A guide to Chicago’s queer nightlife beyond Northalsted
The area formerly known as Boystown has long been a draw. But Chicago Social Butterflies reporter Jake Wittich says the city offers so much more.
A guide to Chicago’s queer nightlife beyond Northalsted
The area formerly known as Boystown has long been a draw. But Chicago Social Butterflies reporter Jake Wittich says the city offers so much more.
By Erin Allen, Sarah Stark, Sofie Hernandez-Simeonidis🎧 Click the red listen button to hear Windy City Times newsletter editor Jake Wittich on The Rundown podcast.
Northalsted is often treated as the epicenter of queer nightlife in Chicago. The area, which used to be called Boystown, was actually one of the first neighborhoods to be formally labeled a gay village in the United States.
But the North Side isn’t the only place for queer communities to socialize, said Jake Wittich, the reporter behind Chicago Social Butterflies, a new biweekly newsletter that serves as a social calendar of LGBTQ+ events across Chicago.
“It’s important that we celebrate the history of Northalsted, [but it] wasn’t always the gay Mecca. It started a little further south of that and gradually moved up to what is now Northalsted,” said Wittich. “There’s queer people everywhere. There’s queer bars on the South and West sides, there’s Andersonville, which also has a pretty big LGBTQ population, so it’s not just the North Side.”
Wittich appeared on WBEZ’s The Rundown podcast to discuss the places and parties to hit up right now. Here are some of his recommendations.
The big trend
People are looking for new experiences, Wittich said, and finding them in pop-up parties. “Just personally, going to Northalsted, it’s getting a little stale for me. It’s the same bars every time. It’s the same people, same crowds, same nights.”
On the contrary, pop-up parties bring an element of surprise. “They will give you a date and a neighborhood and you don’t know where in the neighborhood it’s going to be until the day of,” he said. “So you RSVP, you get your tickets, and if you’re a ticket holder you’ll get a message the day of [saying] ‘here’s the location.’”
Among those he recommends: “BOOTS is really fun because they pop up in unconventional places,” Wittich said. “I’ve been to one, they transformed a Chinese restaurant into a nightclub. They’ve transformed rooftops into nightclubs and they have an artist @jforpay, who leads the installations. It’s very whimsical, it’s kind of rave-y, but it’s super accessible.”
Groups like Party Noire, Hoochie Hotspot, Slo ‘Mo, STRAPPED and smallWorld Collective “throw parties all around the city,” Wittich said, “but definitely they’re focused on bringing them to communities that don’t have access to these events as much.”
Lesbian spaces in Chicagoland
Across the country, there’s been a trend of lesbian bars closing. But Chicago has been experiencing the opposite, with new openings.
“I’d say our lesbian scene in Chicago is really thriving lately,” said Wittich. “We have bars like Whiskey Girl Tavern (6318 N. Clark St.), Nobody’s Darling (1744 W. Balmoral Ave.) and Dorothy (2500 W. Chicago Ave.) and they all seem to be doing pretty well. Whiskey Girl Tavern and Nobody’s Darling both expanded within the last year, which speaks to the need and the demand to have those spaces.”
But then there’s also a lot of parties, Wittich said. “There’s Eden, which is a pop-up party. There’s a new group called The Lesbian Social Club and they organize events around Chicago,” often at TAO nightclub (632 N. Dearborn St.).
Wittich also recommends the monthly event Sapphic Saturday at Sidetrack (3349 N. Halsted St.). “I actually went last month with my friends. They had a blast. There’s this whole discussion: Is Northalsted/Boystown inclusive? You know, look at the name Boystown, are women included there? So it’s been heartening to see bars making more of an effort to diversify their staff in terms of gender. I’ve seen a lot more women, met a lot more trans and non-binary bartenders in Northalsted, which is great.”
Beyond the North Side
Wittich recommends La Cueva Nightclub (4153 W. 26th St.). “It is thought to be the longest-running Latino drag bar in the country, and that’s in Little Village. There’s a lot of showgirls, trans performers and drag queens who perform there.”
Another long-standing gay bar in Chicago that’s on the South Side is Jeffery Pub (7041 S. Jeffery Blvd.). “That one is in South Shore. There’s a lot of history there, it’s definitely a community hub for people on the South Side that don’t have a whole LGBTQ district like Boystown.”
What he’s looking forward to this summer
June, which is Pride Month, is around the corner. “There’s the Pride Parade (11 a.m. on June 30, starting at Montrose and Broadway), which has some controversy right now with the city imposing a new limit,” Wittich said. “It’s going to be capped at 125 entries to keep it within that two hour and 15 minute window.”
“There’s Pride Fest (June 22-23, Northalsted on Halsted Street from Addison Street to Grace Street) they just announced the lineup. JoJo Siwa is headlining but there’s a lot of cool names beyond JoJo. There’s Bob the Drag Queen, there’s Sapphira Cristál who was just on [RuPaul’s] Drag Race, there is Natasha Bedingfield. So a pretty cool pride lineup for something that’s just a suggested donation of $15.” Wittich said there will be a Boots party at Metro that weekend he plans to attend.
He’s also looking toward the concert calendar. “Charli XCX, the gays love her. She’s got a show at Radius (640 W. Cermak Rd.) in June. But then the big news is she’s touring with Troye Sivan, who is queer, and then Shygirl, who’s also queer, is opening for them. So a lot of big concerts I’m looking forward to and just festivals, so many festivals.”
Wittich said that, as he curates his newsletter, he’s looking beyond nightlife to include other types of gatherings: sober events, fundraisers, galas, even networking events.
“There’s a lot happening in the LGBTQ+ community, so if parties and nightlife aren’t your thing, we have tons of those other things too. Sober spaces are really popular right now. Eli Tea Bar (5507 N. Clark St.) is a sober space and that’s been really popular for people to go to and gather.”
Erin Allen hosts The Rundown podcast at WBEZ. Sarah Stark is a Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellow and producer for The Rundown podcast. Follow her @itssarahstark. Sofie Hernandez-Simeonidis is a digital producer for the Arts & Culture desk.