spiffytriphy wrote:Thank you very much for the insight! I guess we'll take a vote and see what the group wants to do. Thanks a lot!

How would you say the majority of people dress at these places? Girls in skirts/dresses?

Honestly while the vibe tends most people to feel that way the first time, I've seen people dressed all kinds of ways at both places. But they are both really laid back, and will pretty much accept you as you are. Generally, just because of the locations, I would say MORE people are dressed up at TDR than at TVH, but like I said you will see a wide range of styles at either place.

SSDD

Ok thank you!

bjackson wrote:BTW, I noticed that the new menu is posted on theviolethour.com

I pretty much want everything on the new menu.

Have had most of the new drinks, the "Warm Winter Drinks" are all good, particularly fond of the Ginger Toddy with applejack.

I wonder if some one was thinking back on childhood when composing the new menu, because the Short Bus (Plymouth Sloe Gin, Tanqueray, Lemon, Egg Yolk, Orange Bitters) tastes like a grown up Flintstone's push up...while the Double Back (Sailor Jerry, Maison Surrenne Cognac, Cream, Whole Egg, Averna, Fees Old Fashioned Bitters) is quite evocative of chocolate milk.

Just to emphasize something that Khaopaat said: if you show up at TVH at 9pm on a Saturday night, the wait could potentially be a couple of hours, esp for a large group. If you attempt to go, definitely have a back-up plan.

Darren72 wrote:Just to emphasize something that Khaopaat said: if you show up at TVH at 9pm on a Saturday night, the wait could potentially be a couple of hours, esp for a large group. If you attempt to go, definitely have a back-up plan.

Yup, as much as I love the Hour, I don't even try to go on weekends, or much after 7 or 8 on weekdays.

SSDD

kl1191 wrote:the Double Back (Sailor Jerry, Maison Surrenne Cognac, Cream, Whole Egg, Averna, Fees Old Fashioned Bitters) is quite evocative of chocolate milk.

Tried the Double Back with Scarlet Ibis in place of Sailor Jerry this evening and found it to be a much more interesting (and funky) cocktail...highly recommend the substitution if you're looking for something a bit deeper.

So The Violet Hour is looking for a bartender. I have put up an ad on the Classifieds thread, but I thought I would put it up here as well.

http://forums.egulle...3&#entry1724293

Like the ad says we are looking to fill a Bartender Position, but not with a fully formed bartender.

I look forward to hearing from y'all.

Cheers,
Toby

Copy and paste screwed up the URL. This one will work:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/to ... try1724293

"This is the violet hour, the hour of hush and wonder, when the affections glow again and valor is reborn, when the shadows deepen magically along the edge of the forest and we believe that, if we watch carefully, at any moment we may see the unicorn."

– Bernard DeVoto "The Hour"

Here's a photo of this Wicker Park speakeasy:

http://www.chibarproject.com/Reviews/Vi ... ShotSP.jpg

parnellsf wrote:"This is the violet hour, the hour of hush and wonder, when the affections glow again and valor is reborn, when the shadows deepen magically along the edge of the forest and we believe that, if we watch carefully, at any moment we may see the unicorn."

– Bernard DeVoto "The Hour"

Here's a photo of this Wicker Park speakeasy:

http://www.chibarproject.com/Reviews/Vi ... ShotSP.jpg

Just an FYI that the Blago mural is long gone, so I wouldn't recommend using it as a reference point if you're looking for the place. Last time I was in, which was a few months ago, the exterior looked more like this.

1520 N. Damen
Chicago

Btw, love your site, Sean.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Last time I was in, which was a few months ago, the exterior looked more like this.

1520 N. Damen
Chicago

Btw, love your site, Sean.

=R=

I think it has changed at least twice since that picture, it tends to change every two to three months.... and I agree, I love the site Sean, been reading it since before I moved to Chicago.

SSDD

I believe it's more of a cartoony pastoral scene these days...there's a farmer on the door, if I recall.

My favorite was when they had a door attached to the side of the building down the block a bit...like, a normal door from inside a house. I went out to feed the meter once and found Jerry Reinsdorf pulling on it. He said, "You just came out of there...how the hell do you get back in."

kl1191 wrote:I believe it's more of a cartoony pastoral scene these days...there's a farmer on the door, if I recall.

