03/29/07

15 Minutes with ... Joey Vartanian

Who: Joey Vartanian, 43, Lincoln Park ("born and raised")
Job: Owner of Crobar,  Maxbar,  and Uberstein
Status: Single; father of a 9-year-old son. "I'm a better ex-husband than I ever was a husband," he says. "Just ask my ex-wife."

Joey Vartanian, nicknamed "The King," got his start in the nightlife business at the ripe old age of 18. ("Yes, I used a fake I.D.," he says) and, in 1982, became a managing partner at Octagon, a 3,000-square-foot dance club where

Posted at 01:36 PM in Nightlife | Permalink | Comments (3)

03/26/07

Weekend Update

I met a couple of the boys at McFadden's Thursday to catch the KU/SIU game. As far as deals go, the bar's $10 all-you-can-drink Bud Light and buffet special from 6 to 8 p.m. was pretty hard to pass up - even though I hadn't been planning on going out that night. The place was packed, with a respectable Kansas contingency representing. I met a mullet-sporting couple from Topeka and a group of fans from the Kansas City area. It got me pining for my college days in Lawrence, the best four and a half years of my young adult life.

I had hoped to take things down a notch Friday with a stop at the boxing and fitness center GoTime - but that didn't quite work out. I was there to watch a segment taping for Upscale TV:...

03/23/07

Special Update: Pharmacy

In my Nightspotting column in the April issue of Chicago, I profiled Pharmacy (1450 W. Chicago Ave.), the new rock lounge that was aiming for a March launch.

Unfortunately for us lounge lizards, the bar has yet to open, due to a delay in obtaining a liquor license. After being turned down by the Local Liquor Control amid complaints over the addition of another bar to the neighborhood, Pharmacy's owners took their case to the License Appeals Commission. Their March 21st court date,...

Posted at 02:52 PM in Nightlife | Permalink | Comments (2)

03/22/07

R.I.P., Bars of My Youth

I got my first fake ID when I was a senior in high school; according to it, I was 23 and from Lincoln, Nebraska. I'm not sure how anyone bought it then, since, at 32 now, I still get carded. But in Rogers Park circa 1991, it got me into the now-closed Biddy Mulligan's every Tuesday for nickel-pitchers night. My friends from Highland Park High School would come down to the city, and we'd tell our parents we had a study group, but really we were sneaking off to catch a live band and drink cheap beer out of plastic cups. We thought we were so cool.

Phase Two Drinking came during college, of course. We graduated from the fake out-of-state IDs to our own altered Illinois driver's licenses (sorry, Mom and Dad). During breaks home from Kansas, my favorite Chicago haunts were Solo, the...

Posted at 04:57 PM in Nightlife | Permalink | Comments (10)

03/19/07

Bars. Boys. Beers.

I'll admit it: I'm not what you'd call a sports nut; I'm more of a fair-weather fan. But I did fill out two brackets for this year's March Madness at espn.com. Even if it's not likely, I figured I could win $10,000-plus, a vested interest keeps me mildly plugged in to the NCAA tournament. And since I attended KU, home of the No. 1-seeded Jayhawks, I thought I'd show some school pride and pick them to win. (Truth be told, I'm pretty sure I didn't attend a single game while living in Lawrence.)

But the real reason I'm pretending to care? Watching the games gives me a reason to go to Bars teeming with Boys who drink Beer: my three favorite B's.

I watched Thursday's games at Gaslight with a date. We...

Posted at 05:15 PM in Nightlife | Permalink | Comments (15)

03/15/07

That Underground Show

If you've ever wondered what happens to primetime TV stars when their shows get canceled, just spend some time at the clubs. Last night That '70s Show's Danny Masterson was in town to host and DJ an event at The Underground thrown by Maxim and Heineken Light.

The mostly female crowd of so-called "super VIPs" - according to one of the 12 press e-mails I received beforehand - started assembling at 8:30 p.m. and was abuzz with the rumor that Justin Timberlake might show up (he'd played a concert in town the night before). But when Masterson arrived sans Timberlake at 10 p.m., the ladies didn'tseem to mind. Masterson started spinning immediately; tunes ranged from Run DMC's "It's...

Posted at 08:55 PM in Nightlife | Permalink | Comments (4)

03/12/07

Have Party, Will Crash

Sometimes just doing my job feels like crashing a party. Forget six degrees of separation; in Chicago, if you know one well-connected person, you can pretty much get yourself invited to anything.Last week a fellow nightlife writer forwarded me a party invitation she'd received from a good-looking gay man who works at the Apparel Center. "He gets more invites to parties than anyone," she told me. The event in question was last Thursday's Corporate Concierge Services bash at Union Station, and since the invite urged attendees to "Experience Union Station transformed into a cutting-edge nightclub," I thought the night sounded right up my alley. Upon entering, my friends and I were greeted by the sounds of different instruments played by musicians peppered throughout the venue. Each was...

Posted at 08:12 PM in Nightlife | Permalink | Comments (12)

03/08/07

Man Crushes

I was talking to my ex the other day about man crushes. No, he's not gay. Very straight, in fact. He owns a gym, is a martial arts expert, rides a Harley, and likes women. But he's very comfortable with his sexuality and can point out a man crush-that is, a non-romantic affinity for another man-when he sees one."Man crushes don't have to be reciprocated," he says. "My best friend has one on me, but I don't have one on him." What does that mean, I ask? "I called him while he was at a movie the other day, and he answered his phone. I said, 'Guy, why are you answering my call if you're in a movie theater?' I wouldn't take his call if it were the other way around." TV and radio host Ryan Seacrest recently admitted in an interview with Meredith Vieira that he had a man crush on Matt Lauer....

Posted at 04:43 PM in Relationships | Permalink | Comments (8)

03/05/07

Girls' Night Out

Readers, I took many of your comments on my last post to heart. Then I called the journalism-community hotline, and it turns out the blog meets its level of standards. Phew! I was worried.In all seriousness, several of the comments held some weight. I would never reveal the e-mailer's identity-not even to my friends (they don't know him)-but the real point I was making was that there's a double standard in the dating world. If a girl pursued a guy like that, it would probably be considered stalking. Thing is, I barely know him, and I've politely turned him down many times. That only seems to make him try harder. I know it's not easy asking a girl out, but it seems to come very easy to him. Sure, I was flattered by his first couple of gestures-six months ago. But I'm not a girl who's...

Posted at 08:24 PM in Nightlife | Permalink | Comments (7)

03/01/07

What Women Don't Want

As the Rolling Stones sang, you can't always get what you want. I'm perfectly in touch with that notion. I spent Monday evening with an ex who's still a good friend, although things weren't always so copasetic. Right now we're on the same page-meaning I'm not pining away for him-which makes being friends easy, so I had him over to my new place for spaghetti and meatballs (which I cooked from scratch). When it comes to exes, my philosophy is, unless he did something horribly inexcusable, why write him off? He must have some redeeming qualities if we dated in the first place. Don't say it can't be done: I am capable of being just friends with a guy.With this particular ex, whenever we tiptoe around commitment, one or both of us get freaked out. I'm just as guilty as he is. Sometimes I...

Posted at 01:23 PM in Relationships | Permalink | Comments (34)