Elite Halloween Costume Bash @ Stan Mansion

I also popped my Unilocal Elite Event Cherry at this party and it was amazing! Better than I could have ever imagined. (I’m just sorry I Just figured out you could review events…)
Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday and Unilocal did not disappoint me. Everyone looked amazing, the wine and food was good, and I can’t even mention how much in love I was with the cupcakes. Any party that involves cupcakes and dress up is an automatic 5 star. But the best part? The little ghost lights! They changed color, how awesome is that? If anyone knows where I can get one (or 5) I would love to know.
Thank you Unilocal Halloween Party! I had a great first time.

I know this is late, but I just never got around to it!
This was my introdution to Unilocal,as I was a guest of the Unstoppable An P. He invited me the week of the event, so I just went to the costume store and put together some things that were leftover in the store. I got a priest outfuit, a cross and a shiny silver wig (Wow I just saw a pic of myself that I did not know was on here).
Pretty solid party! Everyone, including myself, was having a great time on the dancefloor. The DJ was really awesome! Everyone was friendly and cheery! The wine was ok, but I didn’t care for the beer as much, although free beer is always good. The food was really good! I think I swallowed 3 or 4 plates full. LOL!
This was a really good event and the next week I became an official Unilocaler!

As someone who has spent the majority of my illustrious career producing special events, I know a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to the execution of large scale events. And I say «job well done» to Colleen and Andrea for pulling together an exceptional and extraordinary Halloween Event. The Stan Mansion was the perfect venue with an equal balance of elegance and spooky! The lighting and design installation was exceptional and Art of Imagination created an awesome scary/​sexy vibe with their design work!
I would like to personally and publically thank Chef Aaron Ortego from Moonshine for his valiant efforts and YUMMY food. Its hard enough to make decent food on site but consider working in a closet with no water, stove or fridge, up two flights of stairs with a truckload of equipment and giving up your night off to make sure its done right? Yeah, you are AMAZING! And D’Absolute Catering was on top of everything including the recycling of the bottles! And More Cupcake were delightful and decadent. I imagine if I ate bitter for breakfast it would taint the wonderful flavors but I enjoyed a cup of joy with my plate of positive!
Big thanks to the generous donors of the beer and Red Truck wine (and the awesome bartender who gave me a bottle for «cooking»). Excellant judgement call on the beverages options in preventing a nightmare! I was able to attend an After Party After Party due to your thoughtful consideration!
I for one always manage to enjoy myself at these events and am glad to be part of the good side of Unilocal.I attend for the good company and not the «free».And lucky me! Nikki C can read my mind so I heard so many of my faves without having to ask! 3^rd Base! Go Pete Nice!
Outrageous job on the costumes and creativity. And contraversy. Next year maybe just a trip to the pumpkin patch with the disappearing ponies is in order! Not!
Job well done Unilocal!Job well done!

It can’t be easy throwing a party for 500+ people.
It’s DEFINITELY not easy procuring enough beer, wine and food to feed 500+ thirsty, hungry, opinionated Unilocalers!
Colleen does it seamlessly though. While we can see Colleen’s smiling face and hear her kind, welcoming words, we aren’t privy to all the phone calls, the late nights, the huffing and puffing and anxiety of, ‘will the Unilocalers enjoy this party?’.
Okay, friendly rant over :)
As usual, I enjoyed the open bar and being a beer lover, welcome non-​AB or Miller products. Yes, the wine was served a la thimbles, but I fear if it was served in larger denominations I may have puked. So eloquently spoken, eh? I made a valiant attempt at actually eating a Unilocal event meal, a DIY pulled pork sandwich. Unfortunately, I missed the cupcakes. My radar was set to the wrong setting, apparently… it’s one or the other: cute guys or sweets ;)
Yes, the fog made it difficult to identify said cuties and friends, but definitely amped the spooky ambiance. Nikki C did a stellar job as always! I know, I know… there’s just something about New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ and girls. We dance!
Unilocalers are so creative that my ‘Helen of Trojan’ costume felt silly without my forgotten piece de resistance: my party favors, 100 Trojans! Oh well… guess you know where to find ‘em, because I’m giving them away!
Thanks to ALL involved: Andrea as Colleen’s accomplice, Carol J for procuring and coordinating the logistics of food from Moonshine, our talented photogs, DJ Nikki C, Denver’s ‘dress obsessed’ Tiffany C and anyone else behind the scenes. I know, it’s a thankless job isn’t it? ;)
My entourage of well-​behaved (I think?!) plus three (a samurai, a walk of shame and a caveman) had a rip roarin’ good time. In the words of Don Corleone, it wasn’t enough time. And so I bid you adieu until next time, lovely Unilocalers.

