Our group has already established a few good places where we has gone so far that could be used for our future meetings (Arya Bhavan, Ethiopian Diamond, Karyn's Cooked, Veggie Bite, Dharma Garden, Soul Vegetarian East, Chicago Dinner, Great Taste Cafe, Udupi Palace, etc.) However, it would be fun to go to some new places or have more potlucks.
Please suggest:

1. a location/space for a potluck
2. suggestion for a restaurant for a lunch or a dinner
3. any other location (i.e. bowling, a movie, etc.) for our next events
4. any other ideas related to our meetups to make it more interesting and fun

It would be great if you can help to organize or possibly host an event but even just an idea would be really appreciated. The location should be able to held at least 35 people. Suburban location can be potentially smaller (up 20 people).

Don't be shy to share your ideas or/and possibly offer us your help to implement it!

On the strictly veggie side, I have these two:

I've been interested to try Chicago Loving Hut, which used to be Alice and Friends. It's all vegan and sounds delicious. It's largely Korean but with some other styles of cuisine thrown in.

Blind Faith is a vegetarian place in the near 'burbs that I've been meaning to try for a while.



And then on the extremely veggie friendly side I know of these:

Bite Cafe is not a strictly vegetarian restaurant, but almost anything on their menu can be made vegetarian and many things could be made vegan. They have some great salads, a veggie double cheeseburger, nachos, seitan sandwiches, etc. so they've been pretty great for me.

A tea meet up might be nice at Argo. Almost everything they serve is vegetarian (I think they have a couple of sandwiches with meat, but everything else is veg) and they have soy for all of their drinks.

Drew's Eatery is a green restaurant with tons of veggie options.

Flat Top Grill has the option to have vegetarian to people with food allergies have their food fried in a separate wok.

Thank you very much for your ideas Jessica. I actually called last week Loving Hut but they said that 15 is the max for their RSVPs it would be better if it's under 10 so unfortunately it would not be possible to go there with a large group. We will look into other options you listed though.
At this point I am thinking that it would be nice to find a space to have a potluck party, games, and possibly dancing. If anyone can offer or suggest space like that for 50+ people please let me know.

There's a little restaurant in Lincoln Square that would be willing to host us for a meetup sometime. It's called Drew's Eatery on Montrose. They had a "vegan night" event just last week and stayed open a couple hours after they normally close. I asked the owner and he said they'd do the same for us. It can only hold about 15-20 people tops though, so don't know if it's enough to make it worthwhile. Either way if you're in the area, check it out.
They have vegan hot dogs, bratwurst and sausage, as well as Chicago Soy dairy ice cream.
Anyway, here's the website:
http://www.drewseater...

Vadim,

I know it's a hike but I would love to do a meetup/potluck up here at Independence Grove in Libertyville. It's a forest preserve with kayaking, canoing, a small beach, bike and walking trails and a great bluff overlooking the lakes which we have an incredible yoga class on early Saturday mornings in the summer. We could definitely get 50+ people there. The metra train comes into Libertyville and I would be willing to pick up people and drop them off after. It's an incredible place.

Jeff - Thank you for your suggestion. Since they can not accommodate more than 20 people I don't see us jumping on it right away. But let's keep it as a possibility.

Lori - I love your idea of the potluck. I bet our members in north suburbs and north side of Chicago will really enjoy it. I prefer to plan as much in advance as possible so why don't you email with possible date(s) and post this event as an idea (I need you to write some good description for the event there)? Then we will discuss it further to make it happen.

I support the Flattop suggestion. I love that place!

I know you've tried Ethiopian Diamond, but Lalibela is another good Ethiopian place with a terrific veggie/vegan section. They're almost never crowded, so I'll bet they could accomodate all of us and I'm sure they'd appreciate the business.

Ever thought of doing a joint event/potluck with one of the Chicago environmental groups? (Maybe Chicago-land Green & Eco-Living or the Sierra Club.) We definitely have an overlap of interests, and I have to imagine many of them are vegetarians anyway.

Jackie

You are right about a big overlap with Eco/Green groups, Jackie. We are doing our April 17 as a joint event for both groups. Great minds think the same!

Thank you for suggesting the restaurants. I am putting it our list. If you or any other members would like to be the organizers for the dining out there - please let me know - it will allow us to schedule this event much sooner.

Hi all!

I very much like Dawn's idea about veg kids meetup. I have a 20 month old. We are lacto-vegetarians and we are usually the only veg family in the (toddler) play groups we attend. My kid never gets to eat the cookies or muffins other kids eat there and would like to have him meet other veg/vegans his age. We are in Rogers Park and as the weather warms up, I think a lakefront veg/vegan picnic would be lots of fun for the kiddos, don't you?

Hyde Park and the University of Chicago offer great scenic (bring your camera!) and cultural opportunities--and our group should invade these places. On 53rd St. there are restaurants that offer vegan options (such as sushi) and for vegetarians there is Pockets which offers things that should be able to made vegan based on the ingredients that are picked. For those who might want to do a potluck, if the critical mass was reached for that, Hyde Park has parks. Other restaurants with vegetarian options include Snail Thai Cuisine on 55th, and Medici on 57th and other restaurants.

The Obamas' Chicago home is around 51st. Heading north to 59th is the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel, which boasts the second largest musical instrument in the world and offers evening tours of the carillon tower on some Saturdays. If you can walk up 200+ stairs, you can watch the carillonneur playing the bells (there are 72 of them and 100 tons of bronze was used to make them). And you can continue to the top of the tower and see up to 50 miles on a clear day. The climb up the tower involves climbing 271 narrow mostly spiral steps. A block from there is both the Oriental Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robbie House. The campus has a lot of Gothic architecture and is impressively landscaped. The University of Chicago boasts more Nobel Prize winners than any other school. Also on campus is a monument to the splitting of the atom, which was first accomplished in a lab there and brought the world into the atomic age. And in the film When Harry Meet Sally, they first meet on the campus. Also parts of the film Proof were shot on the campus and the story was set in Hyde Park and University of Chicago.

They are offering a Rockefeller Tower Tour on Saturday, June 19th at 5:30.

I could organize this event, except for anything related to any participation in a potluck. We would have to be done eating and at Rockefeller by 5:30, because they start promptly and the doors lock after they start. After the tower tour, I could lead a brief walking tour of some of the things worth seeing on the campus.

And yes it would involve two or more restaurants, on an order-what-you-want basis. But I would supply details so that people could figure out what they wanted to order before they got there. And people running late could skip the meal. Meetup time for eating would be 4-4:30 depending on how people were going to get from 53rd to Rockefeller. Pockets is 18 minutes walking time to Rockefeller Chapel and it looks like people could order for themselves in advance from Pockets. There will be plenty of parking available by Rockefeller. There will likely be a live video of the carillonneur which can be viewed from the ground level for those won't or can't climb the stairs. Also, the space on the top is limited and so the tour group might be broken up into top-of-the-tower groups of 10 and each group taking a turn.