When are all the travelers planning on getting in town and leaving?

A big fat "depends" for me. My original plan was to fly in on Monday before and visit clients in Madison, Chicago and Shorewood leaving me available no later than Friday morning to party. However, I might be forced to fly in Saturday morning and take care of business the following Monday, etc... We'll see as things get closer.

I'm going to be last minute, fly in Friday, out on Sunday.

Otis,

I cannot believe that I missed this thread for so long. Can you add us to the waiting list?

Thanks,
Rob

Wow, this sounds like it could be the gathering of the decade. May I request 2 more be added to the wait list? It may be a bit late but worth wishing for. My wife and I would love to attend.

Marchello and Alexis

Our flights are reserved. Looks like we're making a long weekend of it. Friday to Monday. Any of the out-of-towners made their hotel reservations yet? Hotwire has a few deals, although nothing stellar.

Nobody has mentioned anything about a warm-up on Friday night either

UPDATED LIST:

Scubarex (2)
WIML/PURPLE
AllRed (2)
Anwar/Trigirl
DoktaP (1)
Miser (2)
futronic (1)
Frankie (2)
Steve8 (2)
Pyang (2)
just a skosh (1)
w + a (2)
win (1)
snoredoc (1)
Blue Oval (2)
grossie (2)
KSC02 (1)
Vinaigre (2)
Purple Haze (1)
Vino Me (2)
amici dell'enotria (2)
francisS (2)
french16 (2)
TLV (2)
Tbird (2)
MLV (2)
Gentleman Farmer (1)
Festiva (1)
newsguy (2)
Emilio (2)
Winetex (2)
Pinot Envy/Pinto (2)
Thomas23162 (2)
EIT (1)
Stefania Wine (2)
zepplan (2)
carriedca (1)
BHVineyard (2)
Baird (2)
Een (2)

WAITING LIST:
napaccoast(2)
indybob (2)
bman (2)
Altaholic (1)
Scott McDonald (1)
Tastebuddy (2)
rob a (2)
Primordealsoup (2)
LMA (1)
chrisbhoo (1)

I'll talk to some of the other Mafia about Friday night. 70 people is a major troop movement for most of the BYOB places in town.

For those of you into the ponies, August 10-12 is the biggest horse racing weekend of the year, with the Arlington Million being run on Saturday afternoon. Some seriously good horses will be saddling up. The track is around 5 miles from my house and is a really fun way to spend a sunny day. Post time is 3:05 PM on Friday and 1:05 PM on Saturday. They have a huge grassy knoll where you can watch the races from. A large group could easily take over a section of the Park on Friday. Can't bring any alcohol, but of course they sell a ton of it there.

Arlington Park

Just a thought...

Cheers,

Otis

This message has been edited. Last edited by: otisabdul,

quote:

Originally posted by otisabdul:


I'll talk to some of the other Mafia about Friday night. 70 people is a major troop movement for most of the BYOB places in town.

I wanted to throw the idea out there to get the ball rolling, as I'm sure there will be a few other travellers around on Friday night.

SpeakEasy worked out pretty well two years ago, at least as much as I can recall. Not sure if they would want us back?

Good idea Steve. However, the "SpeakEasy" of last time is no more. They've been closed for a while.

Maverick, when did they close? We've had a couple of offlines there and it was always nice.

When was your last offline? I'm pretty sure they've been closed all this year at least.

Speakeasy Supperclub
1401 W. Devon Ave.
773-338-0600
This glitzy restaurant and music venue, owned in part by Jody Andre (ex South) and singer Michael Feinstein, has closed.

I live right by that place and it hasn't been open in the longest time.

That's a shame about Speakeasy...you hate losing a BYO/wine friendly place. It couldn't have closed too long after the last CDP in August '05.

I wasn't doubting you Maverick, it's just a bummer. Although, after reading Allred's post, I guess it's been almost two years since we were there.

It's all good LV. The last CDP was a long time ago.

quote:

Originally posted by otisabdul:
For those of you into the ponies, August 10-12 is the biggest horse racing weekend of the year, with the Arlington Million being run on Saturday afternoon. Some seriously good horses will be saddling up. The track is around 5 miles from my house and is a really fun way to spend a sunny day. Post time is 3:05 PM on Friday and 1:05 PM on Saturday. They have a huge grassy knoll where you can watch the races from. A large group could easily take over a section of the Park on Friday. Can't bring any alcohol, but of course they sell a ton of it there.

Arlington Park

Just a thought...

Cheers,

Otis

is anyone planning on attending this?

W+A / PH: I noticed you're planning to attend. It's still a ways off, but just thinking that, if you're interested in a good Cuban, I could arrange to bring most any request you might like and we could enjoy a 'good social smoke'

quote:

Originally posted by KSC02:
W+A / PH: I noticed you're planning to attend. It's still a ways off, but just thinking that, if you're interested in a good Cuban, I could arrange to bring most any request you might like and we could enjoy a 'good social smoke'

PurpleHaze, I think we have a new friend in life!

KSCO2, thank you for your kind offer, but be careful. Let me see who I know coming that will smoke a fine cigar. Skoshy ( two at once) WIML, Snoredoc, KS and me equals 5 just from Texas, and PurpleHaze eats them like candy.

Lets visit before our trip and perhaps a trade is in order!

Thanks again.

I'm chasing down some leads for Friday 8/10. Waiting for call-backs from event coordinators at:

CHIC Cafe - A Chicago cooking school, where aspiring student chefs cook up a multi-course meal for you for around $25/pp. Hell's Kitchen Chicago style? BYOB. No corkage. Looking into renting out the whole place (which I think is around 50-70 people). Should know tomorrow.

Randolph Tasting Room - Looking into renting the upstairs room for a couple hours and having them troll the room with appetizers. Will be much pricier and not sure how much BYOB they'll allow. Definitely will be corkage charges. But it is a very cool room.

Heading for Alaska to do some fishing on Friday. I'll try and get a read on both of these options before then.

Cheers,

Otis

Both sound pretty good otis. I WILL say the CHIC sounds especially interesting. Always up for a 'risk' that could turn out spectacular!

Bon Voyage, and good luck!!

Good news!

I was able to rent out CHIC on the night of August 10th at 7:30 PM. Four courses for $28/pp and BYOB. They can fit a max of 60 people.

I don't know how many of you are interested. I suspect we'll be able to get 60 people fairly easily. I will plan on posting a signup thread when I get back from Alaska (probably will post on July 9th to be exact).

A core group of Mafia members will take up a few of the spots (they need to wet their beak or I'll get in trouble), but I'm guessing we'll have roughly 30-35 spots available.

If you are interested, please be ready to sign up on the 9th. I hope this sounds fair to everyone.

Should be fun!

Cheers,

Otis

I am a napervillian (don't hold that against me) and just discovered the Off-Line forum site. I am a wine geek and would very much enjoy attending your CDP event if there is still room.

quote:

Originally posted by otisabdul:
but I'm guessing we'll have roughly 30-35 spots available.
Otis

35 spots will be very easy to fill I think. Count me in (I realize you're not starting the list yet. JUST mentioning ). At lunch the other week, both steve8, Vinaigre and myself were discussing the plans of arriving on Friday for just such an event with everyone. Looking forward to meeting several forumites I've not had the pleassure of an off-line with.

chrisbhoo - Welcome to the boards! Right now the party is full, but I have added you to the waiting list. See a few threads above.

KSC02: Vino Me has graciously volunteered to manage the invitation list and start the CHIC thread on July 9th - it would great to see the Montreal gang there!

Cheers,

Otis