Restaurants with Performative Gimmicks

I'm looking for help with restaurants that have some kind of performance element to accompany their food-- something maybe to the the right of a Band, to the left of Dinner Theater. I mean something like:

1. Belly dancer
2. Magician
3. Clown

I don't actually mean clown, that would be horrifying. But... anything along those lines? Good food certainly a plus.

How's about Medieval Times? I've never been there, so I can't vouch for the food or the joisting. But with the right amount of beer, it's got to be at least mildly entertaining.

A La Turka has belly dancers on Fri & Sat. Not finding much discussion about it here on LTH...and I haven't been myself (got a restaurant.com cert I need to use there though), but here's the metromix link:

http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/sear ... 0629.venue

A La Turka
3134 N. Lincoln Ave.
773-935-6101

Have you thought about Improv Kitchen? There's a large video screen at your table, and from time to time during the meal an improv group videoconferences with you to create sketches based on your input. Other times you see what they're doing for other tables. And, surprisingly, the food isn't too bad.

Improv Kitchen
3419 N. Clark St., Chicago

Belly Dancers:

Souk has them on Wednesday and Saturday (call to confirm, I also know they were planning on moving to Randolph St. sometime this winter/spring)

Souk
1552 N. Milwaukee Ave
773.278.1210

3. Clown

I don't actually mean clown, that would be horrifying.

If you should feel a need to be scared and disturbed by a clown while eating a patty melt followed by a nice cup of sherbet, then the Colonial Cafe should suit your needs. I believe the clown's name is Snookie.

Colonial Cafe
St. Charles - East
1625 E. Main Street/North Ave (Rt. 64)
St. Charles, IL
Ph 630.584.4647

O'Donovan's bar still has guys doing close-up magic [at least according to Metromix]. A hold-over from the Schulien's days.

Thursday through Sunday nights, magicians perform tableside magic, in an homage to the bar's original owners who were magicians.

O'Donovan's
2100 W. Irving Park Rd.
773-478-2100

Tizi Melloul
531 North Wells
Chicago, IL 60610
312-670-4338

Belly dancing Sunday nights around 7 and 8 PM. They used to have a $25 all you could eat/drink wine and appetizers deal, but I think that has been discontinued.

Raw Bar has live acts - mostly music, I think. They're up across from Wrigley field at 3720 N Clark St.

Kan Zaman also has belly dancers on the weekends. We were there to celebrate a friend's birthday this summer and had a blast. There seemed to be a lot of other birthdays/celebrations going on at the whole restaurant became one big party. I don't have too many memories of the food as we had started drinking early And we probably spent less time eating and more time dancing with the belly dancer But I believe the food was fine. And Kan Zaman is BYOB if you are looking for a less expensive option.

Kan Zaman
617 N. Wells
Chicago

What about Kazokuwith its "performance" sushi?

Kizoku Sushi & Lounge
358 W. Ontario St
(312) 335-9888

Kit Kat Lounge and Supper Club in BoysTown on Halsted has great food and has female impersonators singing/lip-syncing, struttin' their stuff and dancing around to the tables. The globally-inspired food is very good and presented well. They have a great and large martini menu. This place is great for special occasions and for bigger groups that might not otherwise all agree to one type of cuisine. Very festive and staff is friendly and attentive. Better still the kitchen is open 'til midnight! We had a birthday dinner there for a good friend of mine and I still remember a Tina Turner impersonator wildly shaking her/his "accesories" to much applause and giggling and a little blushing too!

Kit Kat Lounge and Supper Club
3700 N. Halsted
Chicago, IL
773-525-1111

Menus available on their website

Kitchen Monkey wrote:Kit Kat Lounge and Supper Club in BoysTown on Halsted has great food and has female impersonators singing/lip-syncing, struttin' their stuff and dancing around to the tables.

I thought the food there was ok - I had the top hat tender. Someone else had the big daddy shrimp, but the shrimp were way over-fried. Oh, when the performance starts, you have to stop and watch because the music is so loud that you won't be able to anyone at your table. What peeved me off enough so that I'll never go back was that I ordered a Maker's Mark on the rocks and on the bill was a $2 charge for the ice!

