Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/67043
cityquette...by roe conn room with a view WHEN IT COMES TO THE COVETED SKYBOX, THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO KEEP YOUR FEET ON THE GROUND WHILE YOU'RE SEATED IN THE CLOUDS. I t's important to know people in high places— especially if those high places are above an event you really want to see. There's no better place to take in a game, concert, or race than in a skybox. The laws of probability demand that if you're reading this, you are 200 times more likely than the average American to own or work with a company that owns a luxury suite. If you don't fit one of these categories and are a regular reader of this space, then you have a 95 percent chance of being invited to a skybox in the next 12 months.* If you fit into the first category (owner), you already know that holding the keys to a coveted Chicago skybox is one of the most powerful posi- tions in the Western World. When a Chicago team makes the playoffs, everybody in the office, the neighborhood, and the nation wants to be your best friend. It's a lot of pressure and often leaves you in the unenviable position of having to choose between Henderson in accounting (who, incidentally, just discovered a receivables error that could have ruined the company) and your best friend from college whose lawyer-dad helped you with that problem back in '86. If you fall into the category of invitee, how- ever, there are a few simple rules of etiquette that must be employed. First, know your host—you may have been invited by "a guy who knows a guy" (standard Chicago relationship). In this case, exercise all due diligence to find out who owns the box. This could save you the potential embarrassment of asking for a Coke in the Pepsi box or blurting out Too Big to Fail is the greatest movie you've ever seen while gnawing on J.P. Morgan's hot wing. Once ensconced in the box, act like you're meeting your in-laws for the first time. Don't rummage through the cabinets looking for the Grey Goose or Glenfiddich. Some facilities charge the box owner up to five times the retail price for liquor. If it's out on the counter, it's fair game. Otherwise, Heineken and Woodridge Cellars are going to have to get you through the night. The same advice goes for the dessert cart, which might contain a $24 slice of carrot cake. Most hosts are good with one item per person, but unwelcome are those who order three items because "little Caitlin and Coulton couldn't make it, and they just love caramel apples." But most important, be cool. Even though you're at the same event as a fully crocked loud- mouth in the 400 section, you're breathing someone else's rarefied air. There's nothing that will get you disinvited faster than shouting an obnoxious comment about a player's significant other, especially when that player's wife and/or girlfriend may be in the box next to you. MA *Disclaimer: The previously quoted statistics are a combination of assumptions and forward-looking statements unlikely to be based in fact. 88 michiganavemag.com illustration by daniel o'leary