Parliament's rooftop offers a great view of Chicago's skyline. (Photos: 312 Dining Diva)
I'm not much of a movie buff, so when I got a last-minute invitation to the private cast/crew party for Transformers 4: Age of Extinction, the only reason I accepted was because of its location. It was held Monday night at the hot new River North champagne lounge Parliament.
Of course I was excited about the possibility of meeting director Michael Bay (Who we met!), as well as stars Mark Wahlberg, Kelsey Grammer and Stanley Tucci, but I was even more excited about another bubbly bar in the area. The former home for the grimy Griffin Lounge had been successfully transformed into a luxury night spot that I could easily see myself hanging out in on a regular basis.
While the cocktail lounge itself was bright with energy—particularly in the baller VIP section in the middle of the room—the rooftop bar offers the best seats in the house. It mixes contemporary and classic patterns and offers optimum views of the city's skyline.
That's where much of the crowd was hanging and sipping signature Autobot (whiskey based) and Decepticon (tequila- and St. Germain-based) cocktails as they dined on pulled pork sandwiches and gourmet mac 'n' cheese from comfort-food fave Hearty.
Hearty's gourmet mac 'n' cheese
After schmoozing awhile with the cast and crew (Alas, we never ran into Wahlberg, Grammer or Tucci), we were treated to a 10-minute sneak preview reel—with a brief introduction by Michael Bay. It showed many Chicago landmarks, including The Bean, Chinatown and Uptown Theater. I won't be a spoiler by telling you which landmark gets destroyed, but there were definitely many shrill cries in the audience when it happened.
Transformers 4: Age of Extinction debuts in theaters next summer, but you can hit up Parliament or Hearty any time of the week.
Can you give us a brief description about you saw on that Sneak peak :P
ReplyDeleteCan you give us a brief description about that sneak peak? :P
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that it's going to be very action packed; Kelsey Grammer is extremely evil (shocked?!) and Marky Mark is a great hero. There's a lot of action and it's completely different from the previous three movies. ;)
ReplyDeleteYo dining diva. Is firstly like to tell you how thrilled Iam you have posted such news however iI would like to extend to you that billions and I mean billions of transformers fans have read this and crave more. So on behalf of all fans I have to ask I really have to know I would really like a snippet of additional information anything at all give us fans something to talk about
ReplyDelete