THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Nobody's Darling has become so successful that co-owners Angela Barnes and Renauda Riddle recently expanded their footprint into the space next door. To celebrate this achievement, Barnes and Riddle held a soft opening grand expansion on Sept. 20 with community members, regular bar patrons and friends in attendance (a Sunday tea dance with DJ Lora Branch was also planned Sept. 24 from 3-6 p.m. in the expanded space).

The bar, located at 1744 W. Balmoral Ave., was named after Alice Walker's poem "Be Nobody's Darling" and features cocktails named after iconic people in history that are personal favorites of Barnes and Riddle among its drink offerings.

Barnes told Windy City Times that, "The soft opening was sponsored by Bayab African gin that we featured in our Eartha cocktail and award winning Taylor Tacos served up their famous tacos. It was an electric evening."

Riddle added that "This will provide more space for overflow on Friday and Saturday night, especially in the winter when our patio space has to close down. Also, the new space will be available to reserve the space for celebrations like birthday parties and engagements and also organization's fundraisers. For our soft opening, we featured our event cocktail menu that includes people of color and women-only named spirits. We have wines from House of Brown, one of the only Black-owned wineries in Napa Valley, California, and Funkytown Beer which is also Black-owned and local.

"This expansion will enable us to build more community in a welcoming and comfortable space. We have a regular who says that our space is his living room. I hope that more people discover our space. We can now focus on finding a second location on the South Side of Chicago."