It was a dark and stormy night (ok fine it was clear and surprisingly warm). A couple of friends and I were walking down the crooked sidewalks in Logan Square, trying to find the mysterious « Unilocaloween» party at the Stan Mansion. It felt like we were walking for days and I could feel the disconcerting glances as we passed on-​lookers, their comments burning in my ears. They said «freak», «weirdo», «eww», and «wow you’re really hot», ok so some weren’t bad. I knew we were getting close but wasn’t sure until… a beautiful soldier (Brett D.) said «welcome, welcome, so you’ve finally made it». We cautiously walked into the spooky mouth of the mansion only to be greeting at the door by a smiling Dorothy (Andrea R), who checked our names of a list, no doubt an evil list. She spoke quietly «disrobe yourselves of the heavy garments downstairs and join the OTHERS upstairs.
With each step up we feared for our lives (well one of us has asthma so stairs suck), strange people in costumes (or maybe not) trickled down the stairs past us in joy, as if they have just consumed someone of something (Carrie M’s cake balls no doubt). At the top we where greeted again by a tall, fierce (but very hot) roller girl (Colleen C). I was terrified until she spoke «Hey Nicky, (don’t you all even think about calling me that) the drinks are that way and food the opposite». SWEET! From there on out things were a little less scary. Ok so Dean Koontz I am not.
Unilocalers plus there guests were decked, great creative costumes by all. The cast of clue (John, Amy, Carrie…), comic book characters (Maria…), an ipod (Unity), evil hot demons (Stacy, Diana…), good witches (Lori…), a hot Jane Fonda (Amanda), school girls (Jerry…), and classic looks (Penny, Jessica…). I actually had a hard time recognizing a couple of people. I mean who could’ve spotted Kyle H., Kellie K., or Layne as the owl from Clash of the Titans. It’s always fun to run into people you know and to meet others for the first time.
I wouldn’t say that I was extremely impressed with Stan Mansion, but it was a different experience that I wouldn’t have experienced without Unilocal.Like other events I never get around to the food, but it looked great. As a strictly spirits drinker I wasn’t too happy with the wine (Red truck, more like it fell off the truck wine), and the beer was pretty bad. You really can’t complain too much because it all did the trick. Note for next time, no fog machines! Thanks Nikki for a great set of music to shake my butt too (yes I can shake my butt better then Jessica C.). Thanks again… I hope you all had an evil night! Hope to scare you again soon!

