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By Jean Latz Griffin
It's a gay bar where you can take your mother -- and your father -- on a Sunday afternoon to sing show tunes. It's where Alderman Ed Burke came after one bitterly negative vote on Chicago's Human Rights ordinance in 1988 to offer his support and do a little politicking as a potential mayoral candidate. It's a place where a huge dragon once blew smoke and a giant fish blew bubbles.
Mayor Richard M. Daley has been there. So has the president of Absolut -- who came all the way from Sweden to see the little Chicago gay bar that sells more of his company's products than the entire country of Spain. For years it didn't even have a sign out front -- or inside. Patrons finally gave the bar a neon sign for inside and the name is carved tastefully in the outer metal wall. "People would walk out after the evening was over and say to their friends, 'I had a great time. Where was I?'" recalled Pepe Pena, one of three owners with Art Johnston and Chuck Hyde. It is, of course, Sidetrack, the bar that opened in April of 1982, ate North Halsted Street, and is about to take another bite in mid-May when it expands southward to create a courtyard entrance, with benches, planters and trees, and an airy, two-story high bar area with sky lights. A newcomer would need a floor plan even now to keep track of all the areas in Sidetrack, which consists of three combined storefronts and is adding a fourth for the expansion. There's the main bar, which is now twice its original size; the cherry bar, named for its wood paneling and with windows looking out on Halsted Street; the back bar and the beer garden on the roof above it, which for that reason is also called the roof deck bar, or simply, the deck. The back bar has doors that open in the summer to create a rain-protected but open space.
 Sidetrack's will be getting even bigger in the future The new plan includes a doorway that will break through the brick wall that has been the impenetrable south side of the bar for 17 years. There are also offices, storage space and coolers, a fully-equipped video editing room and a video control room. "We kept expanding as we outgrew each space," Johnston said. "The new space is going to be very different from what we have now. For so long, we have had mostly dark areas because of the videos. This area will also have videos, but it will be much lighter and open." The story of Sidetrack, on its simplest level, is the story of a hugely successful business run by three gay men. And that story is fascinating in its own right. But Sidetrack, in large part because of the key choices that Johnston, Pena and Hyde have made, is tightly entwined with the growing political muscle, business acumen and social awareness of Chicago's diverse gay and lesbian community.
"What's thinner than a shoestring?" Johnston asked as a way of explaining the financial underpinnings of the venture in its first days. But with virtually no advertising, the concept caught on immediately and word of mouth brought men to the bar. "The first night, we were packed," Pena said. "We ran out of beer and had to go to Touche to get more." Dinverno died only three months after Sidetrack opened, and his family asked Pena to run it for them. Eventually he bought the bar from the family, and Johnston became a partner.
Sidetrack now offers a different kind of video experience for every night of the week. Sunday has show tunes followed by 50's, 60's and 70's music. Monday also has show tunes and on either day, cast members of musicals playing in town often show up to mingle with the crowd, raffle off free tickets and drum up business. Tuesday has 80's music; Wednesday has 50's, 60's and 70s music, and first Wednesday of each month features "Fruit Bar," in which videos with gay themes are shown. Thursday is comedy night; Friday has show tunes followed by current music; and Saturday has 50's through 80's music followed by 90s music.
"We have a different clientele for each night, and many people come every week on the same night, with the same friends and stand in the same spot," Johnston said. "Comedy night has become very popular. It is a quieter night, because people are paying more attention to the shows." On a recent Sunday night, hundreds of people – more than 95 percent of them men -- packed the bar, sang along to "My Kind of Town, Chicago Is," and to the tunes from "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" as chorus girls kicked and danced on the video screens. A few days later, an afternoon crowd sipped drinks and joked with the woman who was tending bar while watching passersby through a window. For years, especially when the neighborhood was "a no man's land with gangs," there were no windows, Johnston said. "But the way Halsted is now, with shops and tourists, there is no reason we shouldn't be part of what's happening on the street." Mayor Daley paid tribute to the role that gay businesses have played in the redevelopment of Halsted Street in November when he dedicated the recent $3.2 million streetscape improvement, which included 20 Deco-inspired, rainbow colored pylons to officially designate the area as the hub of the gay and lesbian community in Chicago. It is thought to be the only officially recognized gay neighborhood in the world, and Daley supported the artistic designation despite controversy. "This was a labor of love," Daley told more than 200 people gathered at the dedication. "I knew from the beginning it was about fairness – fairness to this community. I am thanking you for what you (the gay and lesbian community) have done for North Halsted Street for many, many years." Sidetrack is one of the gay-owned businesses that have been key to the transformation of this key stretch of Halsted Street. Johnston, who has served as a board member of the Northalsted Area Merchants Association, was instrumental in obtaining sponsors for the increasingly popular August Northalsted Market Days, enabling the event to turn a profit. "One year when the street fair was just beginning, I was talking to our Miller Beer driver, and he suggested that we seek sponsors," Johnston said. "I remember asking, 'What is that?' Now we help other gay and lesbian organizations obtain sponsors for their events." The idea behind asking beer and liquor companies and other businesses to sponsor gay and lesbian events is simple. The community is supportive of them and they should return the favor by giving something back to the community, Sidetrack owners say. "Our community has significant disposable income and we go out and celebrate a great deal," Hyde said. "When companies tell us that we sell more of their product than most any other place in the country, we say, 'If you want us to use your products, you have to support our community. You have promotion money available and we want to see it benefit gay and lesbian issues.' And it has worked. Look at the sponsorship signs at gay and lesbian events. Those businesses have been loyal to us and we are loyal in return."
