Raising a glass to sobriety: The Graceful Ordinary's Sip & Support fundraiser supports hospitality workers' mental health
The Graceful Ordinary owners Chris and Megan Curren know all too well the struggles that restaurant industry employees face. They've seen it themselves for all their working lives.
Long, late hours, an often dizzying pace in a high-pressure environment, demanding customers and an unconventional schedule can lead to stress, anxiety and burnout.
“This is an industry where most times if you're not feeling well, you're turning to something that's gonna make you feel worse,” Chris said. “It may cover it up for a time, but you're making pretty unhealthy choices.”
To help their employees and others in the industry, the Currens teamed up with a number of top Chicago and local bars to start Sip & Support, a sobriety-focused fundraising initiative to bring mental health resources to local hospitality workers.
They'll host the first event at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, at their St. Charles restaurant, 3 E. Main St., with nonalcoholic “mocktails” created by renowned Chicago bars The Violet Hour, a James Beard Award winner; Kumiko, listed among The World's Best 50 Bars in 2022; and Meadowlark, one of Esquire's Best Bars in America in 2023. Fox Valley cocktail specialists The Walrus Room/Alchemist and The Lewis also contributed recipes and will be at the event to offer mixology demos.
The initiative is personal for the Currens. Chris said he's dealt with mental health struggles his whole life, while Megan said stress in the industry in her 20s led to alcohol abuse.
“When we first opened we wanted to make mental health awareness in our work culture a priority,” Megan said. “Selfishly, we also knew we were going to be in the industry forever, so we wanted to create an environment that we can sustainably live in and spend the rest of our lives in and to raise our kids, so that was a goal.”
Megan said they want to give their employees the resources and training they need before they become overwhelmed and turn to alcohol or drugs to cope.
“We quickly realized that the resources that are out there are quite expensive,” she said.
The fundraiser will provide all the participating bars and restaurants with resources and educational materials aimed at raising awareness about mental health from Hope for the Day, a Chicago-based nonprofit dedicated to empowering the conversation on proactive suicide prevention and mental health education.
“We might not have the cash flow to be able to go out and spend, especially since we're just one restaurant,” she said. “But what we can do is throw parties, we can provide food and drink in the hopes to raise funds to provide these resources.”
Tickets to the sunset event on the restaurant's terrace overlooking the Fox River are available on Resy for $40 per person and include passed canapes from The Graceful Ordinary's culinary team. Additional nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages will be available for a la carte purchase.
The couple thought mocktails were a fitting pairing for the event.
“Mocktails are having their moment,” Megan said. “More and more people, particularly the younger generation, are loving mocktails. They like going out and having fun, but they don't like the hangover the next day.”
The mocktails at the event will stay on The Graceful Ordinary menu for two weeks after the event. All of the profits from both the terrace event's ticket sales and sales from the N/A menu will go toward helping hospitality workers.
“Hopefully people enjoy it, because if they do we're definitely going to do them regularly,” Megan said.