They brought in their own bartenders and security as an extra shield against discriminatory behavior, and even put numbers on name tags for patrons who were worried about being outed against their will. “We didn’t want them to know we were lesbians - and we’re Black - so I’d dress up in my suits with a briefcase and act like we were businesswomen wanting to have a business affair,” she says. She and her friends went on to throw pop-up parties all over the city, often telling bar owners that she and her “sorority” wanted to rent out the space. “Why go to the North Side when they don’t want us over there? We were going to do our own thing,” she says. Under pressure, Augie & CK’s eventually changed its policy, but McCombs already had other ideas. McCombs rose to public prominence in 1974 when she organized a protest outside Augie & CK’s, a lesbian bar on the city’s majority-white North Side that enforced an unofficial quota on how many Black patrons were allowed inside at a time, she says.Ĭhicago’s Black LGBTQ bargoers - historically concentrated on the South and West sides due to the city’s bitter legacy of segregation - have long reported racist behavior in gay and lesbian bar spaces, ranging from unduly thorough ID checks to music policies that ban hip-hop and rap to explicitly racist comments from local bar owners. Their leadership represents an important, overdue shift, says Pat McCombs, a longtime lesbian community leader in Chicago who co-founded the roving Black lesbian pop-up party Executive Sweet. In opening Nobody’s Darling, the pair have also joined an even smaller club: They’ve become Chicago’s second and third Black queer bar owners, alongside Jamal Junior of Jeffery Pub, the South Shore bar that’s served the community since the mid-’60s. “I liked that we would be able to keep this bar women-owned and queer-owned,” Barnes adds. “I was making a lot of money for other bars and restaurants, so I wanted a space to curate events and feed my passion for cocktails,” Riddle says. Nobody’s Darling is one of just two Black-owned LGBTQ bar in Chicago. A revenue auditor by day, Riddle has operated LGBTQ bar pop-ups all over the city. When the bar, tucked on a residential street, closed during the pandemic, ownership gave Riddle the first shot at taking over the venue. That’s partly what inspired Barnes and Riddle to accept a surprising proposition from Lori Petrushkevich, owner of lesbian wine bar Joie de Vine - a spot described by many as the last lesbian bar in Chicago.
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Chicago has followed a similar trajectory, signaled by the loss of community institutions like Star Gaze, which closed in 2009 after more than a decade. are few and far between, with an estimate from last June at as few as 16 remaining venues nationwide. Patrons have flocked from across the city to Nobody’s Darling.īars for lesbians and queer women in the U.S. We didn’t want to exclude our trans siblings or gay men.” Rows of patrons are happy indeed, wrapped in animated conversation often punctuated by boisterous laughter.īarnes and Riddle, both Black queer women, understand why some might assume the bar is a lesbian space, but feel it’s important to make their inclusive approach clear: “We wanted to make sure that our community felt welcome. Energetic music from artists like Megan Thee Stallion thumps above the din of a lively crowd, but tight quarters leave little room for dancing beyond happy-to-be-here wiggles. On weekends, revelers crowd around the long bar in search of playful cocktails like the fuchsia-hued Pink Kitty and the tart Darling Mule, delivered in elegant cut glassware.
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In the early evening, sunlight shines through a rainbow flag draped over the front door, illuminating the text of Walker’s ode to outcasts everywhere, reprinted in full on a back wall. Named for “Be Nobody’s Darling,” an Alice Walker poem, the long and narrow bar has already won over Andersonville residents and drawn customers from the South and West sides.
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“Be an outcast: be pleased to walk alone (uncool) or line the crowded river beds with other impetuous fools.”