Diner en Blanc Chicago

Some of you may have heard of Diner en Blanc or dinner in white, a public flash-mob picnic that was first held in Paris in 1988. The original idea was a reunion of some 100 friends. They all wore white to be able to find one another. The event has grown to include over 10,000 attendees.  Everyone dresses all dress in white and bring their own elegant accoutrements - which have included chandeliers, crystal vases and fine china. 

For more of an inside peak be sure to check out the video below.

This idea has garnered a lot of attention. So much so that other cities have taken to planning their own Diner en Blanc events. Even New York hosted one for over 1,100 white-wearing picnickers last week on the World Financial Center plaza.

So when we heard that organizers were bringing a Diner en Blanc to Chicago we couldn't wait to sign up and experience an outdoor elegant picnic with our fellow Chicagoans.  When we first went to the Diner en Blanc website we learned that we needed to wait to sign up for tickets on a certain day and time. Only the first 250 people and their lucky guest would earn tickets.  When the day arrived we patiently sat at our computer keyboards ready to hit the reload key and purchase our tickets. At 12 noon on August 1st, we got lucky. Actually it was 12:01:01pm. Tickets were gone in a matter of seconds.  For $16.81 we bought our chance to be part of Chicago's culinary history.

Those who didn't make the cut (the tickets had all gone in 2 minutes) were placed on a wait list as hopefuls for the next 250 tickets.  All and all 1,000 people ended up being lucky guests. As we eagerly awaited for our next communication we went to the website for instructions on what to bring. There was a detailed list provided on the website.  We knew that we had to wear white but beyond that we were clueless. The list let us know that all tables, chairs and tableware should be white. They also specified table sizes and heights. Dress code and conduct code were also included. Everything looked relatively easy - until we started our search for a 30x30 white lightweight table. You have to know that you are meeting at a per-determined place one hour before the dinner begins and then proceeding to the final destination, which is a secret until that point in time. So who knows how far you'll be carrying things (you know I HATE to carry anything.) After surveying our twitter and facebook friends to no avail we searched online for the perfect table. We checked Diner en Blanc's facebook page and they fortunately made useful suggestions. One was the Prop House and the other was Amazon. After solving that problem we were set to go.

You also need to bring your own food, an appetizer, entree and dessert, as well as a white trash bag for your trash. You are to leave with everything you bring, taking everything home when you go. The site should look like nothing ever happened and no one was ever there.

After several emails from the organizers we learned that there would be a "harmonization point,"  a place to meet and find out where we would be going. We had  choices of place to begin and chose State & Wacker - because we assumed the final destination would be near by (again we hate carrying things).

We arrived at our "harmonization point" at 6:45pm and immediately spotted some "white" friends with all their white stuff. Everyone was in fine spirits and we all introduced ourselves and began guessing where this flash-mob dinner would take place. Navy Pier? The Bean? Buckingham Fountain? What fun we had trying to guess. At 7pm we were told that our dinner would be in Daley Plaza under the Picasso sculpture - an audible, ahhhh, was heard throughout the crowd of about 50 people. We were then lead by Anne, our Head of Table, who was carrying a white flag high and proud, down Wacker to Dearborn and over to Daley Plaza.

We were one of the first groups to arrive and were met by another organizer who showed us where to set up our tables and chairs. There was a kind of excitement in the air as we all set up and started to get comfortable. Everyone was snapping photos, shooting videos, tweeting, checking-in and facebooking, telling everyone where the Diner en Blanc was being held.

Attendees all wore white and truly made every attempt to be elegant and glamourous. Some stand-outs were a young lady with angel wings, a Marie Antoinette impersonator, white suspenders, bow ties, full-length white gloves and white top-hats. The Parisians would have been proud! Many folks had multi-leveled chandeliers, fine china and cystal, silverware and beautiful floral arrangements. There was even an accordionist strolling around the tables as we set up, which was just darling.

Our dinner began at 8pm with the entire crowd waving their white napkins in the air and applauding. No alcoholic beverages or candles were allowed because of security and safety issues. But we can say with absolute certainty that we saw some real candles, and a lot of diners had wine, champagne and after-dinner drinks aplenty! Some people even sneaked in a few sparklers. Renegade though they were, I have to admit they made me wish I thought of it. The mood was certainly very, very festive.

At around 9:15pm a live band played some light jazz music for dancing of which some folks took advantage. Most of the guests strolled among the tables greeting friends, old and new and complementing each other on their fine decor.

The evening began wrapping up at 10pm as people took apart their tables and prepared to leave. We have to say that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at Diner en Blanc. It ended up being well-organized and very pleasant. It would have been great to be able to go with a group of friends but meeting new ones was fun too. We even got to try a little home made Polish Cherry dessert wine courtesy of one of our neighbors. We're glad we had the opportunity to be part of this summer celebration!

Your happy PoshPorts Chief Ambassadors, Diana Laskaris & Sue Reddel