2. Magician

Lee's Chop Suey on Diversey & Western will make your appetite disappear.

-- The Amazing Rabbinci

Fujisan wrote: What peeved me off enough so that I'll never go back was that I ordered a Maker's Mark on the rocks and on the bill was a $2 charge for the ice!

Although it sounds like you have plenty of other reasons not to go back, this maybe should not be one of them. Many bars charge extra for a drink on the rocks because they pour extra booze in the glass. It's not the ice you are paying for; the drink is actually substantially larger. Or at least that's what I've heard enough times in the past to believe it!

I believe La Baraka, a Lebanese place on Skoie Boulevard north of Dempster in Skokie has belly dancing on Fridays. (The owner said his daughter, a pre-med student, is the performer). They also serve mezze.

Also, check at Tommy Nevin's in Evanston. They used to have traditional Irish music on Sunday afternoons.

On Kit Kat Lounge;

While I had a fun and hilarious experience, I must concede that yes once the performances start the music is quite loud, so you really have no choice but to pay attention to the show. We were in party mode, so we didn't mind, but it is an important thing to note. If you do not want that level of loud/in-your-face performance then this is probably not a good choice.

I drove by a new restaurant called the Tiki Terrace in a strip mall on Wolf Rd. in Mt. Prospect and was curious enough to stop and pick up a menu. They offer local(ish) Hawaiian food and Hula dancing on weekends! It's a tiny place. Menus etc. at thetikiterrace dot com. I may actually go just to see how they do loco moco in the suburbs.

Although I am a 6'4", 285 lb, 32 year-old powerlifter/martial artist/former college wrestler and high school football player, the thought of a LIVE, performing clown in a restaurant has to be one the most psychologically horrifying things I can imagine.

although I should add that I can't fall asleep with the closet door open either, because of the bogeyman of course. And, I am deathly afraid of H.R. Pufinstuf.

bibi rose wrote:I drove by a new restaurant called the Tiki Terrace in a strip mall on Wolf Rd. in Mt. Prospect and was curious enough to stop and pick up a menu. They offer local(ish) Hawaiian food and Hula dancing on weekends! It's a tiny place. Menus etc. at thetikiterrace dot com. I may actually go just to see how they do loco moco in the suburbs.

I didn't have the loco moco, but I can report that this isn't a place you go to for the food. The pork was the best thing, but 75 percent of menu is deep-fried, greasily. However, they've only been open a couple of months and they're not experienced restaurateurs.

On the other hand, the emphasis is on the drinks and the show. Drinks weren't up to the Hala Kahiki standard.

I'm not sure if it really fits the description of what you're looking for, but a restaurant featuring entertainment (that really was quite entertaining) is Tony Spavone's in Bloomingdale. We dined there with some friends who live in the area and, frankly, I wasn't expecting much. However, the food actually is quite good, and I especially was impressed with Tony Spavone's (the proprietor's) singing voice and set-up. It almost borders on comical -- he has large speakers mounted around the restaurant (it obviously isn't a place for quiet conversation) and walks around the room with a cordless microphone singing to diners. The evening that we were there, he serenaded an older gentleman who was visiting from Sicily. I wouldn't make it a point of going there every weekend, but I found the whole experience to be very entertaining.


http://www.tonyspavones.com/index.html

Laz, thank you for the report on Tiki Terrace. I am pretty sure my SO will want to go as he's a Hawaiiana junkie. A few greasy fried specialties never hurt anyone, especially while drinking tropical drinks.

LAZ wrote:

bibi rose wrote:I drove by a new restaurant called the Tiki Terrace in a strip mall on Wolf Rd. in Mt. Prospect and was curious enough to stop and pick up a menu. They offer local(ish) Hawaiian food and Hula dancing on weekends! It's a tiny place. Menus etc. at thetikiterrace dot com. I may actually go just to see how they do loco moco in the suburbs.

I didn't have the loco moco, but I can report that this isn't a place you go to for the food. The pork was the best thing, but 75 percent of menu is deep-fried, greasily. However, they've only been open a couple of months and they're not experienced restaurateurs.

On the other hand, the emphasis is on the drinks and the show. Drinks weren't up to the Hala Kahiki standard.