My favorite was when they had a door attached to the side of the building down the block a bit...like, a normal door from inside a house. I went out to feed the meter once and found Jerry Reinsdorf pulling on it. He said, "You just came out of there...how the hell do you get back in."

Yep, that was a good one. I waited for people on more than one occasion, and watched others to the same thing.

SSDD

headcase wrote:

kl1191 wrote:I believe it's more of a cartoony pastoral scene these days...there's a farmer on the door, if I recall.

My favorite was when they had a door attached to the side of the building down the block a bit...like, a normal door from inside a house. I went out to feed the meter once and found Jerry Reinsdorf pulling on it. He said, "You just came out of there...how the hell do you get back in."

Yep, that was a good one. I waited for people on more than one occasion, and watched others to the same thing.

SSDD

Latest makeover (photo courtesy an unrelated Matt):

http://twitpic.com/19lqci

There is a King Fong Cafe in Omaha, and many other King Fongs scattered elsewhere. Good disguise; I wonder which is being referenced, though.

kl1191 wrote:My favorite was when they had a door attached to the side of the building down the block a bit...like, a normal door from inside a house. I went out to feed the meter once and found Jerry Reinsdorf pulling on it. He said, "You just came out of there...how the hell do you get back in."

Santander wrote:Latest makeover (photo courtesy an unrelated Matt):

http://twitpic.com/19lqci

There is a King Fong Cafe in Omaha, and many other King Fongs scattered elsewhere. Good disguise; I wonder which is being referenced, though.

I've been to TVH twice since the current façade went up, and it's one of my favorites. I think it's brilliant, even more than the nevertheless very entertaining instances of trompe l'oeil. Friends have often heard me complain about how I think "public" art in Chicago has stagnated in the last 10, probably 20, years, but I consider TVH façades (if considered collectively as a singluar, revolving work or even a modern, street Kunsthalle) an exception--a realization I came to after my visit last Friday.

A friend and I headed over to TVH after attending the opening of the Chicago Aldermen Project just around the corner at Johalla Projects. In a city where we arrested a painting of Mayor Harold Washington, it was extremely surreal more than 20 years later to stand in a packed Wicker Park gallery, rub elbows with aldermen pictured on the walls and posse-literati, and sip Hum cocktails and other concoctions named after Chicago's more notorious politicos.

Thinking that a Todd Stroger special wasn't going to cut it for me that night, my friend and I walked over to TVH. She had never been, and I explained on our way there how TVH was a place for "serious" cocktails and how there likely would be a line down the block. So, we get there, and I first have to explain the monkey standing on a bowl of rice on the front of the building and then how the fact that there was practically no line at almost 9pm on a Friday was very unusual.

After we sat down, my friend's first reaction was: "This is a chick place." I hadn't noticed until that moment, but the place was more or less full, and I saw maybe two men apart from bartenders, the rest women. Fortunately, I regained some of my credibility after our drinks arrived and my friend tasted and swooned over the cocktails.

The Aldermen Project followed by TVH made for a highly bizarre and endlessly amusing one-two punch, and, therein, I thought I saw the bright future of public art in Chicago or at least...the unicorn.

happy_stomach wrote:

kl1191 wrote:After we sat down, my friend's first reaction was: "This is a chick place." I hadn't noticed until that moment, but the place was more or less full, and I saw maybe two men apart from bartenders, the rest women. Fortunately, I regained some of my credibility after our drinks arrived and my friend tasted and swooned over the cocktails.

I'm trying to remember how long I was there that night, I think I might have left either a little before, or a little after you got there, as my wife and I got there around 6:15 or so. We were in the first room, near the curtain, and I know when we were there, there were at least two other guys at the bar. I have no idea what the seats or the rest of the room was like.

I really do think there is a certain appeal to "chicks" as the environment doesn't lend itself to being a meat market, and they can just sit and talk without the hassle of dealing with morons.

SSDD

headcase wrote:I'm trying to remember how long I was there that night, I think I might have left either a little before, or a little after you got there, as my wife and I got there around 6:15 or so. We were in the first room, near the curtain, and I know when we were there, there were at least two other guys at the bar. I have no idea what the seats or the rest of the room was like.

I really do think there is a certain appeal to "chicks" as the environment doesn't lend itself to being a meat market, and they can just sit and talk without the hassle of dealing with morons.

