The Drawing Room Will Shutter At The End Of The Year
By Melissa McEwen in Food on Dec 4, 2014 9:30PM
The Drawing Room has nurtured the talents of some of Chicago's world-renowned bartenders. The Back Room has been an influential music destination for jazz and soul for almost 50 years. But both will close at the end of the year because lease negotiations with the landlord have fallen through. The landlord wants retail, probably a luxury chain, there instead.
It's a sad loss for both Chicago's music and cocktail communities. It also brought people to the neighborhood who probably would have otherwise avoided the area, which is well-known for the debauchery of the "Viagra Triangle." While it may have not been as lucrative to the landlord as a store, a wise landlord might understand that tenants with cultural value are an asset to their other nearby retail tenants.