created by TriedForMitchcraft on 15/12/2024 at 15:13 UTC*
679 upvotes, 85 top-level comments (showing 25)
Hey everyone, it's your friendly neighborhood chicken sandwich/omakase/french fry guy here. I am very excited to announce that /r/ChicagoFood will be having a series of events, a contest, and a giveaway to celebrate our community to kick off 2025! Many of you reading this probably remember our Obelix event we had at the beginning of 2024 where 150 members of our community got to eat at Obelix for free. Well, for 2025, with a little bit of extra planning and help from Reddit, we are stretching that money a lot further and more than doubling how many people from our community will get to eat for free with 6 full restaurant buyouts at some of the community's favorite restaurants (Kyoten, Jeong, Akahoshi Ramen, Cellar Door Provisions, Bloom, and Cariño), a giveaway for all members at Red Light Chicken, and a contest where 18 winners will win $250 gift cards to Lettuce Entertain You restaurants.
Here is the full schedule of in-person events we have for our community:
1. January 15th and 16th 6:30 PM, Kyoten
2. January 22nd (3 seatings, 5:15, 6:30, 7:45), Akahoshi Ramen (CHANGED FROM JANUARY 8TH)
3. January 29th 7:00 PM, Jeong
4. February 4th, Cellar Door Provisions
5. February 13th, Cariño
6. February 19th, Bloom Plant Based Kitchen
All events will be full restaurant buyouts. Each person selected will get an invitation to attend the event for free, however, in no circumstances will anyone be able to bring a plus one to these events.
Due to the nature of the events, many of these restaurants will not be able to accommodate many allergy restrictions. However, if your allergy can normally be accommodated at these restaurants, it is likely it would still be able to be for these events. When you apply, there will be a space where you can list any of your allergies so we can plan accordingly. Please note that the entire menu at Bloom is completely vegan which was an issue for many people wanting to apply to our last event.
All food at the events will be completely free for Redditors, additionally, alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase at the events.
Anyone who meets all of the following criteria may submit to enter to attend the events:
We will be selecting over 300 members across the 6 in person events to attend and eat for free.
Tickets will be awarded to the top applicants based on contributions to the subreddit (Posting, commenting, helpfulness, participation, etc. as reviewed by our mod team after you apply). When you apply, you will have the opportunity to share links to your comments and posts that best demonstrate your best contributions to the subreddit which will be used along with a mod review of your account to determine who will be selected for these events.
If you're a lurker who has never posted in our sub but still enjoy coming here and seeing what's going on in our community, don't fret! You can still apply to enter our contest where 18 winners will each win a $250 Lettuce Entertain You gift card that can be used at any of their restaurants.
The contest prompt will ask you to respond to one of the following questions:
Our mod team will review responses and select 18 winners based on the thoughtfulness of your answers.
Users may apply for the in person events and enter the contest, so there's no reason not to submit for both!
In addition to both the in person events and the contest, we have also secured funds to host a giveaway at Red Light Chicken where any member will be able to show up and get free food there! Be on the lookout in the future for an announcement about when the free Red Light Chicken day will be!
For the contest, full contest rules can be found here in our wiki at the bottom of the page.
Submissions and contest entries will run and be accepted starting today, December 15th, until December 22nd at 11:59 PM CST.
You can apply to be selected for a ticket by filling out the Google Form page here
You can also enter the contest by filling out this separate Google Forms page here
All winners will be notified via the email they provide in their Google Forms submission. All emails will come from the rchicagofood@gmail.com email. Please add this email to your approved senders list so that a potential winning invitation does not go into your spam folder. We had many winners last year not attend because they somehow did not see the invitation in both their email and then their reddit messages. This year, we are only sending winning invitations via email so it is on you to be on the lookout for it and confirm that you can attend. Your spot will only be secured once you have confirmed that you can attend.
Any further questions can be asked in this thread or via private message to me or modmail and I look forward to meeting many of you at the events!
