Fear No Art Dinner Party

We always have a lot of fun at The Dinner Party. Elysabeth’s style is old-​fashioned glamour, and she’s mesmerizing in an eye-​twinkling way. I enjoy observing conversations from panelists veer in all sorts of directions, and I appreciate that audience members can tweet-​in questions, which makes for a fun interactive feeling. City Winery’s wines are delicious, and the dinner prepared by guest chefs gourmet. No food substitutions, folks, but you can order for special needs off the CW menu. There are lots of fun treats from sponsors from local bread and cheese to sparkling water to chocolates. Plus — you go home with prizes and gift bags! The show has the feel of an old fashioned talk show, but you get to settle into and see guests live and in-​person. Lynn Jordan, Lisa Madigan and Peter Sagel have been a few highlights. I recommend arriving early or on time. The Dinner Party always features awesome opening talent!

I have always enjoyed this event. It reminds me of the old time dinner and entertainment scene that you see in old movies. On stage is Elysabeth Alfano — Creator, Executive Producer, Producer & Host, and four guests, each with a specialty, usually related to the arts, and one of the guests is always a chef from a local establishment. My very first one, March 26, 2012, was with the Green Mill Poetry Slam founder Mark Smith (who gave a wonderful performance), Chicago blues legend Billy Branch performing «Hoochie Coochie Man» on his harmonica, Naomi Beckwith Curator at the MCA, and Matt Troost from the restaurant Three Aces, making gnocchi and ribollita, and Guest artist Nicholas Barron performed that night as well!
Elizabeth starts out interviewing each person, but also encourages conversation between the guests. In this case (March 2012) the guests got up and performed, and it was so wonderful. Then the chef gives a cooking lesson on the video monitor of the meal that he is preparing for the guests and then the meal is brought out with a tasting of wine to go with each and Voges Chocolates are served for dessert. It was a night to remember! So much fun, and interesting!
PS — I posted the Fear No Art presents The Dinner Party’s May event here on Unilocal,not because I have anything to do with it, because I don’t, but because they don’t seem to have a presence on Unilocal,and I was doing a review of it, so thought that I should give them a presence here.