Bottle Service?

Anyone know of a smaller, quaint place where I can celebrate a birthday party for my wife. I'd like to avoid the likes of Paris Club, Sound Bar, etc. I'm looking for something in the city that plays hip-hop.

Thanks!

I don't know about small and quaint(never been there), but if you want bottle service and hip hop, the Shrine is the place to go.

http://www.theshrinechicago.com/main.php
2109 South Wabash Avenue
Chicago
(312) 753-5681

And the only smaller/quainter place that I've ever had bottle service, is Jbar at the James Hotel. Don't really remember how heavy hip hop was in the mix of what they were playing....I'd imagine it might be pretty dependent on the night/dj.

http://www.jbarchicago.com/
610 North Rush Street
Chicago, IL 60611-2712
(312) 660-7200

BTW, I'm no expert on bottle service. But I do have a buddy that likes to blow his money pretty regularly, so I've been to a few places...mostly in River North.

Really like The Shrine. It's really a nice place with a pretty relaxed vibe for a club (at least when I've been there). But it's still a club, and not really quaint in any sense of the word.

In my experience, small, quaint, hip hop, and bottle service aren't concepts that have ever been used to describe any one single venue.

Is bottle service really a necessity? A liter of vodka generally costs around $300, but when you add all the mandatory taxes, tips, and bribes, you're up to around $400-450. A liter contains ~34 ounces of vodka, or 17-20 drinks, so you're looking at $20-25 per drink! Plus, places with bottle service usually have "rules" that will require you to buy one bottle for each 4-5 people in your party.

If you're willing to remove the bottle service requirement and just pay for individual cocktails, I bet you'll have a lot more luck finding a place that's intimate, lounge-y, and plays hip hop, and will probably even get away with saving a fair amount of cash in the process.

Doesn't fill (m)any of your requirements, but I'd go to Curio. It has: small, quaint and hip hop*. It has not: bottle service. I does, however, have decent cocktails.

* Depends what you mean by hip hop. I'm talking instrumental/obscure vinyl, rather than NWA.


Curio (downstairs at Gilt)
230 West Kinzie Street
Chicago, IL 60654
(312) 464-9544

Do you actually want a club? Or more of a bar? I can't think of many low-key places that do bottle service, though you could probably call and have it arranged. The Drawing room might work out for something like that. The upstairs of Sushi Samba is usually pretty low-key as well.

Hip-hop+bottle service is usually going to equal pretty loud or busy place though.

All good suggestions and I appreciate the time.

I am looking into everyone's recommendations as we speak. Bottle service I guess is not a necessity, but would be nice so we don't have to worry about getting 12-15 people in waiting in line. We did bottle service at Paris Club back in August and it went well; there was like 12 of us and they made us only buy 2 bottles.

A place like Empire Liquors would be ideal; it's small and they usually play great music and I'd imagine a place like that won't charge out the azz like a Paris Club or a Cuvee will. I would actually do Empire Liquors, but we have been there already so many times I wanted to do something different, and I'm not positive Empire Liquors even offers bottle service.

Basically looking for something not over the top ghetto either a la Green Dolphin, Funky Buddha, etc. A nice diverse crowd would be a plus; don't want to have to worry about getting jacked in the parking lot afterwards would be fun.