Unlike the proverbial shoemaker’s children, Chicago party planner and designer Raub Welch doesn’t “do without” the rewards of his craft. Every year come July, he and his partner, day-care provider Donald Taylor, throw a blow-out garden party for their friends that satisfies their itch to entertain. It also gives Welch the kind of creative license he can’t explore in his work for clients. But more to the point, it also fulfills their social obligations for the entire year.
“I’m out so much doing other people’s events for work, and then Don and I are frequently invited to parties at our friends’ homes. That makes it hard to find the time to entertain ourselves. So when we do, we have to make it count,” explains Welch.
Given the fact that they have a stunning garden behind their turn-of-the-century Logan Square home, complete with lushly planted flower beds, manicured footpaths and a handsome, double-decker porch, the garden party was a perfect venue for their events. They were inspired to plant it after seeing the Tuileries garden on a trip to Paris in March 1999. “We came home and got to work,” recalls Welch, whose horticultural skills were honed during his childhood on a farm in southern Illinois. Within three years, the setting was so gorgeous that they wanted to show it off, and their annual garden party was born.
In its first two years, the event was a casual but elegant dusk-to-midnight soiree for a few dozen friends, with light food and drink and a jazz trio headed by Chicago keyboardist Roger Weaver. But in the third year, “Our friends brought their friends, and we were up to 75 people or so,” says Welch. At that time, they used the jazz trio for the first two hours and asked their close friend, Lisa Wadley, to deejay for the rest of the night. “It made the party a little less tame,” Welch notes.
This past year, in honor of the garden’s fifth anniversary, the couple decided to notch it up again. They added a formal, sit-down dinner for 24 friends as a prelude to the full-blown party, expanded the guest list for the after-party and hired a caterer to do the food. This freed up Welch so he could go all out on the invitations, garden decor and table setting for the pre-party.
The lavish decoupaged invitations alone took Welch a week to make. They were set in heart-shaped, moss-covered boxes filled with gardenia- and lemon-scented potpourri and wrapped with sumptuous lavender silk organza ribbon, then placed in a special mailing box. They cost about $20 each plus $7 apiece to mail.
His other innovations were equally unsparing. He filled in the garden’s “bald spots” with containers sprouting assorted flowering annuals; dressed up the porch with creamy sateen cotton drapes for a tented effect; patched together three tables to make one long dining table and gave it a seamless appearance with a lemon-yellow synthetic organza tablecloth; and created dazzling centerpieces in two heights–one using 2-foot-tall clear-glass vases filled with limes and variegated pitt, and the other using low-slung vases jammed with large-head roses in shades of pink.
Though he used simple white china for the place settings, each one was topped with a peony-pink box tied with a thick, frothy white ribbon. The boxes contained personalized decoupaged paperweights that Welch had made for each dinner guest as a party favor. “I’m a painter and have a bachelor of fine arts [degree], so this was the most satisfying part of the process for me.”
Welch left the menu for the event to his close friend, Twyla Estell, who moonlights as a caterer but works at Sweet Maple Cafe in Little Italy by day. She based the sit-down dinner around a main course of barbecued salmon, and Welch supplemented the dessert of raspberry tiramisu and mango and passion-fruit sorbets with his favorite cake–a rich, dense, dark-chocolate confection made and shipped here by his brother, a baker in Memphis. For the big blast after the dinner, Estell put out a spread that included chicken apple salad, pasta salad, Mediterranean pate and cheeses with crackers and pita chips. The bar was limited to apple martinis, white wine and soft drinks.
The dinner lasted from 4 to 8 p.m., and the after-party began at 9. For the hour in-between, everyone pitched in to clear dishes and break down the table before the DJ started playing. About 100 people filtered through the back yard over the next six hours, entertained by the music and a fast-moving verbal game called “Catch Phrase” that Welch used to break the ice. “You put a few out at various stations in the yard, and encourage people to play. It’s quick, and they have to break into teams so it makes everyone meet each other,” he points out.
Since the couple had to send their guests home at 2 a.m., it’s clear all the tactics they dreamed up to make the evening a success worked. But such success comes with a price. “I’m already racking my brains out to figure out what I can do this year to top it,” says Welch.
GARDEN PARTY MENU
COCKTAILS
Vodka-loaded lemonade, mint juleps
APPETIZERS
Cucumber cups with black bean salsa, mango pineapple chutney with toast tips,*
jerked chicken tenderloin*
FAMILY-STYLE ENTREE COURSE
Barbecued salmon with honey barbecue glaze,
grilled asparagus with blue cheese crumbles,
garlic mashed potatoes
AFTER-PARTY
Chicken apple salad, cheese tray,
pasta salad, Mediterranean pate,
pita and crackers
Apple martinis, white wine, soft drinks
DESSERTS
Raspberry tiramisu
Georgie’s chocolate cake
Mango and passion fruit sorbets
*Recipes follow
GARDEN PARTY RECIPES
MANGO PINEAPPLE CHUTNEY
Makes 5 cups
2 medium ripe mangos, peeled and cut into small dice
1 cup chopped, fresh pineapple
2 /3 cup chopped red bell pepper
1 small red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of half a lime
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Cover and reserve in refrigerator. Taste and adjust seasoning or lime juice prior to serving with jerk chicken tenderloins and toast tips.
JERK CHICKEN TENDERLOINS
Serves 12
1 /3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup dark rum
3 tablespoons firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 bunch (7-8) scallions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 chile pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons Pickapeppa sauce**
1 tablespoon peeled, freshly grated ginger root
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 pounds chicken tenderloins (1-1/2 to 2 ounces per boneless, skinless chicken tender)
1. Add vinegar, rum, sugar, scallions, garlic, chile pepper, Pickapeppa sauce, ginger and spices to a food processor. Pulse for about 30 seconds to make a slightly chunky sauce.
2. Heat the oil in a medium skillet, pour the sauce into the pan and cook over medium-high heat, bringing to a simmer. Stir occasionally until oil is incorporated and the sauce reduces into a slightly thickened paste, about 4 minutes. Cool.
3. Place chicken in a glass or plastic container. Rub the jerk paste all over the tenderloins, cover and refrigerate for 6 to 24 hours.
4. Heat a gas grill or coals to medium-high heat. Grill chicken over direct heat until the tenderloins have grill marks, 2 minutes per side. Move to indirect heat and cook covered for an additional 4-6 minutes, until no traces of pink juice remain. Transfer to a platter and cover loosely with foil, letting chicken rest a few minutes. Serve with mango pineapple chutney.
**Note: Pickapeppa sauce is a tomato, vinegar, tropical fruit and spice-based sauce from Jamaica. Find it in the condiment section of most grocery stores.
