A special treat – besides the camaraderie and good food – will be in store for the 400 invitation-only guests expected to attend the 25th annual Windy City West Party in Los Angeles March 5 at a popular Santa Monica restaurant, owned by former Chicagoans.
Chicago Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts will receive the first Windy City West “Man of the Year” award, “as someone who truly embodies what our city is all about – hard work, dedication and the importance of giving back,” says Rich Melman, one of the original founders of Windy City West and chairman of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.
This year’s party celebrates the 25th anniversary of the first party, and is the fifteenth over the years. It is being produced by Brenda Sexton’s Chicagolink Productions and Tom Dreesen, who will again MC the party, as he has for all of the previous 15 years. The venue is M Street Kitchen and Stella Rossa Pizza Bar in Santa Monica, owned by Melman’s sons Jerrod and RJ.
Among the guests will be some of the biggest names in movies and TV, actors, studio heads, screenwriters and athletes, says Sexton, who revitalized the party in 2004 as an ideal way to promote Chicago when she headed the Illinois Film Office.
Her first party in L.A. was held at the Sheraton Universal Hotel for than 1,000 guests.
“The party certainly was a factor in bringing film business to Chicago,” she recalls. “I remember Vince Vaughan coming up to me and saying he’d bring all his movies back, and he was true to his word. That was a big boon to the film industry and the local economy.”
Started as an occasion to hang out with old friends
In 1987, fellow Chicagoans writer/producer Ginny Weisman and comedian Tom Dreesen teamed up with Melman to host a party to bring together some of the biggest names in entertainment to celebrate their Windy City roots.
It kicked off with 600 people in the Hollywood entertainment industry with ties to Chicago, recalls Weisman, who again resides in the L.A. area after having spent 15 years back in Chicago. “We had 1,000 attend the second year and had around that number for many years thereafter,” she says.
The number of guests varied over Weisman’s years back in Chicago until Sexton as IFO chief believed the party would be a great way to promote Chicago as a film center, “and it worked,” she says.
The number of guests for the March has been limited recently to restaurant capacity fire laws although the party receives many invitation requests from people who think it’s a cool party to attend, says Weissman. “But the point is to keep it a Chicago event and the requests are carefully vetted.”
The March 5 evening will continue the tradition of featuring Chicago staples like Lou Malnati’s pizza, Vienna Beef hot dogs, Garrett popcorn, Eli’s cheesecake, Portillo’s Italian beef and menu items from Chicago Cub fans’ staple, Harry Caray’s.
Guests will also enjoy menu items from several Lettuce Entertain You restaurants, including HUB51, Joe’s Stone Crab, Paris Club, RPM Italian, Stella Rossa Pizza Bar and M Street Kitchen.
The Sun-Times’ Bill Zwecker will again host the Red Carpet.
Sponsors for Windy City West 2012 are The Waldorf Astoria Chicago (formerly the Elysian), Harry Caray’s, Cinespace Chicago and Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.
