WASHINGTON — A hot ticket at the Democratic convention will be entrée to the CNN-Politico Grill, a pop-up Chicago food and beverage themed restaurant and production center now under construction very close to the United Center.
“Every convention, it seems to be the place to see and be seen,” said Ted Johnson, the political editor for Deadline.com, who covers the intersection of media and politics. “One under-appreciated element of a convention is how much people want to network and mingle.”
I ran into Mo Elleithee, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service and a member of the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee at the CNN-Politico grill at the Republican convention in Milwaukee.
“This is the credential everybody wants to have,” Elleithee said, because the grill is like “political summer camp for operatives and journalists.”
This story starts at the 2004 Republican convention in New York when CNN took over a restaurant near Madison Square Garden.
In subsequent conventions, CNN kept it going — with a key feature being that the invitation-only grill is located within the tightly guarded convention security perimeter — making it easy to get to because it is close and convenient to the convention arena.
For the 2024 conventions in Milwaukee and Chicago, where the convention kicks off Aug. 19 at the United Center, CNN is partnering with Politico. The grill is a convention base camp for CNN and Politico programming — podcasts, live streams, television.
David Leavy, chief operating officer of CNN Worldwide, said “the Grill really does play an important role, I think in the conventions. CNN has that convening power to attract the top campaign officials, policymakers, decision makers, top media, and we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary of doing this.”
Jonathan Greenberger, executive vice president of Politico said, “there are a lot of questions about who is going to hold power in Washington six months from now” and “whoever is holding power,” Greenberger said, will be at the grill.
At the GOP convention, Milwaukee’s landmark Turner Hall Ballroom, less than a block from the Fiserv Forum arena, was converted into a restaurant, bar, ice cream parlor and lounge with space for CNN’s live telecasts and room for Politico’s newsmaker programming.
In Milwaukee, everything, from the décor to the menu items, was all about Wisconsin.
At the Democratic convention, the grill, a short stroll from the United Center, will have a distinct Chicago design and menu.
The grill runs from 4 p.m. to about 2 a.m. The food and drink are free.
Why do it? Leavy said, “For CNN, obviously, there’s brand value, but also our talent and reporters are here, and we’re able to develop those relationships with the key sources — be able to book talent because part of the grill’s attraction is it’s a live studio, and so we broadcast daily from here and that gives a kind of an energy of live TV that makes the grill exciting.
“And so for us, it’s branding, it’s relationship building, it’s thought leadership. It’s a way to hang up the daily spurs and talk to the most important people in a way that you don’t get in DC very often.”