I had to wait a few days for my bad mood to subside and to think about this party objectively. Overall, I felt pretty lukewarm about this party. I know how difficult it is to arrange for all of the free goodies and to execute a party like this at a venue that requires you to bring everything in, so for that alone the Unilocal gals get 5 stars!
What I liked:
— The location. I loved being able to walk to a Unilocal event! I hope to see more parties in Logan Square or even off the Blue Line. Yay!
— The beer. Truman Pils? It was like «the German Miller Lite» according to Colleen. It wasn’t the best beer I’ve ever had, but for one night (and for free!) it was great.
— The DJ. Nikki C. rocked the house as usual.
— The food. I liked the build your own burrito/​taco station, but where were the swedish meatballs? I only stuck to the foods that I could identify (and see in the dark foggy room.)
— The Unilocalers! Such great costumes from everyone!
— The beer guys. They were hysterical and really fast with serving the beer!
What I did not like:
— Plus 3 guests. This is just too many and left room for people to bring guests who didn’t «get it» and wanted to act like fools. Ridiculous drunk entitled fools.
— The Stan Mansion. I checked out the website for the Stan Mansion a few days before the party and was hoping to see some gilded age elegance. Instead I saw a third-​rate banquet hall that had gone to hell. The bathrooms were atrocious! How hard is it to get out a screw driver and fix the locks on the stall doors? Sheesh!
— The smoke machine. Everyone else has said it. It was way too much. Also, the lights could have been a touch brighter.
— The teeny tiny tasting shot glasses of wine. If I had been thinking, I would have walked home and grabbed a proper wine glass.
What I usually do at Unilocal events:
— I miss the dessert table. Where WAS everything!!! I wandered around the room and didn’t see any cupcakes. Then again, it was so dark I could hardly see my beer in front of my face!
— I talk to everyone and feel like I haven’t really talked to anyone. The best part of the night was sitting on the couch in the bar area with the few remaining guests and being able to have a conversation.
What I don’t usually do at Unilocal events:
— Have to fend off some ridiculous girl who thought that the Ouija board tables were VIP seating and decided to act like a bitch and steal my seat when I stood up to snap a picture of Fook You and Fook Me. Whoever brought her, make sure that you tell her that she hits like a girl and I’ll take her on any time, any place (away from a Unilocal event.)
— Get rudely ushered out by the staff at closing without enough time to finish my beer. Hey Stan Mansion dude, we weren’t going to spend the night there, we just wanted to finish our beers while Colleen and crew were packing up. I’m sorry that we stayed until 11:27, as you were so nice to point out on your watch.
— Leave the party in a worse mood than I arrived.
I know this is hard work and I appreciate all of the free goodies and effort that this took to pull off. Unilocaltoberfest was so great that I felt let down by Unilocaloween.

So, I’ve been to a Unilocal Prom and seen the awesomeness of how they can transform a rite of passage into an adult night with dresses and boozahol. Well, Unilocal Chicago surprised and rocked my Halloween out as well.
Halloween at Stan Mansion proved to be one of the most fun nights with lots of Unilocalers, boozeahol, food, and costumes. Thanks to Colleen C. and Andrea, I had a spectacular night dressed as Mrs. White from Clue with Mr. Cake Ball as Mr. Green along with our other Clue cohorts. Stan Mansion was the perfect venue with a large dance floor and bar to the side which got a little packed afterwhile. I learned the art of doubling up on refreshments to avoid the lines. I throughly enjoyed the Red Truck wines and Trumer Pils beer. Moonshine’s pulled pork sandwiches were awesome as was the rest of the spread. Carol J. outdoes her self again. The other catered table had frequent visits from Mr. Cake Ball who raved about the selections. While More’s Cupcakes were tasty indeed. I liked the vanilla topped one better than the chocolate cake one.
While enjoying the beer and tasty food, I had fun trying to find fellow Unilocalers who looked nothing like themselves. I loved the male stripper as female stripper complete with pole costume and Daniel T’s banana with maracas. Everyone looked great and put such effort into those costumes. I could list all of you, but it would take too long. I also had fun delighting my Unilocalies with orange and chocolate covered devil’s food cake balls. It was so much fun presenting unsuspecting Unilocalers with a plastic pumpkin full of cake balls-​a Colleen C. sanctioned treat.
I knew it was a successful Unilocal event when knitting the most basic hat proved difficult with my hangover haze of a fun Halloween night.

The fantastic hostesses of Unilocal Chicago allowed a Denver Elite Squad member to crash the party, and that was me! I was even allowed to help with the raffling of magical prizes. AWESOME! I had a fantastic time. The food was delicious (including the tacos, bbq as well as the meatballs) and the beers were COLD and REFRESHING, which I needed with all of my activities as well as my skin-​tight silver unitard. For those not recognizing me, I was the Tin Man at the top of the stairs.
I can’t think of a better location for a Halloween party than this mansion we were in. Seriously, they did a great job of setting a very spooky party tone.
As for the locals I met while at the party, I’m going to give a serious tip of the funnel to the Leader of North Korea and Mugatu, who kept a beer in my hand all night. Thank you for your kindness and killer party instinct. Also, thank you to Andrea for getting me & my ladyhawk (Glenda the good witch) to and from the party, she totally rules and stuff.
Colleen, you rule at Unilocal-​party throwing, so keep it up.

