27-06-2025
The Violet Hour, Chicago's Trailblazing Cocktail Bar, Has Permanently Closed
The Violet Hour won't reopen along Damen Avenue, ending an 18-year run. The news comes three weeks after owners at One Off Hospitality Group announced that the pioneering cocktail bar was closed indefinitely due to landlord negotiations over plumbing issues.
There were faint hopes that Violet Hour could reach an agreement with its landlords to complete what the bar described as 'substantial' fixes. But that evaporated after 'extensive efforts and negotiations' failed, according to a rep. The bar opened in 2007 at 1520 N. Damen Avenue. It had been closed for weeks and was forced to relocate a recent pop-up event hosting Portland, Oregon's Scotch Lodge over the James Beard Awards weekend.
'The Violet Hour has remained an essential fixture in Wicker Park and a quiet icon on the national cocktail scene,' a portion of a statement from the bar reads. 'From the artists who painted our ever-changing facade to the bartenders who opened their own award-winning bars, we're proud of the role we played in sparking a cultural shift in how this city drinks and gathers.'
The statement also teased that this wasn't 'the end of The Violet Hour as a brand,' and that customers 'may see us again somewhere down the line.'
The closure pulls the curtain on a transformative time for Wicker Park, Bucktown, and One Off Hospitality. Violet Hour's opening predated Big Star's arrival across the street, where it replaced Pontiac Cafe & Bar, a dive with live-band karaoke and customers who sat on the patio. After opening the Violet Hour, One Off invested further in the area with the arrival of Dove's Luncheonette. In 2016, the group opened Publican Anker, a spinoff of the Fulton Market restaurant. Anker is now a Foxtrot.
Violet Hour's landlord is Magic Carpet LLC, part of Newcastle Investors. Newcastle acquired the property two years ago. But even before Violet Hour, the space carried a history vital to the rise of Wicker Park as a restaurant and bar destination. One Off partner Terry Alexander ran MOD from 2000 to 2005. Del Toro would replace MOD with Alexander, handing the reins to Andrew Zimmerman, who went on to open West Loop icon Sepia.
To locate the Violet Hour, customers would wander to an unmarked storefront, leaving their name and phone number for a call back. Queues would ruin the mystique and were discouraged. Murals from local artists covered the door, and once through the heavy door, past the check-in stand and curtain, guests would be whisked away to a candle-lit space with Mad Hatter chairs inspired by Alice in Wonderland .
The neighborhood, then surrounded by dives slinging Pabst Blue Ribbon in cans, had never witnessed such a scene. The bar earned several accolades, and in 2015 won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program.
The house rules became legendary. The Violet Hour discouraged cell phone usage, warned bros that Budweiser and Jägermeister weren't available, and — more importantly — demanded that customers 'not bring anyone to Violet Hour that you wouldn't bring to your mother's house for Sunday dinner.'
But as Chicago's cocktail scene proudly embraced highbrow/lowbrow tavern culture with drinkers equally into cocktails with less familiar ingredients as they were with an Old Style and a shot of whiskey, Violet Hour didn't disappoint. This fancy cocktail lounge even served malört, albeit a knockoff version from Leatherbee, a local distiller. Violet Hour alum Brad Bolt would describe the experience in Josh Noel's Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit . Violet Hour's acceptance of malört accelerated the drink's recent resurgence.
Bartenders in other cities, especially in New York, quickly took notice of Violet Hour's success. There was mild shock that a Midwestern city with a hard-drinking reputation could create sophisticated drinks. Violet Hour is credited as the originator of the Paper Plane and The Art of Choke, two standards featured on cocktail lists around the world. Bars, including Cure in New Orleans and the Silver Dollar in Louisville, were heavily influenced by the Chicago trailblazer.
Bolt later opened the fabled Bar DeVille a few blocks south on Damen. He was just one of the bar's noted alumni. Bartender Mike Ryan took what he learned in Wicker Park and brought it downtown when Kimpton Hotels opened Sable Kitchen & Bar. The late Michael Rubel went on to Estereo. In Lincoln Park, long a neighborhood crowded by sports bars and recently graduated frat boys, Barrelhouse Flat brought classy cocktails to Lincoln Avenue thanks to Violet Hour alum Stephen Cole. Nandini Khaund brought her talents to Cindy's off the Mag Mile. Other notable alumni include Toby Maloney and Abe Vucekovich. The latter recently opened a new bar, Friends of Friends, with Alexander.
Of course, the Violet Hour wasn't for everyone. Some customers writhed while waiting for bartenders to mix their drinks. There was a resistance to the rise of the mixologist. Parks & Recreation didn't call out the Violet Hour by name, but a memorable scene from the NBC sitcom used Illinois native Nick Offerman's Ron Swanson to protest esoteric drinks by having a 'cocktail' spritzed on his hands as if it were skin moisturizer. The fictional Indianapolis bar, Essence, specialized in 'molecular mixology.' See More: Bars
Chicago Restaurant Closings
