Opening in Chicago’s Wicker Park (now known as Ukrainian Village) in 1992, The Empty Bottle continues to be ground zero for the city’s thriving indie scene. From housing acts such as The Flaming Lips, The White Stripes, and Jesus Lizard to jump-starting the careers of Wilco, Yo La Tengo, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, this corner dive-bar is the embodiment of do-it-yourself ethos.
With a live show every single night and the lack of attitude, The Empty Bottle feels closer to a community hang-out than one of the most influential clubs in the city.
Labeled The last great indie rock dive bar by Pitchfork and earning a respectable rank in Rolling Stone’s 20 Best Clubs In America to name a few, one would think the establishment was put together by a billion-dollar corporation and mustache-twirling focus groups. But in reality, Bruce Finkelman opened the doors of The Empty Bottle with $934 and his love of live music. These days, Finkelman is co-owner of Chicago’s most celebrated hospitality collective, 16 On Center. With establishments across the city such as the legendary Thalia Hall, Longman & Eagle, Saint Lou’s Assembly, Space, Revival Food Hall among others, Finkelman has his hands full…
Until the Coronavirus pandemic brought the hospitality business to a grinding halt.
With most of the country in lockdown to flatten the curve, the days of dive-bars and live shows seem like a distance memory. Nights of packed clubs, sweaty patrons, and buck-fifty beers have been replaced with sterile computer monitors and acoustic live-streams. At least until the powers that be figure out a way to get the virus under control. Finkelman is confident and hopeful though. I had the opportunity to talk with him about The Empty Bottle’s humble beginnings, the importance of community, and what we can do to support the scenes who support us.
Coop: With the success of 16 On Center, it’s obvious you have a knack for creating the kind of environment music lovers are drawn to. When did you decide to jump into the business?
Bruce Finkelman: Well, I had always loved music! When I was in college I was working at a small live music venue and I kinda decided that’s what I was gonna make of my life. After college, I came back to Chicago and I started doing some jobs to get some experience in different types of operations. As far as hospitality was concerned.
Were those operations the genesis of what would become the Empty Bottle?
I was working at The Hyatt and it was the exact opposite of what I wanted to do with my life. It was just this soul-sucking, terrible suit-wearing awful experience. Whatever my plan was in life that experience was just sucking the life out it. One night I was driving around just trying to find hope in a place. I found this little tavern for rent on Western Ave. I got the number, called the guy the next day, and 3 weeks later that place became the first Empty Bottle!
The Empty Bottle has been an important place for me since I was old enough to go shows. Whether it was The Strokes opening for Guided By Voices or going nearly deaf during Sunn O))). It’s easy to overlook the importance of the venue to the local scene. For me, it always felt like the local corner dive where I get to see bands I love.
That’s why The Empty Bottle was created! It wasn’t me putting together The Empty Bottle, it was a group of people part of a community moving toward a place where it is today. For me, it was very important to have an understanding that not everyone was gonna like what we were doing. Part of our mission statement was if you build and do things you like, there’s gonna be some other people out there who are bound to feel the same way.
It’s an honest approach probably lost on many of the bigger, more corporate venues in Chicago.
I believe the honest approach applied to programming, operations, to the staff we hire, who we wanted to be, and what we wanted to portray was easy to direct as long as we followed that simple quota. Right?
Right. I guess you can’t go wrong by building an establishment you can’t wait to hang on it. Did you take the same approach when you expanded to places like Thalia Hall?
Well, the expansion really happened as our tastes changed you know? Our second venue was the Logan Square Auditorium and that was because our friends playing The Empty Bottle were growing. So they felt it was an important opportunity for us to work with them and so did we! The creation of Longman & Eagle was out of our love of bourbon and the culinary styles we were getting interested in. Same with Dusek’s Board & Beer. Thalia Hall came from the ability to kind of grow up and work with the bands we’ve worked with for so long.
At the top of my bucket list is ‘eat every single thing on the menu at Saint Lou’s Assembly‘.
Ah, well you let me know when you achieve that goal and I’ll buy you a beer!
On March 20th, 2020, Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a shelter-in-place order for the entire state of Illinois. It was an effort to curve the spread of COVID19. What was going through your head when you heard the announcement?