Positive: Again, Unilocal team throws a great — FREE — party. An open bar, plentiful eats, mini cupcakes. And a DJ who really played requests (as long as they were made 3 days in advance… just ribbing you, Nikki). Thank you Colleen and Andrea and all your minions for putting together a festive event.
Seeing all the usual suspects and meeting a few new ones made my night. As did the payment of kisses on the cheek for goods in my, er, box.
Negative: uh, what was I thinking? It took me nearly 20 hours to recover from this one… the spectacle of my early saturday morning dramamine on an empty, dizzy stomach, resulting in the heee-​larious public vomiting in the main concourse of O’Hare was side splitting! At least in hindsight.
I apologize to any and all I may have offended or propositioned. Whatever I said and did… uh…I didn’t mean it. I keep having flashes of memory and I’m still horrified. Did I really walk around Logan Square barefoot? Does anyone want to chaperone me next event? I’m getting too crotchety and feeble for this sort of tomfoolery.
I have now taken a vow never to drink again at a Unilocal event. I’ll be joining Jerry at the kids’ table from now on.

Those Unilocal girls sure know how to throw a party. I didn’t know who most of the people were, but I’ve reached a stage in my life where that’s not unusual.
It was a combination costume party and treasure hunt. Oh look, Swedish meatballs! What this, bruschetta and quesadillas! There’s a burrito bar? Who knew?
Unilocalers take their Halloween seriously, and there were some amazing costumes. I draw the line at makeup, and body paint — no way! I’m glad I wore something that could pass as street clothes.
Minus one star for the fog machine. There was plenty of atmosphere without it. When I’m choking on fog two rooms over, I say we’ve had enough.

The IPod was robbed of best costume! :-) Sorry I could not resist. Color me impressed with all the extremely creative costumes – you all rocked the house. I loved it all. Kudos to Colleen for putting this all together for us – you are amazing as always.
Also big props to Moonshine for the delicious food & to More Cupcakes for the most spectacular mini-​cupcakes I have ever had (AND! for giving me a box of left-​overs – DROOL!).
The dance floor was bumping as Nikki doled out the tunes, my feet are killing me today from all the grooving. Thanks ever so much for playing some salsa – it is appreciated.
The venue was very adequate for this type of event, but as I was there early to help set up, they could have been more helpful with their organization of supplies – ie trash bags. Also, the bathrooms should be on the same floor that the drinking is on – one could break their neck going to those stairs to use the Loo.
Overall a fantastic time! Favorite moment of the evening is when the 2 nutcrackers (Brett & Mallory) saw each other for the 1^st time – awesome!

I knew Unilocalers were creative but WoW! The costumes last night were amazing and stunning! Everyone was at the top of their game last night. Beer good. Food good. Cupcakes YUM! Although I never figured out what the non-​chocolate one was… I don’t know how many of those I had!
Colleen, you looked amazing! And thank you and Andrea for yet another blow out event! So much fun! The bartenders were fantastic and I saw a ton o’ 20’s in that tip bowl! Good job! I think we all decided to tip our lot beforehand this go around so we don’t get any shit about not tipping again!
The venue was perfect — and never having been to Logan Square before, I was impressed with how gorgeous it was in that area. But where were the cabs?! That was ridiculous! All in all a fantastic night — so great to see everyone again and thanks for making it one heluva Halloween bash!

