Longtime Lake View tavern Little Jim's shut its doors July 2.
Billing itself as "the original hookup bar," Jim Gates opened Little Jim's in 1975, and it was one of the first gay bars in the Boystown area. Gates sold the business and moved to Florida in 2014.
"Don't blink or you'll miss itit's a tiny late-night hook-up joint disguised as a neighborhood bar," the Chicago bar Project said of the tavern. "Little Jim's is meant for getting together with friends, having a few drinks, chatting and, to be blunt, an easy place to meet easy older guys and 'bears.'"
The parcel on which Little Jim's stands was put on the market in 2019. The Howard Brown Health system has been in negotiations to buy the parcel to expand its Lake View operations. According to a statement that Howard Brown issued in early 2020, the acquisition would double the capacity of its Halsted clinic "for primary care appointments, provide additional space for walk-in sexual and reproductive healthcare, and house wrap-around and behavioral health services."