We may have been seated very close to you. We were in high-backs right at the front, and I did count one guy from the seats near the window.

I took mild offence initially to my friend's comment about TVH being a chick place 1) because I don't like to think of myself as someone who spends much time at such places, kind of being "anti-chick" and 2) that night specifically the friend I was with had asked me to choose places where we might meet single men and not morons (not that I'm any kind of authority). Thinking more though, I agree that TVH is a comfortable place for women to linger without being hassled.

I don't consider it a "chick place" but rather a place that attracts sensible people. The very nature of it precludes some people from enjoying it...there are no TVs to provide distraction or trite topics for discussion, no thumping bass beats to avoid talking over, no Grey Goose or cranberry juice to facilitate a drink order without consideration, no party hopping or mingling to create mindless banter or escape the group you came with.

What's left? Conversation. Yes, about the excellent drinks, but hopefully much more. And, essentially it's with the group you choose to enter with (unless it's a slow night, in which case the bartenders are also some of the nicest and chattiest you'll ever meet). Yes, this is a vibe that can cater to the 'girls night out' types, but not like an Excalibur bachelorette party, rather only to the extent that people want to enjoy great drinks in the company of those they choose without being disturbed. Anyone comfortable in their ability to hold up one end of a conversation should feel completely at ease there.

kl1191 wrote:I don't consider it a "chick place" but rather a place that attracts sensible people. The very nature of it precludes some people from enjoying it...there are no TVs to provide distraction or trite topics for discussion, no thumping bass beats to avoid talking over, no Grey Goose or cranberry juice to facilitate a drink order without consideration, no party hopping or mingling to create mindless banter or escape the group you came with.

What's left? Conversation. Yes, about the excellent drinks, but hopefully much more. And, essentially it's with the group you choose to enter with (unless it's a slow night, in which case the bartenders are also some of the nicest and chattiest you'll ever meet). Yes, this is a vibe that can cater to the 'girls night out' types, but not like an Excalibur bachelorette party, rather only to the extent that people want to enjoy great drinks in the company of those they choose without being disturbed. Anyone comfortable in their ability to hold up one end of a conversation should feel completely at ease there.

Yes, similar to going to Alinea, you don't want to go to The Violet Hour with people with whom you're not excited to spend time. It's a great venue -- a special one -- for spending time with people you really like.

=R=

The spring menu is out and online!

Eeyore's Requiem: Campari, Dolin Bianco, Cynar, Fernet Branca, House Orange Bitters

Oh my.

kl1191 wrote:

Eeyore's Requiem: Campari, Dolin Bianco, Cynar, Fernet Branca, House Orange Bitters

Oh my.

For good or bad, "Oh my" fits.

SSDD

How are the crowds at VH these days? If I went with 4-5 people when they open at 6pm on Saturday will I be alright?

You'll be OK. I've been going almost weekly of late, often early on Fridays or Saturdays. A group of that size when they open is no problem.

happy_stomach wrote:You'll be OK. I've been going almost weekly of late, often early on Fridays or Saturdays. A group of that size when they open is no problem.

I agree, really groups of almost any size are probably ok right when they open. I showed up at around 6:30 - 6:45 last Friday, and I was the first person sitting in the second room; and that was by choice, there was a seat or two at the front bar at the time.

SSDD

Perfect, thanks! I'll be swining by there Saturday, been 1.5 yr since I've been..

Townshend wrote:Perfect, thanks! I'll be swining by there Saturday, been 1.5 yr since I've been..

Ugh, it's been almost a week and I'm planning my next visit...


SSDD

Has anyone been recently on a weeknight? Any estimates for the wait time Wednesdays around 10pm? There's going to be four of us so we're just wondering if we need to get there earlier in order to avoid an extreme wait lol Thanks!

spiffytriphy wrote:Has anyone been recently on a weeknight? Any estimates for the wait time Wednesdays around 10pm? There's going to be four of us so we're just wondering if we need to get there earlier in order to avoid an extreme wait lol Thanks!

I'm not sure what qualifies as an extreme wait, but I was at TVH past 10pm one day last week, and the wait wasn't bad, just about 10 minutes (though there were just two of us). I can't say if this is typical; I usually go to TVH hour early both on weeknights and weekends.

Ok thanks! Yeah, my friends and I don't mind waiting. I just don't want to wait for hours, especially if it's cold and/or rainy lol