Friday, January 30, 2009

Latest News & Updates

January's Chills
This month, one of our members had some major surgery, so we planned our event around a visit to her in the hospital. We gathered at Northwestern Memorial and hung out with our recovering member for awhile, and then headed to the nearby C-View lounge for cocktails.

C-View is a beautiful space, and has a wonderful view of the city - it's on the 29th floor of the Affinia Hotel. The drinks were a bit pricier than we realized (e.g., Manhattans were $16), but they were tasty. We had a lot of fun and were sorry that those who weren't there had missed it.

No photos from this one, I'm afraid - I neglected to bring my camera.

Repeal Day Recap
I am pleased to announce that we raised $350 for the Greenhouse Shelter at our Repeal Day soirees and with additional donations from a few of our members. I've collected all the funds as of today, and will be sending them a check shortly.

Thanks again to everyone who came out and joined us, and thanks to our friends at the Clark Street Ale House and the Drawing Room.

February Plans
I am hosting February's gathering at my house on the 15th, and am planning to serve classic cocktails with obscure ingredients. Still trying to decide on the exact menu, but am having fun opening and using those esoteric liqueurs in my liquor cabinet. More on that next month!

Stay warm out there, everybody.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Welcome Sun Times Readers!

For anyone coming to see us after reading about us in today's Chicago Sun Times, welcome!

Here's a link to the article, for anyone who hasn't yet seen it. Thanks to Chuck Sudo and the Sun Times for writing about us!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Repeal Day Redux

It's time for a long overdue recap of our adventures on Repeal Day. Apologies for taking so long for the recap, December is by far the busiest month of the year in my world, so I didn't do any blogging last month.

Round I
We started out at the Clark Street Ale House, where we nibbled on snacks and enjoyed some great pre-Prohibition cocktails. All of the lovely ladies of LUPEC Chicago were present except one (who had a family emergency). In the picture above are (from left to right): Stone Manhattan, Delilah, Little Audrey, Shelley Temple, Morning Delight, Kiki Royale, Ginny Tonic and Eight is Enough.

I started the night with a Martini (as I do every Friday night), and then slowed down a bit by having a Monkey Gland. We had a special menu of cocktail options that evening, and many new drinks were tried. Both of mine were delicious - Erin definitely knows how to make a great drink (and it was a bonus that we had a woman bartender)! Thanks to Adam and everyone at the Ale House, and also to everyone who came out to celebrate with us - we were joined by several old and new friends. Unfortunately, my camera conked out and I don't have any pictures from there - the above came from someone else. I have a new camera now, so watch out!

Round II
We headed over to The Drawing Room, where the entire staff was dressed in period attire, and we had fantastic music from the Ron Mills Orchestra. We had a special menu of period drinks, including several of the namesake drinks for our members.

Collectively, we had many Stone Manhattans, Little Audreys, and Delilahs, as well as some other fantastic creations from the mixologists at the DR (from left, DJ Love, Charles Joly and Tim Lacey).

Much to our delight, many attendees dressed in period attire as well, and we really did get to party like it was 1933.

A great time was had by all, and a big THANK YOU to our friends at the Drawing Room, as well as all the great people who came out to celebrate with us.

We're looking forward to next year's celebration already, and are thinking up ways to top ourselves.