Shiver Me Timbers: The Chaser Climbs Aboard the Red Witch’s New Cocktail Cruise

You’ve seen the Windy. It’s that many-masted vessel docked at Navy Pier that looks like a playground for fanny-pack wearing families from Iowa hoping to live out their Pirates of the Caribbean fantasies.
Or at least that’s what I was thinking yesterday as my sister Liv and I prepared to venture aboard a skyline cocktail cruise on the Red Witch, a smaller boat operated by the same company…

Board Room: The Meeting Starts Late at River North’s Newest Nightclub

Last night my glancing interest in all things Paris Hilton (I know, so 2003) landed me at the new River North nightclub Board Room, located in the old RiNo space. Paris was in no way expected, but two costars from her show The World According to Paris on Oxygen—“L.A.’s hottest party girl” Allison Melnick and July 1999 Playmate of the Month Jennifer Rovero—were listed as hosts for the Svedka vodka–sponsored party…

Weekend Photos: Tzar Ultra Lounge

Don’t let that unassuming wood-paneled façade fool you: Tzar Ultra Lounge is no local dive. The new River North nightclub bears a red-carpeted entrance, a list of 150 vodkas, a vodka vault reserved for big spenders, and a staff of modelesque bartenders mixing (you guessed it) vodka cocktails…

The Chaser’s First Impressions of Tzar Ultra Lounge

My guard was up last night from the moment I drove onto a particular block of River North, where the nightclubs Crescendo, Y, Sound-Bar, and now Tzar Ultra Lounge are all clustered. Parking my car around the corner on Franklin Street, I spotted a trio of teetering, sequined young women who had just alighted from an early model Rav4 bearing a suburban dealership logo and who nervously clutched pink Victoria’s Secret shopping bags as they read the instructions on the meter box…

BYOB While You Can: The Red Lion Lincoln Square

The Red Lion, an English pub that poured pints in Lincoln Park for 27 years, has been open in its new Lincoln Square location since January, but due to a paperwork snafu, owners Joe and Susan Heinen have been waiting on their liquor license for what feels like a bloody long time…

Chicago Craft Beer Week Photos: Beer Fistival at Revolution Brewing

And on the ninth day, the brewers rested. Beer makers and drinkers alike gathered at Revolution Brewing on Friday, the final day of Chicago Craft Beer Week 2011, for a sold-out bash fittingly dubbed the Beer Fistival, featuring guest pours from area breweries, music from the Four Star Brass Band, and a new beer from Revolution dubbed Red Scare…