Chicagoist 10 Year Anniversary Party

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Pre-gaming at Gold Star. Julene, Chuck, Rachelle, Justin, Shannon, Erin, Scott, Mike, Margaret, Kevin, Matt. Not pictured: Jim, Michelle, Sam. (Photo by Chuck)

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@Emporium Wicker Park

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Chuck’s opening remarks.

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Q: How many selfies can one take in a night? A: Lots!

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With Jen, of Gothamist

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With Andrew, of Gapers Block

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This logo is burned in my brain.

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Don’t ask!

Chicagoist 10 Year Anniversary Party: The night was EPIC.

– Reconnecting with friends with whom you used to spend every waking moment with either in person or online
– Special guests from New York City
– Hours of free drinks
– Reenacting scandalous 8-year-old photos
– Free Chicagosit merch
– Sending your husband home early
– Endless selfies
– Shots of Fireball that you only discovered you bought (three rounds!) when you find the Fireball soaked receipt in your purse the next day
– Flash Taco (enough said)
– Stolen burritos
– Losing things in the bushes next to your front stoop
– Having to wake the entire household, including your in-laws, because you don’t have your keys
– Finding random things in your pants pockets while doing laundry the next day

I don’t know how 10 years has gone by! I still remember moving to Chicago 10 years ago and Jen and Jake pitching the thought of “starting a site like Gothamist but for Chicago.” I still remember meeting my co-founder, Margaret, at the Starbucks in 444 N. Michigan. And meeting our first two writers at Handlebar and drinking super cheap-o Schlitz. Time flies! People change (we’re going to have a Chicagoist playdate soon), but people are fundamentally the same. I need to be better about getting out and seeing everyone!

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CHIRP Presents The First Time: First City


Jenn-Anne Gledhill and Mare Swallow


Wendy Mateo and Jennifer Lizak


Mary Ralph and Samantha Abernethy


Jocelyn Geboy and Gerald Dowd


Liam Davis and Steve Frisbie

Last week Jess, Sara, Chris and I went to the CHIRP event, The First Time: First City at Beat Kitchen. Like the last few times (1, 2, 3), we had so much fun! This was the first time I went to an event in this series and I didn’t know any of the readers, but I did see and get to catch up with a bunch of my former Chicagoist cohorts – Chuck, Jocelyn, Matt, Jim, and Marcus.

Sara and I met up early and ate outside. Surprisingly, Beat Kitchen has super tasty salads, many to choose from, lots of fresh ingredients. The weather was just right, we were in the shade and there was a breeze. Then we headed in a few minutes early to make sure we could get a seat for the show.

As always, all of the essays were great. Anyone who gets up on stage and reads what they write has more guts than I do. I especially liked Jennifer Lizak’s essay about Chicago and how many generations of her family have lived in the city. After each essay the band plays a song of the essayist’s choosing. The band is so talented. That night they played everything from hip hop to country and western. For real. They played “Homecoming” with Gerald doing the Kanye West rap parts and Steve doing the Chris Martin singing parts. And Gerald showed off his diversity again when he sang the lead for “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” by David Allan Coe. I also liked when they played “Chicago Slow Down” by the local band Canasta. Check out their awesome video for the song below:

The event was $10 and all proceeds went to benefit CHIRP. Follow CHIRP’s Facebook page to make sure you get alerted when the next event is planned! You won’t want to miss it.

Roundarch Holiday Party


Roundarch Holiday Party at ZED451

Some highlights from the buffet


Geoff, Jim & Jeff thanking everyone for coming to the party.


Awesome fire!


Kelly, on the right.


Ashanth & Dallas catching up and drinking the mojito bar dry.


Roundarch Holiday Party at ZED451

This year the Roundarch holiday party was at ZED451. I’d never been there, but really liked it. Roundarch basically took over the whole first floor and the second floor was someone else’s holiday party. I really loved the space. It was very warm and inviting. The colors were very rich and the fire was an awesome touch.

