Fuji's Top 25 Parties of 2001
2001 Highlights - A Very Good Year

Below are some selected highlights from 2001 - quite a year! Listed in chronological order. Not quite as in-depth as Tommy Fitz's "Dear Diary" columns, this is more the "Rand McNally Atlas" of my 2001 party scene. Most of you will recognize events you were either at with me or even hosted (thanks!).

1) New Year's Eve 2000 - My first ever New Year's Eve triple-header - start off at Valerie's place out in "Copland" (the edge of the city near O'Hare where all the cops live) for a fun time with Chicago Ivy League alumni crowd, then a trip back downtown to one of my favorite indoor party venues, Adam, Brett, & Larry's party palace on Washtenaw, and then the closer at Havsy's crib in the heart of Boys Town with the PPC Gang. Click here for pix from Havsy's Boys Town Estate).

2) Sara's Birthday Party at Hobo's (Friday, January 5th) - Braved the horrifically cold January weather for my first outing to the Wells St. Corridor bars that are so much the favorites of the Irving Park crowd. Lots of subsequent appearances there later in the year. First (but not last) encounter with the legendary "Tuaca" shot. Ended up hailing a cab because the North/Clyborn Red Line Stop had mysteriously disappeared.

3) Back to Howe St. 2001 Party (Saturday, February 10) - The first official PPC event of the new year, and in homage to our long tradition of partyage at the PPC's party palace, the first Howe St. blowout of 2001 was themed "back to Howe St.", come dressed in the theme of your favorite Howe St. party of yesteryear. Lot's of 70's attire, Elvises, Fourth of July, and even a few Toga sightings. And no naps on the "bondage couch". Click here for pix from Back to Howe St.

4) Southside Milwaukee Pub Crawl 2001 (Saturday, February 17) - A day which started out with the first ever Milwaukee Winter Kickball Game on the "Frozen Confines" of Pulaski Park on Arlington (26 degrees - but the drinks kept us warm!), which then proceeded to Wolski's Tavern (the "Wall Drug" of Milwaukee - famous for their bumper stickers) and ended with my buddy John P.'s famous four bar tour of Milwaukee southside dive bars, including 70+ people jammed into a rented school bus and that place with the mini-bowling. Don't remember much about that night except starting off at the lobby of the Blatz, where people were already pre-partying before a pub crawl - these guys are troopers!.

5) Wine Tasting w/Lincoln Park Ski Club (Friday, February 23) - Located at Nicolina's Cucina at the NBC Tower in downtown Chicago, the LPSC always has great party events with this one being no exception. Simply said, if this was wine "tasting", I'd be really impressed to see what these peoples' definition of "serious drinking" is. Net-net, a cool venue, a lot of good food, drink, and fun folks made it another one of those nights that the Red Line became very difficult to locate afterwards.

6) Sebastian, Pete, Kelly, Ally, and Jeremy's B-Day Party (Saturday, February 24) - with an all-star ensemble cast like that, a strong showing by the PPC regulars, and a venue like the upper floor of the new Wrigleyville John Barleycorn's, you can't go wrong. And we didn't. Check out the first six pix on this page for highlights of this event.

7) St. Patrick's Day 2001 (Saturday, March 17) - The Mother Of All Party Days, St. Patrick's Day on a Saturday! This death march started at 10:30am at Fado with Renji and the gang - we hit that place hard. Then off to Jack Sullivan's later that afternoon to meet the rest of the PPC crowd and put the pedal to the metal. The plan was to hit Barleycorn's after that, but after encountering an impossibly horrid crowd there, the next stop ended up being Lincoln Ave. Pizza for some badly needed slices. Then, after safely getting the Mahu home, off to the closer at the Harp and Shamrock Club to meet up with my B-School frat brothers and see the Chicago Police Emerald Society Drum and Bagpipe corps perform their traditional St. Patrick's day show in a single frontage bar before closing the place for a record 16 hours of continuous partyage. March 18 was the record hangover day of the year!

8) Andy's Birthday and Bacchanalia 2001 (Saturday, March 24) - Started off the evening with one of those promotional happy hours at the Schoolyard Tavern in honor of our friend "drunkass" (and recently engaged) Andy, and finished off at Clete, Aaron, Ivan & Jenny's Bacchanalia Party on the 2900 of N. Allen St. (friends of friends - whoever they were, they threw a great party!). Their place was about to undergo a gut rehab so they "transformed" their apartment (lighting, decorations, sound... the whole package) into an awesome party palace (this place looked almost like a dance club) for one last bash. All I can say is WOW.

