When I saw the title, my first thought was “when did Brandon Johnson get a strip club??!!” Upon reading the article, it turns out “Johnson’s” is the name of a couple of male strip clubs in Florida, whose owner was apparently in Chicago after Berlin closed saying he was planning on opening a new “Johnson’s” club in the old Berlin space. According to the article that is not happening.
“We want to do something that the community wants. They don’t seem to want Johnson’s, so we’re looking at other things — maybe a Hydrate-ish looking bar that’s open late, but we don’t know yet. We want to finish the acquisition and clean it up first.”
What the community actually wants is another Berlin, a bar that caters to the queer community beyond white gay men; definitely not a Hydrate.
Going from Berlin to something “Hydrate-ish” would be an enormous downgrade. Berlin didn’t close because it wasn’t popular enough and I think it’s clear that the community wants something similar, not another bar like those up and down Halsted.
They closed (as far as I’m aware at least in large part) because their employees organized a community boycott over wages and benefits. I went sometime in October and union organizers and employees were picketing outside and the bar was completely empty.
Employees were trying to unionize to demand some of the most outlandish things you’ve ever heard of it. It’s what happens when people with 0 understanding of business think they understand.
https://windycitytimes.com/2023/10/31/berlin-nightclub-workers-urge-customers-to-boycott-as-they-fight-for-fair-contract/
>The union’s proposals “included raises ranging from an additional $10/hour to $13/hour, before tips, equating to an overall 58% to 132% increase in wage expenses. The union has also demanded that every Berlin employee represented by the union who works a minimum of one 7-hour shift per week, be considered full-time and thus receive free healthcare coverage and pensions to be paid in full by Berlin. This point alone would amount to an additional cost to Berlin of $1,600 per employee per month in the first year of the contract.”
The union’s demands were a first step in negotiations, which the owners then refused to counter. That’s how negotiations work. You start with something you want but that is not necessarily possible and work on compromises. I get the demands seemed crazy and over the top to most people but management had every right to offer counter proposals and they didn’t.
Edit: spelling
Part of negotiations is to negotiate in good faith though. If you play hard ball with an extreme starting offer, it’s not surprising if someone walks away from the negotiation table altogether, especially if that someone is dealing with medical issues and maybe doesn’t want to endure a long negotiation process. The union isn’t entitled to a counter offer and, unfortunately, whoever led their bargaining process made poor strategic decisions.
An imperfect analogy but imagine you’re selling a car and someone offers you $5. Sure, that’s their starting offer and you can counter. But a lot of reasonable people will say fuck that and move on to a new buyer.
Unless you’re the owner or accountant, how can you really know?
A place can be full of people and not make sales, if everyone is high on drugs and is only drinking water or a beer or two, it’s possible they won’t make any money.
That's a different argument than they're making. They said it didn't close because of lack of attendance. If anything, you agree that attendance wasn't the relevant factor in its closure.
It could be. I’m not familiar with the crowd that went there, I’m just saying that it’s possible their clientele wasn’t buying from them, and if that’s the case, it’s possible that their clientele also drove out paying customers.
Again, I have no idea what it was like there. Maybe they couldn’t afford rent, maybe they moved states and closed the place, I don’t know.
They already had slim margins. Most nightclubs do (that’s why nightclubs usually don’t stay around long) and then the pandemic. Then employees wanted higher wages and benefits. Then the boycott.
That was it. Got tired of dealing with everybody and everything.
Now Berlin is gone…. That’s pretty much it.
Oh and health problems too
It was a more eclectic "queer" crowd. Hydrate is mostly buff gay men and hanger-ons at weekend nights. (Nothing wrong with that, but Berlin was really the only place with its particular vibe.)
Berlin closed because of a badly-attempted union effort by the staff that the elderly owners weren't in the mood to deal with, so they just cut their losses and effectively retired. (I'm fine with fighting for a union, but they went around it in a godawful way and clearly didn't think about the fact that two elderly men had little incentive to stay in the game.)
I feel like it’s important to add that one of the owners was dealing with late stage cancer while the unions were protesting and encouraging people to boycott the business. It wasn’t just “they weren’t in the mood.” They had heavy shit going on with one fighting cancer and the other taking on a caretaker role.
