Closing out our historical gay bar series is this under-the-radar hideaway, a refuge for locals and tourists alike for 35 years.
June 28, 2019, 8:00 am
Opening its doors in 1984, Second Story (157 E. Ohio St. #2) is perched above Sayat Nova in Streeterville, steps from the Magnificent Mile. But decades earlier, the area was considered part of Tower Town, a neighborhood named for its proximity to the Water Tower that formed the city's queer epicenter until the 1960s and '70s.Photo: Pat NabongTributes to founder John Tessler hang on the wall. "We affectionately called him Grandma," bartender and manager Brian Mobley remembers. “He'd already had a full career. This was his way to keep busy after he retired, so he opened a little dive bar downtown." Tessler died in 2012.Photo: Pat NabongA lot has changed since Mobley, pictured above, started working at the bar 11 years ago. “When the straight people came in, as soon as they realized it was a gay bar, they'd turn around and leave," he says. "Today, they're like, 'Oh, it's a gay bar. I guess we'll stay around and have a drink.' It's not as big of a deal as it has been."Photo: Pat NabongSecond Story patrons hold hands.Photo: Pat Nabong“This is one of the first bars I've been to since I could drink, actually,” 34-year-old Gerald Murray says. “It adapts to its people and [its] needs. Its standards haven't really changed too much, but it's changed in the sense that it's [now] accommodating to whoever wants to come in and socialize.”Photo: Pat NabongSecond Story's decor looks original, but according to Mobley, appearances can be deceiving. “Everything here has pretty much been replaced since I've been here, but it's all disguised to look exactly as it was before. People can not come here for years and years, and it's still exactly the way they left it — it's still like their home."Photo: Pat NabongMichelle Buckle, an tour bus driver from Nashville, checks her phone. Whenever Buckle gets some time off on the road, she checks out gay dive bars in different towns and cities.Photo: Pat NabongMobley pours drinks for a customer.Photo: Pat NabongParham Eftekhari, a Second Story regular, hugs his partner. “[Gay bars are] still an important safe space, particularly if you're not from a big city," he says. "The first time I came to a gay bar, it was scary, but it was also a huge relief to see other people who are what you are."Photo: Pat Nabong“As the world's changed to be more accepting of gay lifestyles, marriage, culture, and everything, now straight people come here too,” Mobley says. “At the end of the day, it's a neighborhood bar."Photo: Pat Nabong
