Providing an opportunity to eat, drink, shop local and be merry, SAUCED Night Market brings artists, makers and creatives from across the city together, right in time for holiday shopping. Emerging chefs, mixologists and DJs will be there, too. Turning the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel’s converted gymnasium and basketball court into a shopper’s playground for two nights in December, the self-proclaimed “sauciest night market in Chicago,” is back with a holiday shopping event after a long hiatus courtesy of pandemic-related restrictions.
Andria Green
We well know that discovering—and purchasing—smaller brands is important—but even more so this holiday season. Enter SAUCED Night Market, where you can find a wide range of arts and crafts, handmade goods, jewelry, clothing, apparel, prints and more. The best part? Vendors rotate, providing a unique shopping experience while at the same time making space for newly founded small business ventures. Thus, the shopping opportunities are near-endless.
Craving Good Vibes
Cheerware, creates elaborately designed glassware and decor to help make your home your happy place. Bearing names like Ski Town, Hygge Home and Canceled Plans, they will get you right in the holiday spirit. Craving Good Vibes celebrates today’s foodie culture by creating foodie-inspired shirts, graphic t-shirts and apparel. Alue Design designs handmade concrete home goods. Andria Green makes pillows and textiles inspired by the colors of nature. YASOU, a luxe wellness, Greek-inspired skincare line that is water-based, natural and contains certified organic oils, raises “a toast to your health,” as it is named after the Greek word for cheers. Sin Titulo, is a collective of three Latina sisters with a mission to create apparel featuring cultural and social justice designs that they stand behind. Other vendors include indie bookstore Exile in Bookville, jewelry-design studio Tamest Rebel and candles by Winchcraft Candle Company.
YASOU
Sharing the stage at this hand-picked get-together are the city’s emerging chefs. Onigiri Shuttle KORORIN is a cloud kitchen onigiri restaurant—think Japanese soul food. Pasta Pappone’s flavored pasta delivers an elevated take on traditional Italian cuisine, thanks to the addition of masterfully blended spices, herbs and vegetables. Flavors include: artichoke rosemary linguini, lemon pepper fettuccine and more. For a kick, there’s Soothsayer’s “satanic hot” sauce. For a treat, there’s Ravenswood’s small-batch, handcrafted Milky Milky Ice Cream. Something for every age, every taste, every palate.
Milky Milky Ice Cream
Coming a long way post-pandemic—from their Sunday series at Easy Does It, a bar, patio and bottle shop space in Logan Square that became the market’s temporary summer home, to the House of Vans this November, to the upcoming Chicago Athletic Association, SAUCED Night Market has been trying to resume pop-up events doing what they do best: bringing the community together through food, drink and shopping fun one market at a time.
Tamest Rebel
When SAUCED Night Market co-founder Sarah Freeman, spoke with us back in July, she was optimistic about their return to full-sized indoor night markets, complete with a DJ and live art installations. “I can’t wait to throw a big, stinkin’ party like we used to,” she said. Looks like we’re almost there.
Greek-born Vasia Rigou is a journalist, editor and multimedia content producer largely on the subjects of visual art, culture, architecture and design. She currently serves as an Editor at Newcity, Chicago’s leading culture publication, as Writer and Copy Editor at the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) HQ, and regularly contributes to international architecture and design magazines OnOffice and ICON. She has experience creating content for brands and building conference speeches and influential TEDx talks. Simply put: she’s fascinated by finding out the great stories behind the people, places and objects that surround us, and by sharing those stories with the world. When she’s not writing about art or looking at art—wine in hand—she makes lists for pretty much everything, drinks immense amounts of coffee and takes cross-country road trips every chance she gets.
