Experience Columbian cuisine on July 21 at “World’s Fare” held in the new pop-up bar at the historic Chicago Athletic Association (CAA) hotel.

To celebrate the exhibition “John Singer Sargent and Chicago’s Gilded Age” running now at the Art Institute of Chicago, the CAA has created a Sargent-themed bar called “Dear Carmencita” (named after Sargent’s 1890 painting La Carmencita in the exhibit), which is open from 5 pm to midnight between July 12 and August 5. On Saturday, July 21, the bar will host “World’s Fare” from 7 to 9 PM with food items that rose to popularity during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The kitchen promises some savory and sweet snacks ranging from mini hot dogs (à la Vienna Beef from the Austrian Village) to brownies based on Bertha Palmer’s original Palmer House recipe. Perhaps the bar will offer the new gin made from 1893 World’s Fair botanicals?

A portion of Sargent’s La Carmencita (1890) from Musée d’Orsay, Paris {Image from the Field Museum.]