Strange Chili Cocktails, Fun Chilly Evening

Last night I went out with some friends to celebrate—could you guess it—yet another going away party! This time, the celebration led us to Between in Wicker Park, where we surprised Matt who’s moving to San Francisco at the end of the week.

The atmosphere at Between is interesting—in a good way. They have all kinds of exotic-looking light fixtures, which add a touch of whimsy and a dim romantic glow to the place. Rows of long red tassels encircled our corner by the windows, where we sat on cushy cubes around a low square table. Our corner wasn’t really made for ten people, but in the words of Tim Gunn, we made it work. It was quite cozy, in fact, which was nice because, for May, it was uncharacteristically frigid yesterday (forties for temps!).

Bad picture of the cool light fixtures at Between

We were there more for drinks than for food, although we indulged in both. And I have to admit—depending on what you ordered, you’d either have a fabulous experience, or a terrible one. Take the “Hot and Dirty” martini, for instance--the topic of much conversation throughout the evening. Now, admittedly, I didn’t get too near this drink (after a quick whiff of it, I decided to save myself the trouble). Matt ordered it and after his first sip was insisting that everyone else try it. A fan of fruity drinks myself, the moment I heard the word “savory” to describe the cocktail, I was out. I watched one cringing face after another, and soon I was examining the drink with floating chili pepper bits on the surface. It smelled like liquid dinner—literally.

Reactions to the other drinks were similarly mixed. I was a bit dismayed that my ten-dollar cocktails were filled far below the brim, in part because our server did a pretty good job of spilling a bit of just about everything on the table as she brought our drinks (and she was only bringing about four at a time and they weren’t that busy until later in the evening, so, having been a server, I had little sympathy for this). I enjoyed my Passion Between—it’s difficult to screw up a passion fruit martini, however, and, as long as it was sweet, I was going to like it.

Potato-Wrapped Shrimp

The food was okay. I ordered potato-wrapped shrimp. Again, I was less than thrilled about the quantity I received for my money. Yes, they were pretty good, but at $3/shrimp, they should have been much better. Their octopus is excellent, though. It was quite tender and tasty.

Octopus Dish

We had great conversation all night. Lots of banter about restaurants, which, honestly, seems to be the topic of choice at any Chicago get-together. At some point during our cocktails, someone suggested we head out to Sayat Nova for Bollywood dance night, which apparently happens once per month on a Saturday night (not 100% sure, and couldn’t find the info on their website). Not one of us knows how to dance to Bollywood music, but it sounded like a lot of fun, so that’s where we headed next.

Sayat Nova was a blast. A little pricey ($15 cover), but fun—I mean, seriously, who doesn’t love Bollywood music? I immediately wished I hadn’t been wearing heels or carrying my large purse, but I did the best I could on the dance floor. We all had fun laughing at ourselves and learning some new moves from some of the women who knew what they were doing. I would’ve liked to have stayed out later, but still recovering from a head cold, I decided to call it a night just after midnight. But there’s always next month's Bollywood Dance Party!