Dear Fellow Members of the Illinois TCC Chapter,
I have volunteered to be our new Chapter Coordinator, and organize some fun events that hopefully you will all want to join in on! Big thanks to Charles Merkel for crossing the Mississippi from St Louis the last few years to get the chapter going! You have left me some big shoes to fill.
I thought I would start with a fun, semi-active, tasty, Chicago-themed activity on Labor Day Monday afternoon (Sept. 7), in downtown Chicago. I hope you will join us. Here is the info and how to register:
Jan. 16, 1920, changed America: the Volstead Act went into effect, and the United States was officially “dry.” Chicago was ground zero for the next 13 years. Prohibition may have been the law of the land, but Chicago paid little heed. Chicago mayor William Hale Thompson declared himself to be wetter than the Atlantic Ocean. Chicago’s immigrant population viewed drinking as an intrinsic part of their culture.
Join us on Monday, Sept. 7 (Labor Day), at 1:30 p.m. on a curated Gangsters and Food Tasting Walking Tour for two hours of approximately one mile in distance in downtown Chicago. We will sample two iconic Chicago pizza styles — deep dish and tavern style — as well as steak, as Chicago’s Stockyards were the center of the meat processing industry, and the iconic Chicago hotdog. We will stop at a cathedral where gangsters were gunned down, a former brothel, and a hidden mobster tunnel.
The meeting place will be out front of Hoyt’s Restaurant at the Royal Sonesta Hotel on the Chicago River. Cross streets are Wacker and Wabash, in the North Loop.
Costs: The walking tour, including food for a full lunch and our guide, costs $86 ($84 with the senior discount for some folks). Drinks at the restaurants and gratuities are extra and at your discretion.
Any questions and for information on how to register, contact me at MAPTokyo@AOL.com.
Melanie Peterson
Illinois (Chicago) TCC Chapter Coordinator