Good, fun, Halloweenie times had by all… I was so impressed with everyones creativity and costume assemblage prowess. Wow! Super sexy, super spooky, super funny — it was all there. Halloween is my favorite, so to celebrate with 500 (really? seemed smaller…) of my lovely, hot looking Unilocalers and their friends was amazing.
Nikki kept me grooving on the dance floor ALL NIGHT LONG which was fabulous… I couldn’t even sleep last night my thighs were a-​burnin’ so bad! More practice pre-​lunges next time ;)
Per usual, I can’t comment on the food… but a party with More cupcakes is always fabulous in it’s own right, ain’t it? I hear everyone was pleased with the snacks and we all know I was pleased with the wine, but again with the thimble cups. Is this a Unilocal prerequisite? It just makes it a tad inconvenient to trek back and forth from the rooms constantly to get another ‘shot’ but I guess it made for a good excuse to move around and see everyone!
Andrea and Colleen always do a flawless job putting together stellar parties that bring out the wild side in us all. I don’t envy the task but they make it look it easy. Muchos Gracias Ladies!

The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth and not even just because of the presence of Duh Führer and company.
I have never been offered such an awful assortment of beverages. Flat mineral water, diet juice, sour beer and wine that I had to drink like a shot– a horrible, horrible shot. Even worse than the spoiled chocolate milk I had in boot camp — at least that had some chocolate in there. Didn’t Argo Tea used to show up at Unilocal events? What the hell happened? I resorted to trying to drink the cream gravy off of the meatballs — at least it was nice and cold, but did not cause any buzz and I was thirsty all night. The only other horrible thing they could have offered and didn’t would have been Mr. Pibb.
The food was really average and was confusingly not labeled at all — «Is this chicken? Pork? Porken?» I did like some of the chicken (?) skewers, but the cupcakes were the real disappointment. At first I figured More was an awesome choice for Halloween and that they would break out a bunch of wild flavors and really be down with the festiveness of Halloween — instead? Two flavors, essentially chocolate and vanilla (technically supposed to be a salted caramel… let’s just call it vanilla. Maybe ass-​dry vanilla would be more accurate.) Seriously, I bet Chaos Theory would have kicked their ass and come up with some spinach witch cakes or something. I am happy I didn’t have to pay to try them, but More is not on my «to try» list anymore.
Maybe it was my total sobriety that allowed me to notice the real downgrade from past events — way fewer vendors, fewer offerings of swag, no hard liquor when some was desperately needed. Unilocal Around the World was amazing. Unilocaltoberfest was totally on point. This? Like 83% trick.
The treats? Decent music with a bunch of the songs I requested, and it was great to see some of my favorite Unilocaler friends. I had an awesome ringside seat at a table that allowed me to watch a lot of the «festivities.»
Unilocal and I have this arrangement. I write for them for free and like once a month or so they are supposed to get me totally drunk for free and leave me all buttered up and ready for another month. This time it didn’t happen and I was just left sober. And with a hangover that was unfortunately not alcohol induced — like waking up the morning after Halloween with a treat bag full of pennies. Canadian pennies.

This venue is quite amazing, particularly sitting squarely in Logan Square. This spacious venue can provide you with more than enough space to have the biggest of events. I cannot believe someone use to live in it???
Staff were quick with service and the décor was accommodating with plenty of tables to sit drinks and a big enough dance floor to allow folks to get their groove on!
The only things that were not so great were the location of the bathroom on the ground floor and I write this due to seeing no less than a few women in heels almost break their necks walking down the the double flight of stairs and the lack of any real parking. Other than those items, this is a great venue for anyone seeking something out of the oridnary.

This event may have been a little too close to home for me. Without having to worry about so much as public transportation (let alone driving), there were quite a few free beers that went down my donkey gullet. And today I’m still two blocks away from the venue because I’m too hung over to leave my apartment. Not because I slept in an alley or anything. Though it wouldn’t be surprising if that happened to a couple of people (due to the apparent transportation issues I keep reading about).
Sorry to all those who couldn’t find a cab in Logan Square, we’re sort of a public transportation neighborhood here (with Stan Mansion being right off the Fullerton bus and two blocks from the Logan Square blue line stop).
The costumes were amazing. With the big personalities and creativity on this site it was great to see what inner personas and ironic tastes people had. Glad that I didn’t have to be a judge to figure out who was the best. I might have voted for Craig B.‘s Hitler. And how does someone live with that?
Nikki’s DJ set was absolutely incredible. The mix of genres could have been a disaster waiting to happen. But it was almost seemless and the mixes were great.
The missing fifth star? Where were the vegetarian options on the food? The burrito bar offered a few options — if us herbivores didn’t want anything but cheese and pico de gallo to build the rest of the burrito on. And the burrito fixings were tasty. But there was a lot of meat. And not just on the dance floor.
Thanks to everyone for a great time at my first event as an elite (though I was «snuck» into Unilocaltoberfest as a newbie +1 so not my first elite event). And a special thank you to Colleen and Andrea for giving lovely Logan Square a try for an event (and for pulling it off so well, as always).

