Punch service in Chicago-area bars?

This interesting article by Wayne Curtis at TheAtlantic.com (which I found via The Reader's web site) got me thinking about how much fun it could be to enjoy high-quality punch service with a few friends at a local bar . . .

Wayne Curtis @ TheAtlantic.com wrote:Bowls of delicious punch have already made inroads into bars like Death & Co in New York and Rickhouse in San Francisco. Perhaps we’ll see a wave of neo-colonial taverns staffed by toothless barmaids in mobcaps, ladling drink out of firkins. Or, possibly, not.

There's a brief mention in this post of punches being on the menu at The Exchange in Wicker Park but no mention of having tried them.

Does anyone know of any places in town that offer punches on the menu? I'm guessing that some of our finer cocktail bars/lounges would probably be willing to put something together on request but I haven't explored this avenue yet. Has anyone else?

=R=

The Violet Hour always has a few punches on its menu, $30 each, serving 3-4. I haven't gone with a group large enough to partake, however. Has anyone tried them?

geno55 wrote:The Violet Hour always has a few punches on its menu, $30 each, serving 3-4. I haven't gone with a group large enough to partake, however. Has anyone tried them?

I had some nice carafe service there at a special event a couple years back but iirc, they were cocktails that could otherwise be ordered individually, not specifically punches. They were served tableside in carafes in the back salon and tweaked by Toby himself. It was very cool but still, I'd love to try some punches there.

=R=

If someone offered this in Chicago, I'd be all over it...especially if said punches were of the non-alcoholic variety.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

geno55 wrote:The Violet Hour always has a few punches on its menu, $30 each, serving 3-4. I haven't gone with a group large enough to partake, however. Has anyone tried them?

I had some nice carafe service there at a special event a couple years back but iirc, they were cocktails that could otherwise be ordered individually, not specifically punches. They were served tableside in carafes in the back salon and tweaked by Toby himself. It was very cool but still, I'd love to try some punches there.

=R=

The Hour definitely has stand alone punches:

From the Hour's website wrote:Spring Punches
$30 (serves 3-4)

Castle Punch
Lady Grey Infused Tanqueray, Lemon, Yellow Chartreuse, House Orange Bitters

Cascade Hollow
George Dickel, Lemon, Laird's Applejack, Mint, Peychaud's Bittes

I know the Drawing Room use to have them on the menu, they were on the page opposite the cocktail menu, but unfortunately that page isn't online so I don't know if they still regularly do them or no.

SSDD

I was going to suggest the punch service at The Drawing Room as well. I watched them make one there that looked really interesting, based on the historical British-Indian recipe, complete with freshly-brewed tea.

Also, The Southern has a few punches on their cocktail menu.

I was at The Drawing Room maybe a month ago and had one of their punches. The punch service was really cool. It came in an old fashioned punch bowl with matching cups. They put the bowl in the middle of our table and ladled out cups, then came back periodically to top off our cups from the bowl. (The sliver ladle was left in the bowl, so we could refill our own as well.) The punchbowl we got was a neat white opaque glass bowl with a kind of curved, fluted pattern that looked like something my grandmother would have. When we asked about the bowl, our waiter told us they'd collected several punch sets from flea markets and antique shops and such and that each set was different.

As for the punch itself, it was a bit sweet for my taste, but the other three people in the group all really enjoyed it. I thought it was well-made, just sweeter than I prefer. I don't recall the name or the exact ingredients, but it was orange and whiskey (bourbon or rye) based.