Intricately designed 70’s style wallpaper enveloping the wall. High and low-rise red couches scattered across the room for relaxation. A U-shaped bar with a wall of alcohol, illuminated by alluring red lights. This is the ambiance of Dorothy’s dark and mysterious, yet calming and comforting, lounge.
Local businesses the Happy Hour Shop and Dorothy teamed up to host a Vintage Glassware Celebration at Dorothy from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Oct. 3, 2024.
The event was hosted at Dorothy, a lesbian cocktail lounge. The Happy Hour Shop, a storefront that sells cocktail supplies, curated a pop-up shop where patrons could not only purchase barware but also enjoy and sip cocktails from them.
Dorothy co-owner Whitney LaMora and the Happy Hour Shop owners Jess and John Feller came up with the idea to host a business celebration together after meeting for the first time when the Happy Hour first opened.
“I stopped in the shop and had a really lovely interaction with them,” LaMora said. “We agreed our businesses aligned and wanted to find some sort of collaboration in the future.”
All three were part of the West Town Chamber of Commerce, which provides stipends to West Town business event collaborations.
“We thought it’d be a fun way to partner, tell people in the neighborhood about our shop and about Dorothy and the cocktails that they serve,” John Feller said. “The chamber kind of started it all.”
The stipend helped offset some of the expenses. “We used some of our funds toward the Happy Hour Shop sourcing glassware, toward a photographer and a social/community spend at the bar,” LaMora said.
Attendees chatted while enjoying cocktails at the bar and on the comfort of the couches.
Shannon Glover and SB, a guest who did not want to give their full name, went to the pop-up shop to look at the glassware and ask the Fellers questions. “I think it’s important that folks continue to promote the fact that queer folks aren’t a monolith, so we’re interested in multiple things,” SB said. “I think Dorothy does a great job of having the intersection of queer things and also things like… book clubs or vintage glassware.”
Jess Feller said that the West Town community is “super, super tight-knit” and that it’s important to work with other local businesses. She said partnering with other local businesses makes each one “shine.”
“The fabric of Chicago is so rich and we can’t do this by ourselves,” she said.
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