“Is that her real name? Sugar?” asked a young woman on her way into the ladies’ room at Gordon restaurant. “I had a dog named Sugar.”
“We’re Sugar’s Chicago bookseller,” said Bill Rickman, president of Kroch’s. He looked around the tony party room, which was something like a cross between the old Stork Club in New York and Brennan’s restaurant in New Orleans. “We call this catering,” he said, pointing to a huge stack of sexy red books on a table covered by a starched white cloth. Alongside was a strongbox and a credit-card processor. “We cater books.”
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At one point I wondered out loud whether Sugar’s swingy skirt–swinging high above her black high heels– was in two parts. “No, it’s all one,” said a woman with a knowing voice. She identified herself as Karen Patterson, Sugar’s assistant for three and a half years. Patterson grew up in the northwest suburbs. She said she did a lot of research for Sugar’s book.
Host Gordon Sinclair said, “Oh, there’s the mayor’s wife.” But it wasn’t Maggie Daley, it was Heather Bilandic, looking rather casual (daytime country club) next to her husband, Michael, now an Illinois supreme court justice.
“It was Sugar’s idea,” said Gordon. “It’s a benefit from this book-signing. This is my 16th year. This is the first of 16 dessert creations in honor of my Sweet 16.”
