You heard it here first: The Violet Hour cocktail whiz Mike Ryan will bartend his last shift at the Wicker Park lounge this Saturday night. Ryan has accepted a job as head bartender at Sable, an upscale gastro-lounge concept slated to open in the space adjacent to new Kimpton property Hotel Palomar (505 N. State St.) this spring. 

Oddly enough, Ryan, his Violet Hour comrades and I are all in Louisville, Kentucky, this week (in case I haven’t mentioned it at least a thousand times, that’s where I’m from), so last night we met up fo—what else?—cocktails… read more »