I didnt drink last night therefor my feet hurt really bad by the end of the night. Ya see, when I imbibe liquor I dont feel the pain baby, I just dance! Anywho… I did drink a lot of Fuze drinks. Those were nice. The food was pretty good, especially the meat on a stick. Yumm-​o! I didnt recognize a lot of people until I was close up on them. Unilocalers had some of the most creative costumes I saw all night.
Overall, it was a really nice event and a great way to kick off my Halloween evening. The Stan Mansion was great!

Boris Pickett sang it best, «They did the mash…they did the Monster mash. The monster mash. . it was a graveyard smash!» And Unilocal Halloween was just that. A smash!
Halloween! Where else can you be anyone (thing) you want to be if only for a night? And who else but Unilocal could throw a party like this?
The Stan Mansion was the perfect venue. A seasoned building, that if its walls could talk, could tell us stories of its own. But none as strange as a group of Unilocalers converging on the place, I’m sure!
A simple bar of beer and wine? Perfect. Kept things moving along once we finally convinced the bartenders to just hand us the bottle and stop pouring it into glasses! Someday we’ve got to solve the wine glass challenge of «communion sized cups» but hey, we got good at grabbing 4 at a time!
But the best thing? The Unilocalers themselves. Each and everyone of you outdid yourselves with your costumes. From Karl and his pole dances (I am still laughing about that one!) to Colleen and her crazy «do», to the group of Unilocalers dressed as «Clue», to Unity as the iPod, and so many more with no room to mention, it’s clear to see that Unilocalers have a love of Halloween!
There was dancing to Nikki C and drinking like there was no tomorrow (typical Unilocal event, yes?) but it was clearly the people that always make these events so much fun!
Yep. A «graveyard smash». Unilocal Halloween was just that. A smash!

So, so fun! Stellar venue, tasty treats from Moonshine and More and delicious libations made for an outstanding Halloween party. Not to mention the great music from Nikki (I don’t care what anyone else says, I loved your DJing skills)!
I was pleasantly surprised to see how good the costumes were this year! Everything from my school girl posse of Jerry and Mandi, to holy men, toy soldiers, the rhythmic gymnastics team and much, much more. It was a night I won’t soon forget!
Thanks Colleen and Andrea for throwing a wonderful party for us. Now I’m going to lounge around my apartment and nurse my hangover.

Stan Mansion was a great place for a Halloween Ball… Bash…Monster Mash! And the monsters came out, as well as the Sarah Palins, Hockey Moms, Windy City Roller Girls, Madmen Molls, iPods, Junos, and many more creative costumes! My fave and the one I voted for: Mike W. as Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, complete with Rick guitar (not the real one, he reminded us)! Kudos, man.
The music was awesome and Nikki C. even played Hollie’s Neutral Milk Hotel request early on! The dance floor was never empty thanks to him, and to Trumer Pils (yummy, slightly skunky beer, which is good sometimes). I had a great time hanging out with Michael G. and seeing all my Elite faves!
Only negative: it’s hard enough recognizing people when you normally only see someone’s 1×1 inch profile pic, and much moreso when they are dressed in full makeup as a Vampire and such. (Hey, that guy was me!). So maybe next time we can all agree to not be so Secret-​Secret on the talk threads prior.
Thank you Roller Girl, Colleen C. It was great, and went by much too quickly!