Bottle & Bottega Evanston, Evanston

Stephanie King-Myers and Nancy Bigley founded Bottle & Bottega as a fun, artistic space where guests could, as King-Myers phrases it on their website, “feel like they’re having a party in their living room.” Established in 2009, the guided painting emporium has already expanded to seven main locations in three states that offer private and corporate events alike.

Lynette Martin helms the Evanston branch, which extends from Rogers Park to Northbook. After years of dabbling in styles of art that ranged from pottery to ballet, she swan-dived fully into her creative leanings and left the corporate world to launch a Bottle & Bottega franchise. Lynette, along with a slate of local artists, encourages participants of any artistic level to unleash their creativity onto the canvas, creating their own versions of famous paintings that they can hang in their living rooms or over their bathroom mirrors in an attempt to be famous themselves.