Event powered by Reddit Community Funds
Comment by dinosaursroamyourmom at 15/12/2024 at 16:09 UTC
106 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is AMAZING. Wish I did more than lurk on this sub! Here’s hoping I win a gift card
Comment by borla78 at 15/12/2024 at 16:27 UTC
67 upvotes, 0 direct replies
As someone who has managed, organized, and run a few very successful online communities, I have some understanding for how much work this must be. Thanks for all your efforts in making this one of the better run subreddits I frequent, and one of the most reliable ones for good information and suggestions.
Comment by IllAd7725 at 15/12/2024 at 16:34 UTC
40 upvotes, 1 direct replies
It makes me smile to see Carino on the list. When I went there this summer they asked me how I heard about them. When I told them Reddit they said EVERYONE says Reddit. It's nice to know how good of an effect this community has.
Comment by Sad_Living_8713 at 15/12/2024 at 15:24 UTC
84 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Thanks mod team and Reddit! What a wonderful way to build community for our small local subreddit!
Comment by ooofish at 15/12/2024 at 15:56 UTC
26 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Wow amazing, also regretting all the posts I’ve deleted lol
Comment by Aggressive_Ad_439 at 15/12/2024 at 15:33 UTC
23 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Darn. Leaving the city for a few months when the coolest food event ever drops. Have fun people!
Comment by obviousbearfucker at 15/12/2024 at 18:31 UTC
16 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I really need to become more active in this sub if it means getting to have a better chance for stuff like this. I usually just lurk to see all the amazing recommendations from other people. This city has so many amazing choices.
Comment by gerdinots at 15/12/2024 at 15:26 UTC
20 upvotes, 0 direct replies
WE LOVE YOU MITCH!
Comment by JerDGold at 15/12/2024 at 16:35 UTC
9 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Your efforts are greatly appreciated and do not go un-noticed.
Comment by tumbling_tomato at 15/12/2024 at 15:51 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This is SO COOL! Thank you for organizing this and taking the extra steps to bring together this community irl too 🥂
Comment by offconstantly at 15/12/2024 at 18:37 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This is really cool but it makes me regret being just a lurker on here. Hope everyone who gets picked enjoys!
Comment by CorporateHobbyist at 15/12/2024 at 17:01 UTC
10 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I went to the first events (At Obelix) and it was truly a wonderful experience. I'm so so glad that it's catching on and we'll havemore of these to look forward to.
I'll be filling out the form, hope to see some of you at the restaurant(s)!
:)
Comment by merejoygal at 15/12/2024 at 16:00 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Oh this is so great! Good luck fellow Redditors!
Comment by threemileallan at 15/12/2024 at 15:54 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Whoa
Comment by nugzbuny at 15/12/2024 at 17:37 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This community has continuously been run so well, and grown. Really awesome job to the Mod team.
It speaks for how serious we take the food culture in this city.
Comment by Joynorma at 15/12/2024 at 15:18 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
So exciting!!!
Comment by elynias at 15/12/2024 at 15:59 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Many thanks to you and the mod team for organizing this! Love this community 👏
Comment by wine-n-dive at 15/12/2024 at 16:00 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Insanely cool. Thanks to the whole team and community for making this happen.
Comment by FaterFaker at 15/12/2024 at 15:54 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Awesome!
Comment by angrytreestump at 16/12/2024 at 03:01 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Amazing! I’ve been broke since this subreddit really took off a couple years ago, so I’ve mostly only been a voyeur peeking into the window of my own city’s food scene through the community here since then, and this is such an appreciated, welcoming and lovely way to build the sense of community even more here— thank you and keep being awesome, I hope this goes off even better than you hoped so you can continue doing it well into the future! 😊
Comment by Wild_Lunch_737 at 27/12/2024 at 23:42 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Woah this is cool. Just curious, when are people being notified if they got accepted to one of these events? I’m guessing it might take awhile with the holidays etc
Comment by minustheaudi at 15/12/2024 at 15:19 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I've been looking forward to this. Good luck everyone!!
Comment by fashdrum at 15/12/2024 at 15:59 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
So Dope!
Comment by ppratik96 at 15/12/2024 at 16:08 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This is awesome!
Comment by alexjewellalex at 15/12/2024 at 16:21 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This is absolutely amazing! Thanks team for cultivating this community and organizing this