ZED451’s main dining room area had this HUGE round buffet. We thought it was one of the biggest buffets we’ve been to, not counting Las Vegas. There was everything on this buffet: shrimp, crab, poke, charcuterie, all the cheeses, duck pastrami. Craziness. It was so good. ZED451 is kind of like an upscale Brazilian steakhouse where they come to your table and offer you all sorts of meats, which they cut off right in front of you. Since this doesn’t scale, they cut all the meat ahead of time and skewered it and there were guys constantly offering you choice cuts of “aged 48 hours blah blah blah.” Point is, it was delicious. There were all kinds of steak, a Mediterranean chicken, fish, etc.

The party was, of course, open bar. And a nice touch was the mojito bar where you could get all kinds of different mojitos: blackberry, pineapple, cucumber, blueberry, cranberry, etc. I had to try hard to keep myself in check, something which Dallas did not do! But that’s ok. I was the one with big plans (cookie party) the next day, not him.

Roundarch never skimps on their holiday parties and this year was no exception. We had a fun time talking to all of my coworkers and their guests. Dallas got to catch up with the people from my office he doesn’t get to see much. Great time! Oh, and here’s a photo my coworker, Rose, took of Adam, Brad and me:


Rachelle, Adam, Brad. Gray is the new black!

Chicagoist Alumni Reunion


Sam (Former General Contributor), Chuck (Former Music Writer, Former Food/Drink Editor, Current Editor-in-Chief), Jocelyn (Former General Contributor), Margaret (Former Television Writer), Benjy (Sports, then and now!), Rachelle (Former Editor-in-Chief), Jim (Music/A&E Editor, then & now!)


Thales (Former Ask Chicagoist Writer), James (Former Copy Editor), Chuck (Former Music Writer, Former Food/Drink Editor, Current Editor-in-Chief), Matt (Former General Contributor), Olivia (Former General Contributor)


Mike (Former Political Writer), Benjy (Sports, then and now!), Justin (Former A&E/Culture Writer)

Earlier this week a bunch of Chicagoist staff from the olden days, i.e. back when I was the Editor, got together for drinks at Cole’s in Logan Square. A few people I run into every few months, but many I had not seen for a year or several years. I made everyone line up and take photos just to prove we actually did it. We were all in one room together!

It was great to catch up. Back in the day we all had such close, daily contact. It’s fun to check in with everyone and see how everything is going. I mean, many of us stay in contact online, but in-person is so different. I hope that we can make this a more regular thing, so that years and years don’t go by before I see these dear friends again!

Roundarch Summer Event 2009


Eric


Kevin


Matt & John


Marcel & Eric


Rick


Jeremy


Dan & His Date


Don


Frank


Shanks & Eric


Waleed & Marlena


Bekah, Ben, Rudy, Don, Adam


Lynnanne, Aimee, Anjum


Ronald, David, Manvesh, AJ, Waleed


Geoff & Jeff


Roundarchers


Anjum & Marcel


Eric & Garrett


Thomas, Sean, Gary, Jim, Shaun


Ashish & Brian


Roundarchers


Rossanne & Ryan


Jory, Mike, David, Craig


Tony & Juan


Tony, Fadi, Erika


Adam

Last week Roundarch had it’s annual Summer Event, which consists of an all-night party and an all-day meeting with everyone from all of our offices in town to attend. It was great to see everyone that I work with in other offices and the party was so much fun. And the after party. The after after party, I can’t say… I went home at 2 and others were still going out for more! As for the meeting, it was actually pretty entertaining… not like the dry all-staff meetings I was used to at other places I’ve worked. Great event, Roundarch!


Putting


Frank


Client Booth


Client Booth


Teal


Client Booth


Eric


Relaxing (nursing a hangover) in a secret cabana on the Chicago River.

Let That Global Warming Breeze In

Back Door

Three days ago it was ZERO degrees outside at 7:30 in the morning. That night it was so cold in the apartment and I couldn’t get the chill out of my bones, so I layed in our bed on the heated mattress pad and watched TV all night.

Today at 4:45 pm it was up to 60 degrees. I had met up with Chuck, Margaret and Jim for breakfast at Vella Cafe (cute place, the chicken sausage was awesome and they serve Milk & Honey granola, which I love), took the bus back up Western, stopped at Jewel to get groceries. We had the back door open all day to let air in and it wasn’t even cold. Especially since I was using the Jewel groceries to cook some healthy vegetable soup, biscuits and an applesauce cake dessert.

Weather

Still, 3 days and 60 degrees warmer!