G&G Party Pics

5 Nights with NOLA: A Taste of NOLA

On Thursday, January 11, Garden & Gun hosted a hundred guests for an evening celebrating three hundred years of New Orleans at Bernie’s Lunch & Supper in Chicago, Illinois. The event celebrated New Orleans cuisine, cocktails, and music with guest chef Tory McPhail of Commander’s Palace, mixologist Chris Hannah of Arnaud’s French 75, and legendary trombonist Charlie Halloran.

Special thanks to:

Bernie’s Lunch & Supper
Chef Tory McPhail
Chris Hannah
Charlie Halloran
Cocktail & Sons

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The menu by chef Tory McPhail of New Orleans’ Commander’s Palace is tray-served throughout the evening. It highlights traditional New Orleans dishes such as this take on red beans and rice—crispy popcorn rice arancini stuffed with crawfish-boiled mozzarella, aged Parmesan, creamy red beans, and ham hock puree.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone

Friends pose for a photo while enjoying French 75s, one of the evening’s specialty cocktails.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone

Commander’s Palace executive chef Tory McPhail prepares dishes to be served throughout the evening.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone

Crawfish étouffé is a crowd favorite made with wild crawfish; toasted garlic; scorched tomatoes; the holy trinity of onions, bell peppers, and celery; a dark roux; and a fiery Louisiana hot sauce.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone

Legendary New Orleans trombonist Charlie Halloran transports the Chicago crowd to NOLA with some classic New Orleans jazz tunes.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone

Chris Hannah of New Orleans’ Arnaud’s French 75 mixes up some of his favorite New Orleans specialty cocktails for the evening.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone

Sarah Forman, Senior Communications Coordinator for New Orleans CVB, and Kristian Sonnier, Vice President of Communications & PR for New Orleans CVB.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone

The Creole cocktail by Chris Hannah is made with rye whiskey Averna, vermouth, Bénédictine liqueur, and a lemon peel.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone

Richard Moten, Sarah Forman, Charlie Halloran, Tory McPhail, Kristian Sonnier, and Chris Hannah.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone

A classic Mardi Gras king cake is served as dessert.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone

Guests leave with a Cocktail & Sons Fassionola and a recipe to make the famous Commander’s Palace Hurricane with this specialty cocktail syrup.

Photo: Lorenzo Tassone