Nightlife

New Year’s Parties and Brunches

Your New Year’s Begins and Ends Here

Ending on a high note. It can be a difficult task, given the year you’ve had. Fortunately, we’ve scoured the town for the most wonderful New Year’s Eve parties 2015 has to offer. Not to mention, one very fine New Year’s Day brunch. You can thank us in 2016. Or never.

THURSDAY NIGHT FEVER

A Very Studio 54 New Year’s Eve

NYE 1978, Studio 54: A wild party involving platform shoes, the Bee Gees and the word “groovy.”
NYE 2015, Henry’s: The same thing, plus truffled popcorn, a vodka ice luge, draft cocktails and a chance to raid Rec Room’s fridge after midnight. Studio 54 never had a fridge.

TROPIC OF THE DAY

Two Luaus, One New Year’s Eve

Your heart is set on a luau-themed New Year’s Eve. Great. Your options are...

1) Tiki drinks, Polynesian appetizers and gratis leis at Three Dots and a Dash.
2) An open bar, dancing and Chinese food at Lost Lake/Thank You.
3) Both.

Crazy that option three is an option.

BASS’D ON A TRUE STORY

R&B, a Buffet, Cigars and You

Here’s how this one goes: you arrive at the Bassment around 9pm for drinks and a Southern-inspired, late-night buffet. An R&B cover band comes on. You dance. You kiss your date at midnight. Later, you buy a cigar and light it up outside. 2016 becomes markedly less daunting. The end.

BAND ON THE RUN

A 20-Piece Marching Band at CAA

If we told you at the beginning of last year that you’d be ringing in 2016 with a 20-piece marching band and a roster of live DJs at the Chicago Athletic Association, you would’ve laughed in our face. Mostly because the CAA wasn’t open yet. But also because of the marching band thing.

BLOODY RIGHT

Your First Meal of 2016, Done Right

Your first meal of 2016 is a big deal. So head to the Dawson. They’ve got special chicken-fried foie gras pancakes. Not to mention their first-ever Bloody Mary bar, complete with sriracha cream cheese olives and bacon garnishes. Which sound significantly more appetizing than “the hair of the dog.”