Cooking, lots of wine and belly dancers

Saturday night, I went to a bachelorette party for a girl that Matt & I work with (Erin). She is marrying a guy that we also work with (John). They moved into the West Loop right across the street from Matt's place. Erin was working over in the Netherlands with Matt three years ago and John was working over there with me two years ago. On to the festivities...

1st stop: Cooking class at Bespoke Cuisine



This place is normally a catering company, but they have parties for birthdays, bachelorettes, etc. It's set up with a kitchen in the back and a dining room in the front. It's BYOB, so we all brought wine and champagne to drink.

We started off with champagne with hibiscus flowers in the bottom of the glass. I've never seen this done before, but the hibiscus gave the champagne a nice pink color and a little bit of a tarter taste. Towards the bottom of the drink, it started tasting a little flowery, though.

The menu for the evening was the Tuscan Menu which was:
* Appetizers: (1) White bean rosemary bruschetta and (2) Asparagus & prosciutto in puff pastry
* Salad: Arugula with parmesano-reggiano, cracked pepper and honey
* Entree: Risotto with wild mushrooms and roasted chicken
* Desserts: (1) Chocolated dipped tiramisu balls and (2) Chocolate dipped strawberries

Since there were 11 of us, we broke into groups and each cooked a different part of the meal. I was in the 'Entrees' group... not the best choice considering we had to stand next to the hot stove in an already hot room. Plus, I had to shred cooked chicken... messy! I didn't get to do anything with the big knives (probably a good thing conisdering how klutzy I am and that I was drinking alcohol). But, Calvin was our group's chef and he was awesome. He even knew Stephanie (the winner from Top Chef).







After the cooking part of the evening was done, we sat in the dining area and drank wine and enjoyed all the delicious food.


For dessert, the bridesmaids had bought a special cake for Erin... this is the weirdest penis cake I've ever seen. Usually, they are just in the shape of a penis, not actually a regular cake with one protruding from the top. Too funny! The cake was soon demolished. After eating cake, Erin opened her gifts.



And then some random guy ran in from outside and took over the party for a few minutes. Weird to say the least. My favorite is the look on the girl's face to the right... she's like "what the heck is your problem?!?"



2nd stop: The Erotic Warehouse
What luck... we were on our way to our second stop of the night after leaving Bespoke and walked right past the Erotic Warehouse.





This was a bachelorette party after all, so of course, we all went in. We found a few cute things for the bride-to-be for the night (bright purple penis water bottle and penis drinking straws... how could we not buy those!) and we were on our way.

3rd stop: Alahmbra Palace


I had walked by this place a few times, but never been inside, so I had no idea what to expect. It's a Mediterranean restaurant/lounge, but inside is all decorated like a palace... pretty extravagantly. The place is absolutely huge inside and had a lounge when you first walk in and then a big two-story room in the back with a stage and dance floor and tables. The second floor was a balcony with a bunch of tables overlooking the stage and dance area. When we got there, they seated us at a table right by the stage and there was some guy singing in a foreign language and a girl in a purple costume was belly-dancing around the stage and dance floor. Within the first 5 minutes, she pulled one of the girls in our group up to dance with her. I'm glad I wasn't sitting at the end!


We danced and had a drink... the place was a lot of fun for a special (interesting) night out, but not somewhere I would go on a regular basis. For one, it's really expensive and another thing, the service was TERRIBLE. I would have thought that a waiter would be checking up on us quite regulary... seeing that we were a group of 11 girls all drinking, but nope. He got our first round of drinks and then he went MIA. One of the girls was able to track him down and they got a couple more drinks, but I only got one the whole time we were there. Then the bill came and it was $168 and the 20% gratuity was already added. No wonder the waiter was so awful, he knew he was already guaranteed a tip. I really hate that.


We stayed there for a few hours and then moved on to the next place.

4th stop: West End Bar
I had also never been to this bar before, but walked by it a few times. It always looks packed. The bar is owned by the same people that own School Yard, Brownstone, etc. The music was a lot of fun and we had another drink and hung out there for about an hour or so. I'd like to go back and try the food sometime to see if it's as good as Brownstone.



5th stop: Bed. Crash. So tired.