As retailers intrude, iconic nightlife strip loses its lustre
Like a double shot of botox, Jilly’s Bistro and the BackRoom represent the changing face of Rush Street. The iconic piano bar and jazz club share the address of 1007 N. Rush. This week, a venture managed by Sergio & Banks Realty revealed a plan to raze the threestory building and replace it with a single, high-end retail tenant. The plan still needs city approval, but Jilly’s has tentatively slated Sept. 29 for its final day — and night. The BackRoom will close Sept. 22.
Their plight represents how much the Rush Street nightlife district has changed.
“I’m heartbroken,” said BackRoom owner Ann Spilotro through tears Wednesday. She has been at the front of the BackRoom almost since the beginning. “We are the oldest club on Rush Street. Everybody has come and gone. Everything is turning to retail. It’s like they’re coming down Oak and turning around on Rush. I guess for the [buildings’] owners, it’s the best way to go because the rent is going to be [higher]. But it killed the street.
“It is a shame the mom and pop places are going to be extinct.”
As upscale retailers spill over from Oak and Walton onto Rush, a site such as 1007 N. Rush could command at least $250 a square foot, compared to $50 a square foot for a nightclub, said Fred Lev, a broker of retail space. A density of luxury retailers attracts shoppers, and retailers have loosened up on their willingness to open new sites.
“Oak Street needed a break to re-create itself,” said Jacqueline C. Hayes of retail broker Jacqueline Hayes & Associates.
What’s out are the nightclubs that brought crowds and notoriety. On a good summer night in 1985, between 50,000 and 75,000 people hit Rush Street, according to the Chicago Police Department.
Jilly’s and the BackRoom are very different drinks on a long bar.
Opened in 1995, Jilly’s became a fertile seed in what became known as “The Viagra Triangle.” Over the years, the dimly lit, 80-seat piano bar attracted the likes of Billy Joel (who sang “One for My Baby”), Muhammad Ali, and Steve Van Zandt of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
The BackRoom opened in the mid-1960s and is one of the city’s oldest jazz clubs. Generations of locals and tourists would walk down the narrow entrance into a smoky club and sample all the hep noir that was Rush Street. The walls were dotted with stainedglass mosaics. It was wild and intoxicating, like something off Bourbon Street. The late piano player Eddie Higgins held elegant court after his long run at the London House, at Michigan and Wacker. In 1985, jazz guitarist George Benson stopped in, got onstage and played until the club closed.
The last old-school joint standing on Rush Street will be Gibson’s, actually more of a steakhouse than a meat market. At its outset, Gibson’s made its mark with divorcees and singles, thanks to a killer martini that packed 4 to 6 ounces of liquor and made everyone look better. In the 1990s, Chicago Bull and nightlife hall of famer Dennis Rodman was one of the first ath- letes to put Gibson’s on the map.
Gibson’s opened in 1989 in the former Mister Kelly’s nightclub, where Gino Vannelli and the Captain and Tennille were the last acts. The Sweetwater nightclub followed in the space but went down in the early ’80s with Harry’s Cafe, Tony’s Cellar and the rest of the Rush Street nightclubs.
Iconic Rush Street disco Faces is now a Starbucks.
The latest musical chairs of retail can be traced back at least five years, when Barneys New York announced the move of its 17-year-old site at 25 E. Oak to the twice-as-big flagship at 15 E. Oak, which opened in 2009. The old Barneys site now houses chi-chi retailers Hermes of Paris, Bonpoint, Moncler and Loro Piana.
Tory Burch took advantage of the