FORGOTTEN CHICAGO

Craft Cocktails Celebrating the Storied History of the Windy City

Spring 2024

URBS IN HORTO

Ford’s Gin, Dill Aquavit, Fernet, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao, Lemon, Simple, Peychauds, Thyme

In the 1830s, Chicago's emerging government adopted the motto "Urbs in horto," a Latin phrase meaning "City in a Garden." The slogan proved to be prophetic. For nearly two centuries, Chicago's citizens have rallied for the creation and protection of parkland, and many of the city's parks have served as testing grounds for important ideas and social movements.

MYTH’S O’LEARY

Horseradish Infused Apple Calvados, Tullamore Dew, Tempus Fugit Crème de Cocoa, Vanilla Bean, Egg

There’s a common myth that pops up anytime the Chicago Fire of 1871 comes up in conversation: that a woman named Catherine O’Leary was milking her cow when the cow kicked over a lantern, igniting the barn and starting the fire that would destroy much of the city.

But then there’s the reality: an Irish immigrant who was demonized and harassed by the press, whose life was turned upside down by a false report in a newspaper. Mrs. O’Leary’s defamation after the flames died out was due in part to her status as an Irish immigrant woman, according to one historian.

SHIKAAKWA

North Shore Mighty Gin, El Dorado Rum, Dry Vermouth

According to the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, the name “Chicago” is commonly accepted as a variant of a word that comes from the Algonquin language: “shikaakwa,” meaning “striped skunk” or “onion.” According to early explorers, the lakes and streams around Chicago were full of wild onions, leeks, and ramps (also called wild leeks).

FORT DEARBORN

Pierre Ferrand Cognac 1840, Pierre Ferrand Orange Curacao, Wild Turkey 101 Rye, Fernet, Peychauds, Lemon

Fort Dearborn was a wooden stockade built in 1803 on the south bank of the Chicago River. It was located at the mouth of the river, at the intersection of modern-day Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive.

The fort was the U.S. Army’s westernmost outpost in the early 19th century and marked the first major investment on new federal land in this region.

INTERWAR

Laphroaig, Dewars White Label, Luxardo Bitter Bianco, Ginger Liquor, Lemon, Angostura

In the early to mid-20th-century Chicago, Illinois loomed large in the collective imaginations of African Americans.  Unlike the similarly romanticized, predominately black New York City neighborhood of Harlem, Chicago’s African American South Side retained a kind of folk/rural character and racial authenticity as compared to other northern U.S. destinations for southern black migrants. 

In the years roughly between the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II black Chicago experienced a cultural flowering: a place and time in which the arts and letters, from Florence Price’s symphonic works to Big Bill Broonzy’s blues recordings, and from William Edouard Scott’s impressionistic canvases to Archibald Motley’s hothouse paintings, contributed to Chicago’s reputation as an African American focalized destination.