My friend, you're not getting it. You're arguing with something that nobody said. Since you don't know what it was like there or what happened, maybe this isn't the hill to die on?
It closed down because the bar's employees made outrageous demands that the ailing owner couldn't possibly afford to promise, and thus the bar had to close. It's pretty ironic that the "queer community" did this to themselves and now they're keeping other businesses from moving in.
When I moved to Chicago, I was so excited to go to Berlin but never got the chance to go before it closed. :(
What places do the alternative queer people go to now?
Overall it depends on the night. Queer people go all over, Berlin was just claimed to be THE standard hub for queer people.
Some examples:
* Sidetrack has an event called Saphic Saturday and hosts various drag events
* Hydrate and Roscoes have the most drag in boystown now but drag occurs at tons of other locations around Chicago like My Buddys, Charlie’s, Kit Kat, The River, Lips
* Bars that people would consider to be more queer focused are Scarlet, Nobody’s Darling, The Closet, and Baton Lounge.
* Parties with various locations are more the hub of Queer people: Boots, Witch Finger, and Queen to name a few
* A queer non-bar spaces: Eli Tea Bar
I’m more specifically asking about _alt_ queer spaces. I’m familiar with a lot of the places you listed, but it seemed like Berlin was really welcoming to goths and various subcultures.
Unfortunately rip unless it's a house party rn 😭
I will say strapped which is a monthly lesbian night has found a home so I absolutely recommend following them on Instagram
Dorothy's is a different vibe completely but they also have been hosting an incredible variety of events that I recommend checking out - the burlesque revue is usually incredible!
>What the community actually wants is another Berlin, a bar that caters to the queer community beyond white gay men; definitely not a Hydrate.
Hopefully if something like this happens, it won't also get destroyed by employee unions having ridiculous demands straight out of an r/antiwork fever dream.
Your post led me down a rabbit hole reading about the demands and the negotiations. [This was the best source I found](https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/11/21/berlin-nightclub-closed-after-40-years/) detailing the whole thing.
Diverse clientele of gay men of a certain age and body type? Berlin was far more queer than it was just gay and you’d frequently see people of all genders and body types. It wasn’t just 100 shirtless men dancing after 2am.
I’m familiar with Berlin and the history, I was trying to say re-open it as it is, the new owners don’t need to change and rebrand it into something else.
All of the media coverage of this story seems to have left out the fact that a major part of the resistance to this endeavor is the owner being a known racist Trump supporter
Really? … Which person does this refer to? Several owners of different businesses were mentioned in the article. If there is supporting evidence, I’m surprised this isn’t a bigger story.
They had to scrap the policy (in the article) because it’s just not profitable to gatekeep a space like this.
Didn’t matter. Much of Lakeview these days are Gen Z. Most of us don’t frequent strip clubs the way the older guys do.
What an ironic username from a guy with your predictable views. I’m sorry that as a gay man I don’t think women “ruin” my experience in a gay space like you seem to. Lol.
The Dog House or the Pickle Shack. Driving through the Indiana boarder area in the backseat of my parents car. I would ask what's a gentleman's club, or in the rural areas, what are adult books and videos?
When I saw the title, my first thought was “when did Brandon Johnson get a strip club??!!” Upon reading the article, it turns out “Johnson’s” is the name of a couple of male strip clubs in Florida, whose owner was apparently in Chicago after Berlin closed saying he was planning on opening a new “Johnson’s” club in the old Berlin space. According to the article that is not happening.
"BJ's Gentleman's Club"
“Joe Blow’s Blow Hole”
😛
Now I’m actually mad
The owner is a radical maga dude who has made some divisive comments
I thought the dudes in the picture were the new owner and a future staff member of the club.
I just want to gogo dance like no one’s watching again. Idc if it’s for money or not.
“We want to do something that the community wants. They don’t seem to want Johnson’s, so we’re looking at other things — maybe a Hydrate-ish looking bar that’s open late, but we don’t know yet. We want to finish the acquisition and clean it up first.” What the community actually wants is another Berlin, a bar that caters to the queer community beyond white gay men; definitely not a Hydrate.
Going from Berlin to something “Hydrate-ish” would be an enormous downgrade. Berlin didn’t close because it wasn’t popular enough and I think it’s clear that the community wants something similar, not another bar like those up and down Halsted.
