Sip With Me

Laura Gardner channeled true entrepreneurial spirit when she used her corporate layoff to gift the city of Chicago with its most iconic foodie invention in years, Local Style Chips! Available in Chicago Hot Dog, Deep Dish, Italian Beef, Hot Giardiniera, and Regular Salted, these kettle style chips will leave you feeling like you just bit into your favorite Chicago classics! Hear her founding story...

Where art thou Aaron & Ioanna? At Chicago Shakespeare Theatre! Meet Edward Hall, a literal “Hall” of Famer on the World Theatre Scene. As Artistic Director, Edward helps oversee overall creative direction for the theatre, including a dozen productions this season! Edward dives into the genius of Shakespeare and shows how the contemporary, new works the theater puts on connect to Shakespearean Clas...

In this special episode, we celebrate five years of Sip with Me with our 180th episode! We give you a behind-the-scenes look at our friendship, spill the tea on some of our podcast drama, and discuss the impact some of the episodes have had on our lives. As always, thank you for listening and allowing us to share so many stories with you! Cheers to many more. xoxo, aaron & ioanna

Emily Kristen Morris defies gravity in all that she does! A Singer, Actress, Content Creator, Vocal Instructor & Founder of EKM Studios, she’s known for her stunning performances on stage and has likely appeared in your social feeds, giving viral voice tips and vocal reactions. Emily was the Elphaba standby on the Broadway National Tour of Wicked (what a resume credit) and played Bea in the Broadw...

There’s 22 acres and a thousand reasons to love Sonny Acres! Aaron’s childhood pumpkin patch and Ioanna’s farm dream come true, this gem of a space in the middle of Chicagoland has 125 years of stories to tell! We meet Jeannine Fontana, who in 2019 purchased the farm with her husband (also a lifelong Sonny Acres fan) and his friend. She shares some of the farm’s history and how it grew to be a sta...

All aboard the Amtrak to adventure! This week, we’re joined by Liz Owens, Vice President and General Manager of Vacations By Rail, a Chicago-based company that helps travelers explore the world by train! After we trauma dump on Liz for ten minutes about our flying anxiety, we discuss the unique benefits of traveling by rail! Liz breaks down what to expect for first-timers and spotlights some of th...

A podcast for campers, glampers and everyone in between! Pack your cutest flannel and prepare to wander into the rustic summer retreat of your dream! Welcome to Camp Wandawega! This incredible retreat located just north of the border in Wisconsin has it all- a private lakefront, hiking trails, and the most Instagramable accommodations even Martha Stewart couldn’t have designed herself. With roots...

President Ioanna and VP Aaron would like to formally invite you to hear the tale of Chicago’s “Hotel of Presidents”! Known for its many iconic former guests, including Teddy Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter, the historic hotel on Chicago’s Michigan Ave blends its historic mystique with modern day luxury. As part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, the hotel boasts incredible lake views and enough tales...

Now boarding iFLY flight 0001 from Chicago to wherever the wind takes us! It’s immersion therapy week for Ioanna and Aaron! To get over their fear of flying, they’ve partnered with iFLY to literally take flight at their iconic indoor skydiving experience! Joe Velez, the Senior Regional Director for iFLY, introduces us to the company and how indoor skydiving came to be! We discuss the experience of...

You’ve seen it in the movies- an artist wannabe goes into a studio, throws some clay on the wheel, and SPLAT, it’s all over the walls and ceiling, ruining your $120 Abercrombie jeans and leaving you with nothing to be on your mantle. Lucky for Aaron & Ioanna, they found Penguin Foot Pottery and knew they were in good hands (literally). We chat with Chris and Paige Busse about their Logan Square po...

*THIS IS A LIVE INTERVIEW! Pardon the chocolatey construction noises in the background* Ioanna & Aaron Twizzler Twist and are Jolly as a Rancher at Chicago’s Hershey Super Sweet Adventure! Caitlin Maloney, Vice President of Creative at Original X Productions (OGX), introduces us to the company behind some of the nation’s greatest immersive IP experiences, including Harry Potter, Friends, and now H...

Meet the Queen of Cute, Creator of Strawberry Shortcake and Key Designer behind Care Bears and The Get Along Gang! Muriel Juneberry Fahiron is know for all the illustrations that made your childhood magical and your adulthood nostalgic. After a decades long career with various greeting card companies and agencies, Muriel now calls Tulsa home and graces our feed with her #kitchendance videos! We ch...