9) Treva's Comfy Party (Saturday, March 31) - Nothing like a good 'ole fashioned pajama party at the O'Banion Estate in Wrigleyville. Cold drinks, a warm fireplace, and the company of good friends. A great time, and probably the anti-Christ of a Fuji Summer Big Backyard Bash. And unlike Treva's last year's holiday party, I managed to make it to the Red Line Addison stop (four blocks away) rather than the Irving Park stop (13 blocks away) after the event (that whole North-South thing can sometimes get very confusing after a few cocktails).

10) Heather & Lori's "Whine & Cheese" Party (Saturday, April 7) - With the legendary party duo of Heather & Lori finally coming to an end, time for one last party at their Magnolia Street crib. Guests were invited to bring their favorite bottle of wine or block of cheese, with a brief description. Needless to say, mixing copious quantities of beer, wine, and various and somewhat gastronomically upsetting cheeses is looking for trouble.. which I found. Some events of the night are best left to be forgotten in the annals of history.

12) First Annual Southport Scramble Pub Crawl (Saturday, May 26) - Sara & Dave put together our first ever trek up Southport using a "golf theme", and taking us from Schuba's, to Southport Lanes, Justins, Violet Lounge, Lange's, D'Agostino's, Hye Bar, Cullen's, and finally Toons at 3857 N. Southport (I barely remember that one). As a first-time ever event, turnout was respectable despite the rainy weather, but an awesome time nevertheless for those lucky enough to get the word. Looking forward to the Second Annual! Click here to see sample pic #1 of my team (we didn't win, but we certainly claimed an unequivocal "moral victory" based on consumption) and pic #2 (of the organizers).

13) Old Town Art Fair, Washtenaw Kickoff, and Champagne & Chocolat 2001 (Saturday June 9) - The summer's first party triple-header, starting off with partying on the steps outside Chantal's old place on Menominee during the Old Town Art fair on a perfect June day, followed by Adam, Brett, and Larry's summer kickoff party at their 4000 sqft Washtenaw party palace (portending great things to come) and ending with the perennial crowd pleaser, Frank's outstanding annual Champagne & Chocolat party (complete with hired help) on North Racine. First rate event.

14) 10th Annual Chicago Fourth of July Party (Friday June 29 - Saturday July 7). The PPC's Flagship Event. 10 Years! Can you believe it??!! This years theme was "A Decade of Decadence". The fun started with our traditional boat cruise on the Free Spirit Friday night, marked by the return of the sailor hats followed up by our traditional post-cruise trek to the Hangge Uppe on Elm St. (Click here for more info or pictures). The next day, the troopers showed up for the traditional BBQ and Scavenger Hunt starting at Fuji's Party Central in Lincoln Park, and then ending with an eight-bar Scavenger Hunt/Pub Crawl (Click here for event info or pictures). This was followed by our traditional Survivor's Brunch back at Party Central (Sunday, July 1), fireworks outing in Grant Park (Tuesday, July 3), and a new event this year, the Go-Go's concert in Grant Park (Saturday, July 7). What a weekend!

15) Fourth Annual SCJ Intern Cubs Outing to Wrigley Field (Friday, July 27) - This year we had our biggest contingent ever with a total of 35 February-purchased Upper Deck Box tickets on the third base side starting at row #1 (the rail). The traditional tailgate party at Party Central at Fullerton & Sheffield on a picture-perfect July day, followed by the Cubs game outing itself, a splendid game at Wrigley vs. the St. Louis Cardinals where the Cubbies held to win 4-3 over the Cards, followed by another post-game tailgate (where roughly a half dozen beer drinkers, half again of whom were women, finished off the keg!) and  the second year of the intern Lincoln Park bar outing where a handful of hardy souls (mostly Madison interns) toured the Lincoln Park bar scene and crashed at Party Central. Special thanks to the PPC regulars who stopped by Party Central for the pregame tailgate and also those who joined us at Halligan later that evening.

16) Taste of Lincoln Avenue Quadruple-Header (Saturday, July 28) - The biggest street festival comes to the heart of Lincoln Park! Started off the day with some prepartyage at Eric & Chantal's Wrightwood castle, then off to the Taste itself, the to Ric B's party on Montana a block away, the into a cab to catch Heidi & Michelle's party at Heidi's new crib on 3300blk of N. Racine (nice pad!), and then back to Lincoln Park for Jen P.'s rooftop party at Fullerton & Cleveland. Although I was nearly done by the end of #3, time worked its magic and I got enough of a second wind to help Jen haul that keg off her roof at 4:30am. Trying to wedge into all of this the Venetian Night fireworks downtown was completely out of the question. All in all, an awesome day of summer partyage.