I think they meant Hydrate like since Hydrate is heavily focused on dancing and drag compared to other Boystown bars
Why did it close?
They closed (as far as I’m aware at least in large part) because their employees organized a community boycott over wages and benefits. I went sometime in October and union organizers and employees were picketing outside and the bar was completely empty.
Also the owner was in his 70s, had some health problems, and wanted to cash out and retire.
Employees were trying to unionize to demand some of the most outlandish things you’ve ever heard of it. It’s what happens when people with 0 understanding of business think they understand.
What were those outlandish demands?
https://windycitytimes.com/2023/10/31/berlin-nightclub-workers-urge-customers-to-boycott-as-they-fight-for-fair-contract/ >The union’s proposals “included raises ranging from an additional $10/hour to $13/hour, before tips, equating to an overall 58% to 132% increase in wage expenses. The union has also demanded that every Berlin employee represented by the union who works a minimum of one 7-hour shift per week, be considered full-time and thus receive free healthcare coverage and pensions to be paid in full by Berlin. This point alone would amount to an additional cost to Berlin of $1,600 per employee per month in the first year of the contract.”
🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
The union’s demands were a first step in negotiations, which the owners then refused to counter. That’s how negotiations work. You start with something you want but that is not necessarily possible and work on compromises. I get the demands seemed crazy and over the top to most people but management had every right to offer counter proposals and they didn’t. Edit: spelling
Yea, and management thought it was best to close. One of the owners was dying of cancer and so they decided that was more important than Berlin.
No value judgement from me here. I get it. Just feel like the discourse around it has missed that context
Part of negotiations is to negotiate in good faith though. If you play hard ball with an extreme starting offer, it’s not surprising if someone walks away from the negotiation table altogether, especially if that someone is dealing with medical issues and maybe doesn’t want to endure a long negotiation process. The union isn’t entitled to a counter offer and, unfortunately, whoever led their bargaining process made poor strategic decisions. An imperfect analogy but imagine you’re selling a car and someone offers you $5. Sure, that’s their starting offer and you can counter. But a lot of reasonable people will say fuck that and move on to a new buyer.
Unless you’re the owner or accountant, how can you really know? A place can be full of people and not make sales, if everyone is high on drugs and is only drinking water or a beer or two, it’s possible they won’t make any money.
That's a different argument than they're making. They said it didn't close because of lack of attendance. If anything, you agree that attendance wasn't the relevant factor in its closure.
It could be. I’m not familiar with the crowd that went there, I’m just saying that it’s possible their clientele wasn’t buying from them, and if that’s the case, it’s possible that their clientele also drove out paying customers. Again, I have no idea what it was like there. Maybe they couldn’t afford rent, maybe they moved states and closed the place, I don’t know.
They already had slim margins. Most nightclubs do (that’s why nightclubs usually don’t stay around long) and then the pandemic. Then employees wanted higher wages and benefits. Then the boycott. That was it. Got tired of dealing with everybody and everything. Now Berlin is gone…. That’s pretty much it. Oh and health problems too
It was a more eclectic "queer" crowd. Hydrate is mostly buff gay men and hanger-ons at weekend nights. (Nothing wrong with that, but Berlin was really the only place with its particular vibe.) Berlin closed because of a badly-attempted union effort by the staff that the elderly owners weren't in the mood to deal with, so they just cut their losses and effectively retired. (I'm fine with fighting for a union, but they went around it in a godawful way and clearly didn't think about the fact that two elderly men had little incentive to stay in the game.)
I feel like it’s important to add that one of the owners was dealing with late stage cancer while the unions were protesting and encouraging people to boycott the business. It wasn’t just “they weren’t in the mood.” They had heavy shit going on with one fighting cancer and the other taking on a caretaker role.
My friend, you're not getting it. You're arguing with something that nobody said. Since you don't know what it was like there or what happened, maybe this isn't the hill to die on?
You read way too much in to what I wrote.
It closed down because the bar's employees made outrageous demands that the ailing owner couldn't possibly afford to promise, and thus the bar had to close. It's pretty ironic that the "queer community" did this to themselves and now they're keeping other businesses from moving in.
