The City of Chicago kicked off its birthday celebration Tuesday with a brief program honoring Chicago’s history, cake provided by Eli’s Cheesecake, Mardi Gras-themed jazz and 10 different food trucks operating in Daley Plaza until 7 p.m.
Despite the cold temperatures, Bethany Whitehead of the Goose Island booth was excited to wish Chicago a happy 177th birthday.
“I never thought it would happen,” Whitehead joked. “It’s just a success being out here and watching people walk by. People are actually dressed up for the event.”
Inside the Daley Center’s lobby, the program began at 10 a.m. with a few words by Gary Johnson, president of Chicago History museum, and Andrew Johnson, executive director of the American Indian Center of Chicago, to reflect on the city’s past and set the tone for the celebration.
David Spencer of the American Indian Center of Chicago then entertained the crowd with a native drum interpretation of “Happy Birthday” before Mayor Rahm Emanuel took the stage.
After speaking on new jobs recently created in the Homan area, a woman concerned with the state of the Chicago Public School system interrupted Emanuel’s speech.
“How can you celebrate anything when you kill schools and over-test children?” the woman shouted.
Emanuel took the brief heckling in stride and retorted with quick jokes about his recent participation in the Polar Plunge and how he’s not the only one who worries about how he looks, his wife does as well.
Peggy Montes of the Bronzeville Children’s Museum announced the 2014 Friends of DuSable first-place essay winner, a fifth grader from Earhart Elementary School in Bronzeville. After a reading of the winning essay, cake was available, and the Big Shoulders Brass Band and the Mystick Krewe of Laff, a whimsical non-profit group, led the crowd out into Daley Plaza with a miniature Mardi Gras parade.
Drummer and DePaul alum David Agee described what it was like to lead the parade.
“We just love playing the music we play,” Agee said. “We’re here to support the Mystick Krewe of Laff, and it’s a nice way to get some exposure.”
Outside, there was music, drinks and dancing. The food truck rally included Bridgeport Pasty, Flirty Cupcakes, Gino’s Steaks Truck, Haute and Ready Chicago, Husky Hog BBQ, Jerk, Ms. Tittles Cupcakes, Porkchop, the Cheesie’s Truck and Windy City Patty Wagon, surrounding the plaza on all sides.
Alexis Dawson of Flirty Cupcakes was happy to be a part of the celebration and is hopeful that the city will choose to use food trucks for other events in the future.
“It’s awesome,” Dawson said. “Food trucks need to be popping up everywhere.”
Due to the special nature of the event, the food trucks were able to get around some of the normal restrictions such as the two-hour time limit and rule that only one truck may occupy one block at a time, which benefited both the food trucks and the hungry partygoers.
Chicago’s 177th birthday went off nearly without a hitch, remembering the past and honoring traditions, while fostering the next current trends of the city.
Happy birthday, Chicago.