We went there last night, and I think your description is just about right. Perfectly serviceable food. The mai tais were OK, pretty boozy but too sweet for me. The hula performance went on for an hour; everyone (in the front room at least) stops talking and watches it. We had the feeling everyone else there knew each other. Our server was a hula dancer and there were a number of families whose kids apparently go to the hula school that is, I gather, owned by the same people. If you go on a weekend, you should get a reservation. The place was packed when we got there and we were able to snag the one remaining table. It's nice to see them doing that kind of business. They clearly are inexperienced but they are making a big effort.

Marrakech Cuisine is a new Moroccan place in Wicker Park with belly dancers on Friday and Saturday nights. (After 9:00, according to Metromix.) The food is great - I ordered the tilapia tangine and my girlfriend had the chicken tangine. I still don't know exactly what a tangine is, but the meat on both was incredibly delicate and flavorful. Our host/server Abe was very friendly and told lots of jokes. As for the belly dancing itself, I thought it was a little creepy. There's no stage, so she just wandered around the dining room. And there was no live music, so she carried a tape player with her. It just seemed tacked-on and out-of-place.

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I still don't know exactly what a tangine is, but the meat on both was incredibly delicate and flavorful.

FYI, "tagine" refers both to a piece of Moroccan cookware and also describes dishes cooked in the cookware. Here's a link to pages that show a picture of typical tagines: http://fantes.com/tagine.htm. The cookware is always a two-piece dish--ingredients are placed in the bottom, which is a round, shallow base, and then it's covered with a conical/funnel-shaped lid. The tagine is the Moroccan version of a slow-cooker...most recipes call for cooking ingredients for a long time at low heat.

Last week my Mom made a delicious tagine of chicken with olives and preserved lemons (served over couscous), which is a very typical Moroccan dish cooked in a tagine. (I'm salivating when I think of how delicious it was.) Thanks for reminding me of Marrakech Cuisine...I've been meaning to check it out. Maybe I'll head over there in the next couple weeks and see if they offer a version.

hungryrabbi wrote:

2. Magician

Lee's Chop Suey on Diversey & Western will make your appetite disappear.

-- The Amazing Rabbinci

While I would avoid their entrees, Lee's Chop Suey makes a mean if greasy old-style egg roll. One of my favorites.

-ramon

Lou Malnatis used to have a magician on certain nights. He would walk around to the tables doing tricks. Corny, but fun. BTW, this was at the Lincolnwood location!

JeanneBean wrote:Lou Malnatis used to have a magician on certain nights. He would walk around to the tables doing tricks. Corny, but fun. BTW, this was at the Lincolnwood location!

Used to get that same treatment Sunday's at Harry Carray's Wheeling location, not too far from Lincolnwood. Wonder if it was the same magician? This was maybe 10 years ago.

Wow. I'm actually somewhat surprised there's a thread called "Restaurants with Performative Gimmicks." Really, everything is discussed here.

Anyway, this may be old news, but I just learned that Manny's has a magician on Saturdays. He does classic card tricks, makes objects change color, multiply, shrink, disappear. He wears a regular suit but has a magic wand, too. Heavy on the corny humor but a nice guy. I met him at a grown-up party of software developers and artists in an uber-modern space; I bet he'd be even better in the Manny's cafeteria amongst families and regulars on a Saturday afternoon, though I wonder about the mechanics of eating a pastrami sandwich and participating in a card trick. Must try it out.

The magician's name is Jeff Bibik. I think he said he starts at Manny's at 2pm and that he also performs at John's Place (?) in Lincoln Park on Sunday nights. He may also start doing magic at the Melting Pot. I took his picture:

Jeff Bibik also is at Kappys Restaurant in Morton Grove on Wednesday nights...not sure what time he starts.

MrFlmbynt wrote:And, I am deathly afraid of H.R. Pufinstuf.

Rightfully so. Ever watch the Banana Splits? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtD4mn9CeH4
Yes, that's an elephant.

Anyway, you could also try Barba Yianni in Lincoln Square for bellydancers.
http://www.barbayianni.com/Site/Home.html

Also, check out this site. Often the teachers hold performances and student Haflas at local restaurants.
http://www.arabesquechicago.com/