Don’t let the cold weather get you down. These dining and drinking events will help keep your social life alive.
1. Hit a new happy hour
Ease into the weekend with a stop to the new weekday happy hour at Honey’s in the West Loop. The restaurant’s Atrium Bar offers $1 oysters and a handful of rotating $10 bites — say, beef tartare or ricotta cavatelli. Cocktails like the house riff on a French 75, made with Ford’s gin, lemon, absinthe and Cava, are a cool $6; wine and beer specials are just $5. 5-7 p.m. Friday at Honey’s, 1111 W. Lake St., 312-877-5929, www.honeyschicago.com
2. Go big without going broke
Want to impress your date without breaking the bank? At fine-dining stalwart mk, you can channel your inner baller on a budget, thanks to a current promotion on wine. From Tuesday through Friday, and Sunday evenings, the entire cellar is available for 50 percent off, plus no corkage fee if you decide to bring your own bottle. Want to sample rare pours? The restaurant will also offer rotating by-the-glass selections via Coravin, so you can explore wines you’d previously only dream about. Tuesday-Friday, Sunday evenings through May at mk, 868 N. Franklin St., 312-482-9179, www.mkchicago.com
3. Fool your friends into thinking you’re a world class bartender
Chicago’s own master mixologist, Charles Joly, has released his latest batch of ready-made cocktails from his Crafthouse Cocktails line. The Gold Rush is basically a bottled whiskey sour, made with bourbon, lemon, honey and bitters. Forget mixing or shaking; this sip is party-ready. $20. Available at Mariano’s, Whole Foods, Pete’s Fresh Market and Standard Market, among others, www.crafthousecocktails.com
4. Pick up some new kitchen skills
Preserving and canning food doesn’t have to be limited to strawberry jam and pickles. At the Community Cooking School hosted by the Peterson Garden Project, Emily Paster — the founder of Chicago Food Swap — will host a class on preserving winter citrus fruit, from kumquats to blood oranges. She’ll even teach the Middle Eastern art of preserving lemons in salt. Attendees will prepare their own products before taking them home to enjoy. $55. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Community Cooking School inside Broadway Armory Park, 5917 N. Broadway St., www.petersongarden.org
5. Let The Whistler handle your next cocktail party playlist
You know The Whistler for its pioneering cocktail program; now, the gallery, music space and record label has launched a new service for its fans. The bar is releasing digital versions of its live performances for free, in a weekly music digest called, appropriately enough, Weekly Free. Available to stream or download gratis for seven days following release, Weekly Free highlights songs or collections from local and touring artists like Ryley Walker & Bill MacKay, Matchess, Zachary Cale, Fred Lonberg-Holm, and Elliot Bergman of Wild Belle, to name a few. After a week, the song(s) will be available for streaming and download for a “name your price” amount, with 100% of profits going to the artists. Now’s your chance to make like The Whistler and put together a sweet list of jams for your next cocktail party. www.whistlerchicago.com
jbhernandez@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @joeybear85
.galleries:after {
content: ”;
display: block;
background-color: #144A7C;
margin: 16px auto 0;
height: 5px;
width: 100px;
}
.galleries:before {
content: “Food & Dining Photos and Video”;
display: block;
font: 700 23px/25px Georgia,serif;
text-align: center;
color: #1e1e1e;
var playlist = ‘chi_dining’,
layout = ‘autoblurb5plus1’,
iu = ‘%2F4011%2Ftrb.chicagotribune%2Fent%2Fdining’;
