CHICAGO’S FIRST ANNUAL RIVER NORTH CRAFT PUB CRAWL

Hey, I’m Doug Simons, a restaurant broker who has been placing some of Chicago’s top restaurant and nightclub operators in business for many years and my partner, Ted Widen who owns ChicagoScene.com, and I are throwing a huge pub crawl in River North called Craft Crawl River North!

Chicago’s first ever Craft Crawl River North will be the largest pub crawl ever in the city’s hottest restaurant and nightlife neighborhood. This May 18th event will begin at noon and run til 9:00 p.m., and will encompass the city’s hottest venues—Rockit Bar and Grill, John Barleycorn, Public House, Bull & Bear, American Junkie, English, Mercer One Thirteen, Epic, Social 25, Moe’s Cantina, and Hubbard Inn.

The event is taglined “BEER-BOURBON-BURGERS”. Each of the 11 participating venues will offer two different Craft Beers at $4 for the day (a total of 22 different beers available) plus all the bars will also offer Gentleman Jack Whiskey drinks at $5 and each will feature its own special gourmet burger at one day only pricing.

This event is like no other—coinciding with the beginning of Chicago Craft Beer Week, this event is different than all others in that it encompasses an entire neighborhood and multiple venues, many of which will provide live entertainment and top DJ’s, or will feature grand openings of retractable rooftops.

Patrons will be encouraged to visit all participating venues and to get their “passport” stamped in order to be entered in a drawing to win a seven day Celebrity Cruise to the Caribbean or other cash prizes.

Don’t miss the first groundbreaking event in the country’s hottest entertainment neighborhood. Go to CraftCrawls.com now before Craft Crawl River North sells out!

-Doug Simons

Tags: American Junkie, Beer, Bull & Bear, burger, Caribbean, Celebrity Cruise, Chicago Craft Beer Week, Craft Crawl River North, Craftg beers, dj, Drinks, English, Epic, Gentleman Jack Whiskey, Hubbard Inn, John Barleycorn, live entertainment, Mercer One Thirteen, Moe's Cantina, night club, passport, prizes, pub crawl, Public House, restaurant, river north, rockit bar and grill, Social 25, venues

Earth Day Celebration at Chicago’s Green Exchange, Featuring NBC’s “The Voice” Singer, Rebecca Loebe

Hey eco-friendlies! This is Cassy from Ripple Public Relations, and I have the scoop on an awesome event coming up in honor of Earth Day. The Green Exchange in Logan Square (2545 W. Diversey) is celebrating Earth Day on Monday, April 22^nd from 5-9pm with an evening chock-full of food, drinks, fun classes, speakers, and live music!

I know what you’re thinking, “class” doesn’t sound very fun… but what if I told you there was a class on how to brew your own beer?! That’s what I thought. The “Homebrewing 101” workshop will be hosted by Chicago’s newest craft brewery, Ale Syndicate. There will be two workshops from 5-6pm and 6-7pm, and they are included in the ticket price! You do have to be 21 years old, and it’s first come, first served.

Additionally, from Season 1 of NBC’s “The Voice”, talented singer Rebecca Loebe will be performing live at 7pm at the Greenhouse Loft! Loebe is in award-winning singer and songwriter from Atlanta, with a musical style of intimate folk mixed with jubilant pop.

Guests will also be able to experience the global collaborative art project, As You Are: A Decade of You Are Beautiful, as seen on OWN’s Super Soul Sunday. Check out a video here!

The Green Exchange is America’s largest green business community, and it is totally environmentally friendly. Home to over 20 green businesses, the 270,000 square foot building has amazing features, like a 41,329-gallon rain cistern that captures water and reuses it, an organic garden, even live chickens and honey bees!

For info on other cool events, follow Green Exchange on their Facebook & Twitter pages.

Let’s celebrate this beautiful Earth we live on!

- Cassy Murphy, Ripple PR

Tags: Ale Syndicate, As You Are: A Decade of You Are Beautiful, atlanta, Beer, craft brewery, earth day, eco-friendlies, environment, folk, green, Green Exchange, Greenhouse Loft, homebrewing 101, honey bees, Logan Square, NBC, organic garden, OWN, pop, Rebecca Loebe, Ripple PR, Ripple Public Relations, Singer, songwriter, The Voice, workshop

Top Oktoberfest Celebrations in Chicago

We may just be a week into September, but it’s time to start talking about Oktober.  Because Chicago has tons of events that pay homage to the German festival Oktoberfest.  The keg may not get tapped in Munich until the 22^nd, but we in Chicago get to start off the celebrating as early as next week! Here’s a list of a couple events:

• Berghoff Oktoberfest where the John C. Kluczynski Federal Plaza will be full of brats, beer and bands.  Admission is free, and the event runs from 11 am to 9 pm.  Over 80,000 people showed up last year and enjoyed traditional German music and fun activities for all ages.

• If you can’t even wait that long to whip out your lederhosen, Berhoff Restaurant is also doing specials at their restaurant from now until October 6^th.  They’re having special events through out the month including a beer and brats tasting.   This first-time ever event will of course include German favs like pretzels and sauerkraut too.

• Later in the month is Oktoberfest Chicago at Southport and Lincoln with tons of live music.  It’s September 28th-30th and will have two different stages with a mix of traditional bands and popular cover bands. This 12^th annual fest is free admission and benefits St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church.

P.S.  The Steuben Parade was mentioned in this week’s ‘What’s on Dec’ list, too.  No, it’s not really Oktoberfest, but you can still get your Bavarian on.  Now where did I put my beer wench costume….

