The coolest party you've never been invited to takes place the first Thursday of every month, at a secret location revealed just days before the event.
Around 200 gay men attend the party, where they sip cocktails, gossip with friends, flirt with strangers and pose for photographers.
"Everyone who comes is a friend of ours or a friend-of-a-friend. There really are two degrees of separation between you and everyone else here," says Dirk Dobbin, a.k.a. "Cocoa," a host of the event, along with Bob Reeg, "Smiley," and "Angel" Drew Jemilo.
Each host is an attractive, personable guy, possessing individual, highly specialized skills necessary to complete this "mission" of planning a successful event each month. ( Think: Charlie's Angels, minus those wacky bad guys. )
Meet Dirk Dobbin: A 30-year-old event planner, who uses his media-savvy charm to secure hip, trendy venues for the club. Past locales have included: Bin 36, Voltaire, Technicolor Kitchen and the House of Blues.
Meet Drew Jemilo: A 35-year-old director of technology. With boy-next-door good looks and a familiarity with HTML coding that leaves mere mortals baffled, Jemilo designs and maintain the event's Web site, petthemonkey.com .
Meet Bob Reeg: A 33-year-old banker, whose only responsibility, in the words of his fellow angels, is too "show up" and bring the "glamour," something the tight-bodied, tanned Reeg is able to do without batting an eye.
When the Big Gay Cocktail Club fell to earth in November 1999, none of its three organizers quite knew what to expect. The first event, held at Gentry on State, drew a small, but respectable, group of 40.
"We were desperate to do something to cure the winter blues," explains Jemilo, taking a healthy sip of his martini. "Winters in Chicago can be brutal and depressing."
"We wanted to find a way to get all of our friends and all of the people we know together in one place," offers Reeg.
"There is a certain kind of intimacy at the [ Big Gay Cocktail Club ] events," muses Dobbin. "Mixing is much easier here ... none of that attitude you find at any of the bars is here."
The club, which is suspended during the social-event heavy summer months, has generated quite a buzz among Chicago's gay circles. Powered by word-of-mouth testimonials and a campy Web site featuring running story lines, a "Catch-of-the-Month" column and a massive photo album showcasing event goers in various stages of drunken wantonnessthe BGCC has quietly evolved into one of the hippest parties and one of the best-kept secrets in gay Chicago.
"We don't have a membership and we don't confirm how many people are going to come to any of the events," says Jemilo. "And because people don't
have to make that kind of commitment they seem to be more likely to show up," he pauses for a moment. "At these events, you can bring your friends, you can bring anyone you want. At this party, everyone is the host."
According to Dobbin and Reeg, "everyone" usually consists of gay men
and their friends hailing from a variety of social, economic backgrounds.
And make no mistake: the group's founders are adamant in their quest to keep the club from morphing into some elitist fraternity.
The trio's attitude-free philosophy has actually inspired a spin-off gathering in New York City. Launched by a friend of Dobbin's last September, the Big Gay Cocktail Club regularly meets in bars and restaurants in Manhattan and contributes photos of its events to the Web site.
So what's the story behind the club's unusual moniker?
"You know the character Big Gay Al," asks Jemilo with an embarrassed chuckle, referring to the character from the South Park animated series. "Well I just thought that Big Gay anything just sounded so funny to me! As for the Web site's name, we wanted something that was playful and perhaps slightly naughty, but not offensive or obscene. We wanted a name you could share with your mother. We considered 'spank' or 'touch the monkey,' but we finally settled on 'pet the monkey.'"
Before the club goes on its summer hiatus, a final event is planned for July 12 at a still-undisclosed venue. ( Hint: Check out the group's Web site for more details ) .