To some extent, we had already started feeling the effects of the virus, you know? People were already deciding to stay home and getting concerned about going out. You could see that not only our customers and families were showing concern but also the artists. We were starting to see a lot of cancellations. So for me when the Governor finally put us in lock-down mode, I think we all felt it was a good thing for everybody. It was for the benefit of all of us and to get rid of the virus.
Leading up to the shelter-in-place order, were bands still booking shows? I can’t even imagine turning an artist down due to fears of a virus.
It did put us in a weird position at first. There were some bands who still wanted to play right? And it was unsafe for us to really have those shows. But it was still our responsibility to make the decisions not to. That’s a position we really shouldn’t have to be in or want to be in. So I think in the beginning there was this almost sigh of relief we were no longer in position to make those calls. Now we could focus on getting inside and letting this thing run its course.
To me, the staff at Empty Bottle and Bite Cafe next door never fail to give a sense of family. It breaks my heart to think of their financial hardships due to the shutdown. What can we do to support the community as they’ve supported us over the years?
You know, all the GoFundMe pages have been so appreciated. To see the support people have for the venue and our families working there is just amazing. But we’re telling people to buy merch! Buy a ticket for an upcoming show or gift certificate to get some money flowing within the live music industry however you can. Whatever you can do right now to keep venues like The Empty Bottle and others open and kind of weather the storm. Unfortunately, this is probably gonna be going on for quite a bit longer.
No doubt things will be shakey when venues open up again. But do you think going to a show will ever go back to what it was before Coronavirus?
Yes. We’re resilient people in Chicago and we’re gonna get past this. I’m hoping we’re gonna learn some things about being socially responsible. Being out there washing hands and those things. I think we’re all gonna go back and we’re gonna be stronger. Things are gonna be okay but it’s just gonna take a little bit.
When faced with times of uncertainty, is there a particular story or memory that inspires you to keep going?
I think back to the very beginning and this band called Space Streakings on Skin Graft Records. That label had a lot of avant-garde and Japanese noise rock. The band was in the old Empty Bottle drinking and we were getting ready to move to the new building we’re in now. I had no money and I was really struggling to get this new place open. There was this contractor working in the new location down the street. He was all I could afford so it was just him and another dude and they were putting up this huge steel beam. It probably weighed close to a thousand pounds. The contractor walked down to the old building and was like “Bruce, I can’t do this. blah blah blah”.
So I got up on top of the bar and there were like 50 people there. I said “Look, I need to get this beam moved. Can anybody help?” The 7 or 8 Japanese fellas from Space Streakings were the first people up and out the door ready to help. Then I remember the whole part of the bar walking down the block to the new location to help us move the beam. That’s something I always think about when we talk about the community being part of something.
I’ve always heard this particular story about Krist Novoselic stealing a framed picture off the wall of the Empty Bottle. Is that a true story or just a bar-stool legend?
The picture was from a local artist named James Crump. Novoselic was on tour with Babes In Toyland at the time and the tour bus just dropped them all out in front of the Empty Bottle and they were all drunk and crazy and yeah!
Have you ever tried to reach out to Novoselic? Has he returned it?
No, he hasn’t returned it. In fact, there’s a lady named Bettina Richards who owns Thrill Jockey Records. The label had their offices above The Empty Bottle. There were a bunch of different labels, booking agents, and our offices up there. This story is a piece of history! One day we were all up there sitting around talking about whatever and Bettina was like “Hey I know Novoselic’s lawyer! Let’s call them up and tell them we’re gonna sue them unless they return the picture!”. So I listened to Bettina thought it was a great idea to call. Novoselic’s lawyer was NOT very happy with the call and they were ready to take it to a level we were in no shape to go in.
Well if Krist Novoselic somehow reads this, I’m offering him an invitation to reach out to Bearded Gentlemen and discuss this very serious matter from all the way back in 1995!
Yeah, I’m pretty sure he probably doesn’t have that picture anymore but sure!
I for one, can’t wait for this pandemic to be over so I can get back out there to a live show! Do you have any words of hope to pass along to the patrons of live music?
Stay inside. Support your local scene. Go to the websites of all the clubs and venues you love and call out to you. Follow what they’re doing, throw them a little letter that says ‘we’re thinking about you. We support you how you support us. We’re all in this together.’ and we’ll all come out on the other side. We will make it through this.
For more info on 16 On Center, including relief efforts, please visit 16oncenterchicago.com