miner’s lamps on their heads.

Christmas Vacation is a movie that’s best watched in a group, whether it’s with your family at home, or with the sold-out crowd of 54 or so folks at Tenacious Eats.

If you go, be prepared for a leisurely evening. Emcee Jeremy started the party at 8:00 p.m. with giveaways of movie swag. With pauses to describe each course, plus an intermission and followup comments at the end, we left for home at around 11:00 p.m.

The next Tenacious Eats feature is Gremlins on Tuesday, December 17. Click HERE to order tickets. (Remember the 3 rules for Gremlins: no water, no bright lights and no food after midnight.)

The food is delicious, the booze is creative and the movies are winners. It’s a fun night out! Check out Tenacious Eats online by clicking HERE.