17) Susswick's Going Away Lake Outing and Impromptu Madison Roadtrip (Friday, August 10) - Starting the day off with an afternoon at my buddy Bill's lakeside cabin up in Ocomowoc, WI on the sandy shores of North Lake, grilling out, waterskiing, and partying shoreside celebrating our friend Susswick's changing job assignments. Click here for a pic on the lake. Afterwards, I got invited to join the gang in Madison that night. Apparently one of my buddies' friends had rented out one of the upper decks at the Memorial Union Terrace and had a private party (kegs were it) overlooking the Pat McCurdy show on the main terrace. What a view! Afterwards, this was followed up by the obligatory Madtown State St. bar tour including several bars whose names are now lost to history, and of course luxury accommodations were arranged at 4am on the Triangle House Fraternity's (thanks guys!) living room couches. But the adventure didn't stop there, for breakfast some of us had some horrible local concoction called a "scrambler" (imagine omelet and hash browns all rolled together, where I coined the phrase "crime scene on a plate") and last but not least the now "Infamous Milwaukee Park 'n Ride Death March" where we must have hit every commuter lot in Metro Milwaukee because we forgot where we left our cars Friday night. Sufficient time has now passed so that we can look back upon this and laugh.

18) Air & Water Show and North & Wells Pub Crawl (Saturday, August 18) - The day started out with and continued with torrential rains which somewhat dampened the PPC's usual turnout of over a dozen to just myself, my buddy Larry B., the Mahu, and his dad, Carl, a really cool guy and an ex-marine, who braved the elements for a somewhat abbreviated show, which also meant we got to consume all the beverages among us four (all the sane people ditched us). Later on, was the North & Wells pub crawl, yet another production by Sara, Susan, and others of the Near Northwest Civic Committee. Yet another exposure to the bars of Wells St. starting at Hobo's and heading off to places such as the Fireplace Inn, O'Brien's, Old Town Ale House, Corcoran's Grille, Burton Place, and then boomeranging back to Hobo's to close the joint with some great late-night paryage. Lots of beverages and a nifty souvenir T-Shirt. By now I am getting good at finding the North/Clyborn Red Line stop at 4am despite being somewhat impaired. The Air & Water show party the next day (Sunday) at Sabby's friend Anya's apartment overlooking the park & beach also merits mention because of all the awesome people we met and the fact a small number of folks killed a whole half barrel of Heineken by 3pm.

19) Cubs Game Outing & 2001 Big Backyard Bash (Saturday, September 8th) - My first Cubs game outing for my friends in Milwaukee, hosting a pregame tailgate at Party Central, and then off to the Friendly Confines of Wrigley to watch the Cubs fall to the Atlanta Braves 5-3 in a noble struggle. Then back to Party Central for the rainout reschedule of the Third Annual Post Air & Water Show party (two kegs, a lot of Costco-sized bottles of liquor, and the cops were NOT called, for once), the last party of the summer in the Big Backyard at Party Central, and for many of us, the last party of our age of innocence, before disaster struck America.

20) Farewell to Howe St. Party (Saturday, September 22) - A long and storied party tradition comes to an end as we have our final event at 1834 N. Howe. The night starts off well, with a happy hour won by my friend Laura K. at Durkin's, followed by an obligatory social appearance at the Harp & Shamrock Club, and finally, the Main Event, Howe St. This event which my friend Nora organized, raised over $800 for NYC Disaster Relief and Children's Memorial Hospital. Needless to say all the PPC royalty turned out to give our dearly departed Howe St. party venue a fitting sendoff. The pictures say it all!  Click here for pictures and also here.

21) Michigan - Penn State Game Roadtrip (Saturday, October 6) - Every year, me and seven friends from Univ. of Michigan pick a different UM away football game to roadtrip to, and this year was the farthest away of all, Penn State in State College in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. Because of the distance and lack of local accommodations, we rented a 30' RV for our trip, and needless to say, between a Michigan road win, a night of great partyage on campus afterwards dancing with the local students, and the fact eight guys consumed two half barrels of beer in three days, and our own Party RV, this party weekend speaks for itself. Only two venues left on the schedule - Minnesota and Ohio State!