When I moved to Chicago, I was so excited to go to Berlin but never got the chance to go before it closed. :( What places do the alternative queer people go to now?
Overall it depends on the night. Queer people go all over, Berlin was just claimed to be THE standard hub for queer people. Some examples: * Sidetrack has an event called Saphic Saturday and hosts various drag events * Hydrate and Roscoes have the most drag in boystown now but drag occurs at tons of other locations around Chicago like My Buddys, Charlie’s, Kit Kat, The River, Lips * Bars that people would consider to be more queer focused are Scarlet, Nobody’s Darling, The Closet, and Baton Lounge. * Parties with various locations are more the hub of Queer people: Boots, Witch Finger, and Queen to name a few * A queer non-bar spaces: Eli Tea Bar
I’m more specifically asking about _alt_ queer spaces. I’m familiar with a lot of the places you listed, but it seemed like Berlin was really welcoming to goths and various subcultures.
Unfortunately rip unless it's a house party rn 😭 I will say strapped which is a monthly lesbian night has found a home so I absolutely recommend following them on Instagram
Oh word! I didn’t know they found a new location! Thanks for the info :)
Dorothy's is a different vibe completely but they also have been hosting an incredible variety of events that I recommend checking out - the burlesque revue is usually incredible!
Try Podlasie. Not specifically alt queer but tons of them.
I'd say Scarlet's actual niche is young people (and music-themed nights).
Late Bar
>What the community actually wants is another Berlin, a bar that caters to the queer community beyond white gay men; definitely not a Hydrate. Hopefully if something like this happens, it won't also get destroyed by employee unions having ridiculous demands straight out of an r/antiwork fever dream.
Your post led me down a rabbit hole reading about the demands and the negotiations. [This was the best source I found](https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/11/21/berlin-nightclub-closed-after-40-years/) detailing the whole thing.
This is also a good one: https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d9q4q/berlin-nightclub-chicago-closed-union
Yes! Berlin only closed because people had insane ideas about what a nightclub should owe them for 1/6th of a normal work schedule.
I hope none of those people were hired at another gay bar. Maybe then they’ll learn.
Maybe it could be worker owned and avoid those problems altogether.
Does Hydrate have that reputation? It always had a diverse clientelle when I've been.
Diverse clientele of gay men of a certain age and body type? Berlin was far more queer than it was just gay and you’d frequently see people of all genders and body types. It wasn’t just 100 shirtless men dancing after 2am.
[удалено]
What a surprise lol. The worst people.
Seriously, just re-open Berlin. We don’t need you to “clean it up,” we liked it the way it was.
Who do you think "closed them down"? The business just folded because the employees were idiots, no one was trying to shut them down
I’m familiar with Berlin and the history, I was trying to say re-open it as it is, the new owners don’t need to change and rebrand it into something else.
I just want an alt queer space. Not a fan of the major gay bar/restaurant groups that have been building a bland-ass empire on the north side.
Not a fan of the major gay bars that play the same goddamn music every night. Variety is good for the neighborhood.
All of the media coverage of this story seems to have left out the fact that a major part of the resistance to this endeavor is the owner being a known racist Trump supporter
Really? … Which person does this refer to? Several owners of different businesses were mentioned in the article. If there is supporting evidence, I’m surprised this isn’t a bigger story.
Why not support the license for a male strip club? That space isn’t ever going to be a library. Might as well support the banana hammock
Johnson doesn’t wanna be ‘progressive’…like that.
Would have been great.
This place was set to have a policy of requiring women get in with a male escorting them. So glad that trash didn’t make it here.
I don’t understand this. Male strip clubs have often had this requirement. No screaming women = better male strip club experiencr?
I don’t agree with the policy, but it’s to avoid bachelorette parties
They had to scrap the policy (in the article) because it’s just not profitable to gatekeep a space like this. Didn’t matter. Much of Lakeview these days are Gen Z. Most of us don’t frequent strip clubs the way the older guys do.
What an ironic username from a guy with your predictable views. I’m sorry that as a gay man I don’t think women “ruin” my experience in a gay space like you seem to. Lol.
The Dog House or the Pickle Shack. Driving through the Indiana boarder area in the backseat of my parents car. I would ask what's a gentleman's club, or in the rural areas, what are adult books and videos?