Owner Pepe Pena works the controls in Sidetrack's sound studio Early on, the owners decided that Sidetrack would be an integral part of the lesbigay community -- taking part in its struggles,, politics and needs. Sidetrack is a major financial sponsor of a number of AIDS-related non-profit organizations, sponsors gay and lesbian sports teams and -- perhaps most controversial -- has been deeply involved in the community's political issues on the city, county and state levels. "People told us to stay out of politics, that it would be bad for business," Johnston said. "But it has turned out to be just the opposite. Our customers are happy that we are part of the community. And this didn't start with us. I see us as part of a long tradition of responsible gay and lesbian-owned businesses." Johnston was part of the original "Gang of Four," also called the Town Meeting, which fought for the Chicago Human Rights ordinance in the late 1980s. Of the four, Jon Henri Damski died in 1997 after a long battle with cancer, and Laurie Dittmer moved on to other ventures. Johnston said when Damski died, he lost his best friend. He and Damski, a former classics professor who became a controversial and influential columnist and gay activist, would talk for hours about politics, Damski's beloved Chicago, baseball, "and all things gay." "He kept me from getting too big a head," Johnston said. "One of the ways he did it was to keep reminding me of something Pepe said after I had rented buses to take people to a rally for the Chicago ordinance. Pepe said, 'That's nice. But in Cuba, we burn buses.' Jon Henri loved that. He never let me forget it.'" Johnston and Rick Garcia, a key member of the original group who is now the executive director of the Illinois Federation for Human Rights, are still deep into the battle for gay and lesbian rights.
Sidetrack also provided money, meeting space and volunteers to help pass Cook County's civil rights bill. Employees are encouraged, but not forced, to volunteer at an organization of their choosing. And compared to most bar workers, Sidetrack employees stay around a long time – some "10, 12, 13 and 14 years," Johnston said. "Our full time employees have had health and life insurance since 1983. We had one man go to law school and come back to work here because he liked it better." Johnston himself was an English and French teacher at Wheeling High School when Sidetrack started, and left to devote full time to the bar. Before Wheeling, he taught at a private boarding school in Virginia. "I loved teaching," he said. "I was the yearbook supervisor and ran the theater department. But I saw the incredible business opportunities of the bar." Like most gay bars, Sidetrack functions as a meeting place and a community gathering spot. "Anyone can come here and be comfortable," Pena said. "We are never going to put something up on the screen that will offend anyone." Pena has a staff of five people who help him with the videos. He says he always wanted to work in a movie house, but he wanted to "take out the bad stuff," and make the movies better. As the creative force behind Sidetrack's videos, he gets to do more than a bit of that to entertain what he calls "a very demanding audience that is difficult to please." "If there is a major event in show business, theatre, film or whatever, and we don't include it, we will hear about it from our customers," Johnston said. And Sidetrack not just about drinking. Hyde won one of his early battles with Johnston to include bottled water, and the bar sells more Evian bottled water than any other single establishment in Chicago, Johnston admits. "This is about entertainment and a feeling of family," Hyde said. "Sure people are glad we support the community once they get here. But if they weren't having fun, they wouldn't come back. People come here to be around their friends and relax." |
Sidetrack's owners 
Sidetrack owner Art Johnston 
Chuck Hyde
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