-Grace Sweeney

Tags: 12th annual fest, bands, Bavarian, Beer, beer and brats tasting, beer wench costume, Berghoff Oktoberfest, Berhoff Restaurant, best parties for oktoberfest, brats, cultural festivals in chicago, german, Grace Sweeney, John C. Kluczynski Federal Plaza, lederhosen, Lincoln, live music, mix of traditional bands, Munich, Oktober, places to go in chicago for oktoberfest, plans for oktoberfest in chicago, popular cover bands., pretzels, sauerkraut, September 28th-30th, Southport, St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church, The Steuben Parade, traditional German music, What's on Dec, where are germans partying for oktoberfest

Join LIFT in June!

Hi Readers! Stephanie Sells here… met BD ten years ago back in his days at Le Passage and we’ve been friends ever since…

So I wanted to extend an invite to all of his readers…

Please join us Friday, June 22^nd  at Architectural Artifacts in Ravenswood for a Summer Scholarship Event to support Leading India’s Future Today (LIFT). It will be a lively event with open bar featuring local craft beer by Finch’s Beer Co. Indian fusion hors d’oeurves, live dance performances, cultural fashion show, Indian bazaar and more!

LIFT is a holistic learning and leadership development program in Tamil Nadu, India, providing education, leadership training, and service opportunities to high-potential, underprivileged children. Today LIFT serves students (grades 4 thru college) who are selected based on innate talent, leadership potential and interpersonal skills. Without LIFT, none of these children would be educated. Most come from families deeply below the poverty line; many are orphans.

Tickets are $85.00 in advance and can be purchased at www.liftusa.org

The event will be on Friday evening from 7:00 – 10:30PM

I hope to see you there!

- Stephanie Sells

Tags: architectural, artifacts, Beer, craft, cultural fashion show, Finch's Beer Co., Future, high-potential, holistic, India, India's, Indian bazaar, Indian fusion hors d’oeurves, leadership training, Leading, learning, LIFT, lines, live dance performances, Local, open bar, opportunities, orphans, poverty, providing education, ravenswood, scholarship, service, summer, Tamil Nadu, Today, training, underprivileged children

26 Beers For 26 Letters Of The Alphabet

If you’re anything like me, you can find yourself in the liquor store on any given night spending as long as ten Chicago minutes to decide what the heck you actually want. You walk in, look around for something appealing in the front first, you’re feeling adventurous so you wander over to the import beers, no sales, and you quickly talk yourself out of to drinking a beer you can’t pronounce all night. You shift to the domestics where you start calculating ounces to dollars, looking for that hidden sixer of tall boys that saves you a buck from the 12 pack… college budget. Then, next thing you know, you’re sitting on your couch watching a game with the usual Budweiser in hand… real adventurous.

To my boring beer drinkers, and craft brew connoisseurs alike, this Saturday, January 21^st at the Local 22, a perfect pint sized event is commencing. Alpha Beer VII: The Chicagoland Edition, is a 3 hr tour of all the lagers, ales and frothy brews you can drink. I’m talking about a total of 26 different beers, one for each letter, to satisfy all your taste buds’ needs and leave you feeling for a lack of a better word, well…drunk. I am SOLD. The best part about this event is that the focus of these beers will be on Windy City (and surrounding area) breweries. Chicago has seen a kegs worth of new small craft breweries, and specialty liquor stores in the past few years and the scene seems to constantly grow among Chi-towners, you have to respect that. California, you can keep your wine scene, were starting our own over here that doesn’t require any ridiculous glasses!

Guiding all of you enthusiasts will be Chef Jill Houk, who certainly knows a thing or two about the naughty water. A former smuggler of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale (before it was sold in the 2^nd city), and home brewer who has hosted multiple beer appreciation events, she will be as entertaining as she is passionate. It should be an epic night! Get your tickets in advance at the link below and save $10 off the $50 price at the door. Eat, drink, and be merry!

For more info on the event you can click here.

- Cheers
Bryan

Tags: 26, Alpha, Alphabet, Beer, Brewery, chef, Chicago Edition, Drinks, Jill Houk, Lagers, Local, Local 22, midwest, Sample

Chicago Brew Ho Ho Shines Light on Local Home Brewers

There’s no better way to spend your Saturday than basking in beer samples & treats… for FIVE hours.

Next Saturday, January 21^st from 2-7 pm the Chicago “Brew Ho Ho” event is going down. For just $20 at the door you get 10 beer sample tickets & 5 treat tickets and a sample of Angel’s Envy bourbon.

Everyone’s invited but you must RSVP@brewhoho.com at which time you’ll receive an email confirmation with the location of the event.

Chef Won Kim (Marketing Event Chef At Whole Foods Lincoln Park and Private Chef) is the man behind the mystery and has been for the past “Brew Ha Ha” and “Brew Hey Hey” events that showcase local home brewers. This is the ONLY event in Chicago to showcase home brewing and the idea behind this fun event series is to experience one-of-a-kind beers from up-and-coming brewers with baked treats from yours truly, Chef Won Kim.

Here’s the list of featured brewers that you’re taste buds will be gushing over:

Brutally Honest Brewing, Powell Brewhouse, Big Dicks Brewing, Soma Ale Works, Corazon, Rockwell Brewing, New Oberpfalz and Second Story Brewing

So it’s safe to say that I know where I’ll be next Saturday & I suggest you meet me there.

-Amanda Rivera

Tags: Ale, Beer, Big, Brew, Brewhouse, Brewing, Brutally, chef, Corazon, Dicks, Foods, Ho, Honest, Kim, New, Oberpflaz, Powell, Rockwell, Second, Soma, Story, Whole, Won, Works