A giant wild turkey greets visitors to the Backroom, a pop-up bar located in the former pool of the Chicago Athletic Association. Long since deceased, the bird spreads its tail feathers from behind glass, looking like it belongs in a museum rather than a bar. Indeed, it does. The Backroom is a collaboration between the Field Museum, Johalla Projects, Land and Sea Dept., and the CAA, presented in conjunction with the Field’s exhibit “Specimens: Unlocking the Secrets of Life,” opening March 10. To highlight the 30 million specimens housed in the museum—less than 1 percent of which are usually on display—the exhibit will present a selection of some that are usually kept in storage, including an extinct minnow that’s the last remaining one of its kind. The exhibit aims to tell the stories behind those specimens and explore how scientists use the museum’s collections in their daily work. Noah Cruickshank, the adult engagement manager at the Field Museum, says that the collection also includes plants from 1776 and a beetle that Darwin collected.
It’s possible that the drinks will become a little bolder in the weeks to come, though. At the opening-night event on February 25, I talked to Nandini Khaund, the “spirit guide” upstairs at Cindy’s, who said she’d just been chatting with Cruickshank about the possibility of creating cocktails for a few nights of the pop-up. She hadn’t settled on anything specific, but was thinking along the lines of insects: spiders encased in ice cubes, drinks rimmed with worm salt, or something involving crickets or possibly stinkbugs. If the pig’s blood cocktail she made for the Reader‘s Cocktail Challenge is any indication, Khaund has the creativity and flair for the dramatic to pull it off.
Fri 3/10: Plant Pressing with Anna Balla
