While Chicago is known for trademark food such as deep-dish pizza and Italian beef sandwiches, the city’s palate also stretches into much more sophisticated territory, with celebrity chefs like Charlie Trotter, Grant Achatz, Rick Tramonto, Rick Bayless, and Jean Joho painting an ever-evolving picture of the dining scene.
Groups are taking advantage of the trend with private dinners, exclusive chef’s tables and even more creative opportunities.
“The requests I am seeing are for interactive events paired with private dining functions, whether that is hands-on cooking before dinner, beer-making first, doing an event at one of our restaurants, or team building,” says Maureen Larson, senior director of business development at Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, which owns 58 restaurants, 32 in the Chicago area.
Lettuce Planet (312.527.9222; www.leye.com/lettuceplanet) is a division of Lettuce Entertain You developed to help planners find suitable venues for meetings and private dining events.
In one of the programs offered by Lettuce Planet, a curator from the Art Institute of Chicago presents a 30-mintue talk on the “Evolution of Dining” as seen through art. The program begins with images of heaping platters from Roman times, demonstrating the history of group dining camaraderie through the famed Roman and Greek feasts.
“They can see from the paintings when tablecloths came into play or silverware. It’s fascinating for foodies,” Larson says.
Guests dine on Italian cuisine at Osteria Via Stato during the presentation.
The Art Institute also collaborates with Mon Ami Gabi, a French bistro, presenting “French Masters” prix-fixe dinners that include a slide-illustrated program about famous French artists followed by a four-course French meal.
At French-influenced Brasserie Jo, Lettuce Planet can organize hands-on beer-making programs for groups. Attendees learn from a brew master how to taste and evaluate beers while brewing five vats of various ales themselves. The restaurant serves a three- or four-course dinner paired with some of its 14 handcrafted beers or brews on tap. The beer made by guests is shipped when it has fermented.
In another of the company’s interactive programs, the Italian restaurant Scoozi! offers cooking classes in a semi-private dining room. The classes teach participants how to combine ingredients for a four-course Italian meal that is then served for dinner. Special aprons and hats with a company’s name on them can be ordered.
Another way to dabble in Chicago’s culinary scene is through food-tasting walking tours organized by Chicago Food Planet (773.425.2727; www.chicagofoodplanet.com).
“We have private group tours, and each season our private business gets bigger,” says Shane Kost, who owns the company. “Everyday we get e-mails asking, ‘Can you fit us?’ We have a few rules—never more than 16 per tour group. That’s to keep it more intimate.”
Larger groups can be divided into separate tours, with a total capacity up to 60 people. The tours cover a number of the city’s neighborhoods and also include a history and architecture element. Participants visit specialty shops that show off the city’s eclectic food options, such as a Chicago pizzeria, a Jewish deli and a chocolate lounge.
The tour season runs from mid-April until the beginning of December.
For more conventional group options, many of the city’s top restaurants offer private dining, such as The Gage (312.372.4243; www.thegagechicago.com), located across from Millennium Park. Specializing in American contemporary cuisine, including game meats, The Gage also features a 50-foot-long bar.
“We have an extensive cocktail list and very esoteric liqueurs,” says Billy Lawless, owner, adding that there are over 400 bottles of spirits on the shelves.
DeLaCosta (312.464.1700; www.delacostachicago.com) serves cuisine with a fusion of flavors inspired from Spain, South America and the Caribbean. It also offers private dining for groups as well as a Solarium with views of the Chicago River that can fit 250 for receptions, and there is a wine room for up to 18 guests.
Other group options include a gospel brunch at House of Blues (312.923.2000; www.hob.com), which serves Delta-inspired food, or on a smaller scale, dinner at the hip one sixtyblue (312.850.0303; www.onesixtyblue.com), with a private dining area for 14.
