“When is M.S.I.’s Periodic Table Dinner?” by S.M. O’Connor

To help celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the Periodic Table of Elements, Chicago’s Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry (M.S.I.)[1] will host the Periodic Table Dinner at The Promontory [2] on Thursday, October 10, 2019 from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

The M.S.I. stated, “For one night only, Executive Chef Carlos Cruz and his team will offer a curated menu for guests to discover why chemistry and cooking are the perfect pairing.”

During the three-course, interactive dinner, guests will discover little-known facts about the periodic table as they are served dishes inspired by elements including carbon, potassium, nitrogen, and calcium. You’ll explore how these elements work as ingredients to impact your taste buds. MSI curators will also be on hand to showcase rarely-seen artifacts from the Museum’s collection that tell the story of the periodic table’s history.

One must make reservations online and one must do so in advance. Reservations are offered on a first come, first served basis. Click here to make reservations via RESY.

The three-course prix fixe menu costs $50 per person. [A vegetarian entrée will be an option.] Additional drink packages will be offered. Tax and tip are not included.

The Promontory is on the west side of Lake Park Avenue, south of 53^rd Street, and north of 54^th Street in the Hyde Park Community Area (Community Area #41) on the South Side of Chicago. The address is 5311 South Lake Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60615.

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ENDNOTES

[1] As I wrote about Friday, the M.S.I. announced on Thursday, October 3, 2019 that the Board of Trustees had voted to accept a $125,000,000 gift from the Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund. M.S.I. executives and board members felt it would be appropriate to change the M.S.I.’s name to the Kenneth C. Griffin Museum of Science and Industry. A multi-billionaire, Mr. Griffin is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O.) of Citadel, Inc., a Chicago-based hedge fund. His gift is the largest in the history of the science and technology museum, and one of the largest gifts to any cultural institution in Chicago.

[2] Located on Lake Park Avenue, which is the main street in Hyde Park, The Promontory’s name is an allusion to Promontory Point. This is a manmade peninsula at the southeastern-most tip of the Chicago Park District’s 653.63-acre Burnham Park, which lies along the lakeshore from a point to the east of Grant Park downtown until it connects with Jackson Park at 57^th Street in Hyde Park. Alfred Caldwell (1903-1998), who is best remembered for the design of what is now called the Alfred Caldwell Lilly Pool in Lincoln Park, designed the landscape of Promontory Point. The Promontory Point Field House strongly resembles a lighthouse and is a popular venue for private events.

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.