Fade to black

Photo: Steven Puetzer/Getty Images

The Sears Tower’s antennae have disappeared from the night sky. Wrigley Field’s historic marquee and the Navy Pier Ferris wheel…black. Soldier Field, Merchandise Mart, the Field Museum—all dark. Sound like the trailer for a Chicago disaster film? It’s actually the plot of Earth Hour. Sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour encourages people in 25 cities around the world to take a symbolic stand against global warming by turning off the lights on Saturday 29 from 8 to 9pm. The question is: How to spend those 60 minutes? Here are the highlights.

Consumption for conservation
Don’t spend another Saturday in self-imposed exile in your shoebox apartment drinking and sobbing in the dark. Shake things up for Earth Hour and head out to InnBar at the Inn of Chicago (162 E Ohio St, 312-787-3100). Lit only by candles, the swank lobby spot will offer acoustic music and a cocktail on special—the “eco-tini” made with organic vodka, muddled raspberries and raspberry liqueur—so you can raise a glass to energy conservation. The candlelit Bluprint restaurant (222 Merchandise Mart Plaza, 312-410-9800) will be serving up its own potent nod to Earth Hour: the “Mother Earth on a buzz” cocktail made with mint leaves, lemon grass and organic vodka.

Drama in the dark
The fact that the marquees on all the Broadway in Chicago theaters (the Ford Center for the Performing Arts, Oriental Theatre; the LaSalle Bank Theatre; and the Cadillac Palace Theatre) are darkening for an hour is a spectacle in itself. To kick off the ceremonial dimming, Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West from Wicked, will cast a “magic spell” outside the Oriental (24 W Randolph St).

If you just like to watch
Nab a bird’s-eye view of the city going dark from a 94th-floor perch at the “Back to Black” Earth Hour exhibition at the John Hancock Center Observatory (875 N Michigan Ave, 312-751-3681). The Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions company will replace all the observatory’s regular lighting with displays of its energy-efficient LED lighting systems, which can be digitally tweaked to produce more colors than Crayola.

Candlelight dinner
An hour of energy-saving darkness was apparently not sufficient for Didier Durand. The Cyrano’s Bistro (546 N Wells St, 312-467-0546) chef-owner has expanded his restaurant’s Earth Hour “Festival of Candles” candelight dinner to three days: Thursday 27, Friday 28 and Saturday 29. A dozen á la carte dishes, including whole roasted goose and cassoulet, will be available for $19.95 to $24.95.

Student soiree
We can only imagine the kinds of unsanctioned coed debauchery that take place inside darkened dorm rooms at the University Center (525 S State St, 312-924-8000), which houses students from Columbia College, DePaul University and Roosevelt University. But things promise to be a bit more tame for its free, student-only Earth Hour fete from 7:30 to 9:30pm. The alcohol-free celebration will feature hors d’oeuvres, performances from an acoustic duet and the Big City Jazz Quintet, a “flashlight vigil” for global warming, as well as ghost stories. As far as beer-fueled afterparties are concerned, you’re on your own.