Raise your glass! This week we’re pouring one out for our friends at Revolution Brewing, Illinois' Largest Independent Craft Brewery! In this episode, we brew up some craft beverage history and learn the founding story from Marty Scott, Barrel Program Manager at Revolution Brewing. He dives into how a small Chicago brewery crafted its own path to success in a world of big beer. Plus, we learn what...

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a Ballyhoo! At 11 locations and growing, it’s likely you’ve dined at a Ballyhoo Hospitality restaurant before. Their roster includes names like Denucci’s, Gemini, Petit Pomeroy, Coda di Volpe and more! Known for their feel-good vibes and opulent customer service, the group brings “going out for a night in the city” to the suburbs and offer a vibey way to have “lunch...

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS • Learn where the name “Gibsons” comes from and why there’s no apostrophe! • Discover why their signature steaks are so popular • Hear tales of Chicago history and stories of cultural icons who Gibsons can call “regulars” Opened in 1989, Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse is Chicago’s Classic American steakhouse. Nestled comfortably between State & Rush, the restaurant is a decades-long f...

This week, we revisit one of our favorite episodes from 2024, Chicago Boat Company! We recently took a ride on one of their mega-viral “Hot Tub Boats” and just had to share the company story with you again in case you missed it last year. Listen now to hear about how they got a hot tub to float, and check instagram to see us play rapid fire live in the hot tub!   Original Episode This week, we mee...

The name is Bond, James Bond, and I’ll have a Vesper Martini with a side of science to celebrate my movie series, which is the longest-running ever! Chicago’s famous Griffin Museum of Science and Industry welcomes “007 Science: Inventing the World of James Bond”. The exhibit, open through March 2025, explores the science and technology featured in the James Bond movies! We sit down with Museum Chi...

Frohe Weihnachten, Chicago! We put the German lesson we got at the Christkindlmarket to use and head down the street to another one of our favorite holiday spots, The Berghoff! Their claim to fame is that they are nearly the oldest restaurant in Chicago, have OG liquor license number one from the city, and serve both award-winning food and beer with their Adams Street Brewery! Assistant Manager An...

Yule be sorry if you miss this one! From dazzling ornaments to show-stopping trees, the LARGEST Christmas store in Illinois is pure North Pole magic. Their trees go viral on the daily and even appear in the terminals of O’hare! We chat with Christmas Expert and Owner of Treetime Christmas Creations, Laurie Kane, about how she created the largest Christmas store in the state! She breaks down this y...

Put us in a bottle and wrap it with a bow! This week, we’re diving nose-first into the art of perfume making with perfume master, Marija Lazarevic, of Aroma Workshop! It’s our 2024 unique holiday gift and winter activity idea for Chicagoans! Aroma Workshop is a perfumery, making custom scent blends that rival all the nostalgic perfumes and colognes you love. They’ve been around for decades and tha...

We put the FAN in Fannie May, because we’re lifelong lovers of these iconic chocolates! From Pixies to Mint Meltaways, Ioanna and Aaron have indulged in Fannie May chocolates every holiday since they were kids. Aaron’s twin brother even worked in a Fannie May shop! Fannie May has been around since the 1920’s when it all began as a neighborhood chocolate shop in Chicago. Since then, they’ve grown f...

What’s better than one jack-o’-lantern? How about 1,000! Exclusively at Chicago Botanic Garden, Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanterns features professionally carved pumpkins hand carved with a whole host of designs, from album covers, to Chicago icons, and even some TBT cartoons like Courage The Cowardly Dog! Jodi Zombolo joins us for her 2nd appearance on Sip with Me to discuss this year’s Jack-o’-Lant...

Podcasters get lost in the world’s largest corn maze read the headlines! Don’t get cornfused- this is indeed the World’s Largest Corn Maze! Meet Richardson Adventure Farm! Located north of the city in picturesque northern Illinois, this is not your typical family farm! Richardson is home to the largest corn maze anywhere. We meet George Richardson who runs the farm with his family. He tells us abo...

Hey Pumpkins! At October Cafe, everyone deserves to feel the love of fall ALL YEAR LONG! We meet Audrey Borden & Michelle Gonzalez, owners of the year-round fall themed cafe. A LGBTQ+IA, Latina operated cafe, they’re serving something special that usually only exists for a couple days each year as the Pumpkins glow and the apples crisp. We chat about how the idea came about and what it’s like oper...

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Tony Durpetti, longtime Owner of Gene & Georgetti. Tony passed away shortly after our conversation with his daughter, Michelle Durpetti. It is folks like him who make Chicago special and whose stories are the guiding light of what we do. We thank Michelle for sharing some of his story with us in this episode. Chicago’s Famous & Original Tuscan Steakhouse...