Lady in Red - 3.5 Turkeys

So me and the girls headed down to Tonic Friday night for the CincyChic event - Lady in Red.  We (in addition to 200 or so others) were dedicated enough to the cause (the event benefited the American Heart Association) that we hiked in our peep toe heels in our cocktail chic red dresses thru rain, sleet, slush and snow to attend.  It was well worth it.  Upon arrival to Tonic we were ushered to a room upstairs, above Local 127.  We were barely greeted by the ladies checking everyone in and they all failed to mention anything regarding the silent auction, the raffle, and most importantly forgot to give us our Swag Bags.  Luckily my girlfriend realized this and ran back for them.  I have to say I was a bit disappointed but for $10 shouldn't have expected too much.  There were some worthwhile items...a sample of the M&Ms premiums dark chocolate, a $50 off coupon to Cincy Shoes, a coupon to Paris J boutique in addition to some others.  After getting settled with our swag bags we perused the array of items up for bid in the silent auction in a room above Local 127. I'm not a huge fan of silent auctions but they had some solid items.  One friend put a bid in for Reds tix and another for a box of surprises from Pure Romance.  Love that girl :)  Still not sure if we've won yet - if we did our credit cards were billed supposedly.  It was a good system except the minimum bids were very high - most of them were $80+ and you were supposed to do increases of $80 too.  A bit too pricey for this girl. 


To get the night started right we ordered a Red drink special - some concoction of Vodka, cranberry and a fizzy drink.  It was good the first go around but down at the bar in Tonic it was very watered down.   Then I threw down a couple dollars for a donation in order to taste some sweet treats - red velvet cupcakes. Delicious!  I of course got white icing over my top lip a few times and spent about 10 minutes trying to lick it off.  I can only imagine what passerbys thought.
Down in Tonic which is connected to Local 127 we quickly grabbed a few leather snake skin ottomans.  It was pretty crowded down at the bar at this point and the "fashion show" had already begun.  There were platforms throughout the bar with models standing in a frozen pose staring off into space.  It was  a bit creepy at first but after getting over the emptiness of their eyes it was fun to take in all of the new trendy outfits.  After my first watered down Red Drink Special I switched to the Aviation. Not sure if this was just a special for the event or one of Tonic's traditional drink list items but it was a heavy hitter for sure.  It better be for $9 a pop.  I had to alternate between the drink and water just to avoid a black out. haha.  It was a mix of gin, creme de violet, and maraschino.  I'm not a huge fan of gin but this combination was interesting enough to keep me coming back for more thru the night.  Also, a quick shout out to our waiter, Dan. He made sure our glasses were never empty and dealt with our request to split our bills up every which way with a smile on his face. 

The DJ was spinning some solid tunes all night and more than once we were encouraged by the music to get out of our seats to start dancing.  He also ran the raffle very well - I may be a bit biased because my girlfriend won TWICE.  The first was a $100 gift card to Embers which she has promised to take me with her when she goes and the 2nd was a gift basket of a Tshirt, hat, etc.  


As I made my way to the coat check I ran into the chef from Local 127.  For those of you who haven't been yet check out my post next week after my husband & I give it another whirl for Vday.  Anyway, I went up to the chef and stated, "Hi, I'm Mrs. Minno.  I really love your restaurant but I think the hot sauce on the cheesy bacon grits doesn't do the dish justice and really takes away from the overall flavor."  Wow!  really? I mean sure I agree with the statement and it's sort of haunted me since I first ate at Local but really...going up to a renowned chef and not only giving him a piece of advice but also stating my first AND last name like he should know me.  And it probably came out a bit slurred even. Oh goodness.  Not the impression I was looking to make.  And I didn't stop there either...I proceeded to give him more helpful hints how to market his local wines on the wine list.  This can turn out a few ways - he forgets, he says "Hi" to my husband and I next Sunday or he pours hot sauce on all of my dishes during dinner next Sunday. I'm praying against the latter.  


All in all I think the event was a success for us girls and probably any single men that decided to take advantage of the opportunity to be one of the few straight men in attendance with beautiful ladies dressed to the nines in their best red & black dresses.  Those men are smart.  With proceeds going to the American Heart Association it wasn't a bad way to spend $10 and a Friday night.  I'll be there next year! For more info check out the site...Lady in Red


Score: 38 Points
Ambiance (3), Food/Drink Selection (3), Cost of Food/Drink (3), Guests in Attendance (5), Accessibility (5), Reason for Event (5), Cost of Event (4), Suitability of Location (4), Entertainment (3), Service of Event Staff (3).