22) Halloween 2001: Prom of the Living Dead (Saturday, October 28) - This year the legendary Adam, Brett, & Larry Halloween Party and the Frank Jamora Halloween party combined to create our biggest event ever! We (think) we had 350+ people attend this blowout at the 4000 sqft "Doom Room". We were simply flabbergasted by the turnout (as the late Harry Carey would have said - HOLY COW!) as Frank spun the discs and Adam, Brett, & Larry took turns at the bar. Check out pictures from the event here. Also, an honorable mention goes to the trolley pub crawl put on by Bar1Events (Duffy's/Durkin's/Jack Sullivan's/Wrightwood Tap/McGee's) on Halloween night itself (Wednesday, October 31), for some awesome partyage even though it was a school night (see pictures here).

23) Michigan - Wisconsin Game Roadtrip (Saturday, November 17) - For many of us, this was the most anticipated Big Ten Conference game of the season. Many of my true die-hards friends who are UW Madison alumns roadtripped up Friday night, only to be in rough shape for the pre-game festivities (these guys just showed up with a keg at the house they used to live in four years ago as a student and set up an impromptu party) on Saturday. Nothing like a Michigan road win (albeit at the last minute and due more so to two major miscues by the Badgers) and then a postgame multi-bar wipeout in Madison (including the landmark State St. Brats) with both many UW alums as well as current students (these kids can party!) who formerly worked with me as interns made for some awesome partyage. Special thanks to Erin, Jean, and Renee who roadtripped all the way from Ann Arbor, the SCJ Madison alum crew, as well as Dean (whose floor was a splendid place to crash after an indeterminately large number of beers), Ali, Casey, Courtney, Christina, and Becky, et. al. who took time out of their busy study schedules to join us.  I've never had a bad time in Madtown! Click here to see a picture of the gang at State St. Brats.

24) Fifth Annual 12 Bars of Christmas (Saturday, December 8) - The PPC's Winter Flagship event turned out to be our largest ever. We estimate 275+ people turned out for this Lincoln Park classic which started at River Shannon, and included Sedgwick's, Gamekeepers, Four Farthings, O'Malley's West, Kendall's, Kelsey's, Parkway Tavern, Corner Pocket, Alive One, Durkin's, The Union, and finished at Coyle's Tippling House. Click here for event details, post-game commentay or pictures. Thanks to all the bars who took great care of us - this was the first year ever I can recall where we didn't add a bar to our "we'll never go there again" list - great job! Honorable mention must also be made to Chris Festa's 12 Bars of Christmas in Wrigleyville the same day which myself and my roommate J-Dog hit the first four bars of before going to our own event.

25) Toys For Tots and Treva's Annual Holiday Party (Saturday, December 15) - What started off as an obligatory social appearance by PPC diplomatic envoys Fuji and J-Dog to pay homage to the pub crawl master organizer, Chris Festa, actually turned into a 2-1/2 hour detour on the party schedule as the event at Piano Man charity event was actually surprisingly fun. Even discovered the cucumber sandwich. But we did eventually make it to Treva's just before midnight, at which point our tardiness was rewarded with a barrage of shots from the PPC loyalists already there. The O'Banion Estate is another venue I'm getting good at finding the Red Line from at 3am. Click here for pictures from both events.

Special Achievement Award: Chicago Summer 2001 Street Festivals - Thanks to all those, especially the PPC regulars as well as McKewin's street festival crew of regulars who joined us during the Summer of 2001 for stuff like the Taste of Lincoln Ave. (mentioned earlier), Weed St. Fest, Old Town Art Fair Fest, Retro on Roscoe (where we got that awesome balcony at Julie's friend's new place), North Halsted Market Days, Sheffield Garden Walk (which sometime during the late 90's mutated from a sedate garden tour into a full blow beer-swillin' rock band street festival), that Southport Festival (I forgot its real name, but it was fun as I got to meet Kara's old roommates), that thing on Sheffield & Belmont (another lost name), Goose Island Fest, and the Old St. Pat's Block Party downtown. Bonus points to those who hit it hard on Sunday (a school night) knowing full well the consequences of their own actions (let's just say the Monday morning after the Sheffield garden walk was no walk in the park). Individually, not all of these would have made the list, but in the aggregate, this would be Top Five material. And again this year, many of us boycotted the Taste of Chicago downtown as "the same thing as last year", "too crowded", "lame music", and the coup de grace - "too 847-y" (the area code, meaning too many Schaumburg escapees mucking up our City with their strollers and minvans). Don't see many suburbanites at North Halsted Market Days...

There are probably a few other 2001 party events that merit inclusion on this list, however, due to lack of a true numeric scoring system (a BCS-style ranking is in the works for next year), some may have slipped through the cracks. Overall, a very good year - if you could bottle up 2001 and add it to your wine rack, this one would be a keeper. My best to everyone for a wonderful Holiday Season and all here's to an even better 2002!

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