The dress code for the Peninsula Chicago's 10th anniversary party, held Wednesday at the Mag Mile property, may well have been "pre-recession chic." Some variation of the descriptor was bandied about by guests in nearly every corner of the sprawling soiree, which occupied the lobby level, bar, two restaurants, ballroom, and terrace, and included elements—such as endlessly flowing champagne, caviar bars, ice sculptures, and around one server to every four guests—that harked back to economically sound times.
The Peninsula Chicago opened on June 1, 2001. "The grand opening party was scheduled for September 20, 2001," said Greg Hyder, the hotel's director of catering. After the September 11 attacks, "the opening party was canceled and the monies for the party were donated to the Twin Tower Fund. The hotel never had its grand opening, and so 10 years later, in honor of this special decade anniversary, it was a fitting time to throw a party on the scale of a grand hotel opening."
Hyder designed and produced the event with the assistance of Tom Kehoe of Kehoe Designs. The Honorable Sir Michael Kadoorie, chairman of the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Limited, hosted the party with Maria Razumich-Zec, the Peninsula Chicago's general manager and regional vice president.
Some 1,000 guests, who included Peninsula clients and spa members, members of the local media, and influential locals such as Christie Hefner and Bill Kurtis, attended the event, which had a "Peninsula Past, Present, and Future" theme. To pay tribute to the hotel brand's Asian connections—the first Peninsula property opened in Hong Kong in 1928, and the Peninsula Tokyo opened in 2007—costumed geishas ambled throughout the party on stilts, a dim sum buffet replete with foie gras dumplings stayed open all night, and taiko drummers performed on the terrace.
The "present" theme came to life in the bar, which became a Chicago-style blues club for the evening and featured performances by singer Lonnie Brooks and club-style lounge areas with drink service. The hotel will open a new property in Paris in 2013, so to represent the near future, Avenues restaurant was transformed into a sleek, Parisian-style nightclub with a glossy white dance floor and blue lighting.
