Written by David J. Reardon

My Chicago Story

My name is David and I’m a born-and-raised Chicagoan, an aspiring bon vivant with a love for travel, cooking, and all things sartorial. I live with my wife, Tara, and two young children, and when I’m not covered in pasta sauce or chocolate thanks to the kids, I take every opportunity to look and feel my best. I work as a Senior Brand Manager at Suntory, which is – in my opinion – the best premium spirits company in the world and I love applying my passion for design and style to the marketing and brand campaigns I work on for our great spirits brands.

With the Sartorial Club’s inaugural visit to Chicago earlier this winter, I was able to become a member of the club myself and had the honor of hosting a whisky tasting as part of the club’s Black Tie Dinner on the eve of the Chicago Collective.

For the backdrop of this special event, we chose Coquette, the bright and lively French restaurant located in Chicago’s buzzing Fulton Market District.

And as for the whisky tasting, I decided to feature three whiskies from the world’s most renowned whisky making regions – Scotland, America, and Japan – to showcase what makes each region’s whisky special and distinct.

The Champagne Hour

As with any night to remember, we started with cocktail hour – or, more accurately – “champagne hour”, featuring a delicious blanc de blanc Grand Cru champagne from Pierre Moncuit. Members new and old greeted one another and thawed out from the fridged temperature outside, sharing wardrobe and styling details while taking in Coquette’s beautiful dining room. It was lovely finally meeting Ksenia, co-founder of the Sartorial Club, in-person who was wearing one of her own pieces, a gorgeous champagne-hued sharkskin blazer. Next to her was Sterling Woerner, founder of her own custom clothing business from Houston, Texas, looking radiant in a white, double-breasted peak lapel tuxedo, one of her own creations.

I also connected with my good friend, Case, the Chicago City Lead for TSC, who was wearing a beautiful chocolate brown, velvet dinner jacket perfect for the season.

From left to right: David, Adam, Raphael, and Case

Laphroaig & Charles: A Bold First Course Pairing

With everyone sufficiently warmed up, we were seated for dinner across two side-by-side tables connected by a long, plush bench that maintained the connection of the group, but also fostered more intimate dinner-table conversations.

For our first course, we enjoyed a rich butternut squash pancake with sage goat cheese, raviolis filled with a mushroom and swiss chard ragout, and lamb merguez stuffed dates.

For these bold, distinctive flavors, we needed a whisky with a backbone, so I decided to pair with something from a distillery known for producing some of the richest whiskies in the world, Laphroaig.

I chose the Laphroaig QA Cask (QA is short for Quercus Alba which is Latin for American oak), a single malt that features the distillery’s distinctive smoky peat with subtle notes of vanilla imparted by the second resting in uncharred American Oak casks. This is a great “beginner” Laphroaig, with the second resting softening Laphroaig’s distinctive profile that can be extremely polarizing, providing just enough intensity to compliment the other bold flavors in the food.

Over the delicious food and smoky single-malt, I met Charles from Minneapolis, Minnesota, a modern-day version of the renaissance man with ventures across advertising, restaurant consulting, and tailored clothing (and, I must say, one of the best beards I’ve come across).

Hibiki Harmony, Mr and Mrs. StyleAfter50

Our second course was a lovely “poulet rotis” – roast chicken with hen of the woods mushrooms and root vegetables in a white wine sauce. For these delicate flavors, I decided to pair Hibiki Harmony, a whisky celebrated as the paragon of The Art of Japanese whisky. With notes of honey and white chocolate and a subtle finish with hints of Mizunara (Japanese oak), Hibiki Harmony showcases the beauty and artistry behind Japan’s world’s-best approach to blending.

During this course, I got to meet the iconic duo, @styleafter50 and @mrsstyleafter50: Andy and Michelle from San Jose, California. Although I hadn’t met them in person before, I was familiar with them as would anyone who follows the sartorially inclined on the Instagram circuit and I’m hard-pressed to imagine a more stylish couple. Their story is a fascinating one, too, with their Instagram handles eponymously capturing their unique journey into the beautiful sartorial world they now so effortlessly embody.

Bordeaux & Adam: A Classic Pairing & Young Talent

Given our third course – a dry-aged bavette steak au poivre accompanied by pommes purée – was the main event for dinner, we opted for a wine pairing over a whisky pairing to keep the spotlight on the food. The Coquette beverage director selected a 2018 Bordeaux from Château Marjosee featuring a blend of cabernet and merlot grapes that complemented the food beautifully and continued to fuel the gregarious conversation happening across the dinner tables.

Sitting across from me at the table was Adam, likely one of the youngest (if not the youngest) members of TSC. I was so impressed by Adam’s maturity and composure (let alone style as he was dressed in a sumptuous midnight navy velvet dinner jacket) – giving him the air of someone a decade or more older – and his inspiring story of rejecting the typical path of going to university after high school and instead, setting out on his own to create custom clothes. Earlier that week, he had just completed one of the largest transactions of his career with a client in Toronto and, given his youthful age, I’m certain the best is yet to come.

Maker's Mark & Knighthood: A Decadent Ending

As dinner wound down, we were served the final course of profiteroles with warm, salted caramel and a crème fraîche ganache. This decadent dessert called for a decadent whisky, for which no region in the world is better at than America. To pair, I selected the recently released Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged bourbon, a marriage of 11- and 12-year-old barrels that’s the oldest whisky ever released from this iconic distillery. Aged in new, charred American Oak barrels and rested in the distillery’s proprietary cellar, the cooler temperatures allow the bourbon to patiently age, resulting in a rich and decadent whisky with notes of shortbread, bright spice and dried dark fruit.

This was also the moment in the evening where I had my pinning ceremony with Case and Ksenia – a special experience that felt like a modern-day knighting ceremony of sorts – which was a very warm welcome to the club and memory of my first (of what I hope with be many) experiences with TSC.

Nightcaps & Clem: Music & Style After Coquette

After dinner, a few of the dinner guests had to say their goodbyes, while the rest of us headed across the street to Kashmir (a sister restaurant to Coquette), a stylish, high-energy cocktail bar where the restaurant group was gracious enough to treat our party to our first round. Over the drinks, I met Clem, an accomplished musician living close to the city with a similar aficionado for black ties, collars and lapels and over the next round (or two) we became fast friends and may or may not have tested out the dance floor where our tuxedos and black ties were a quick conversation starter among the revelers in attendance.

It was truly an evening of great food, delicious whisky, and even better company. Who could ask for anything more?

(2) A Whisky Symphony at Coquette