WICKER PARK — Internationally-renowned cocktail bar and lounge The Violet Hour is closed indefinitely as negotiations remain ongoing with its landlord regarding plumbing issues in the building.
The influential bar, which won a James Beard Award in 2015 and is famed for developing cocktails that have since become mixological mainstays, closed about three weeks ago due to plumbing issues, according to managing partner Terry Alexander.
On Friday, those issued remained unresolved, Alexander said, forcing the bar to announce in an Instagram post that it would be closed until further notice.
“We’re occupying an old building,” Alexander said. “We’ve had plumbing issues before, and unfortunately we have plumbing issues again.”
Alexander said that there was no timeline for when The Violet Hour, 1520 N. Damen Ave., might reopen.
“It’s tough, and it’s not a simple fix,” Alexander said. “It’s literally busting open floors, going down and repairing pipes, and the one thing you never want to do is go down and try to fix something, because you don’t know what is beneath us. There’s always surprises.”
The bar is closed at an inopportune time, as the James Beard Awards are set to arrive in Chicago June 16. The Violet Hour was scheduled to host a pop-up for the 2025-nominated Scotch Lodge, a Portland, Ore., bar, on June 15th. That event has been relocated to Friends of Friends, 2001 W Grand Ave., which was founded by a former Violet Hour bartender, according to the Instagram post.
Alexander said that the bar has had a good relationship with its landlord for the past decade, but the two sides are still negotiating about the best way to resolve the repairs.
“We need some help from the landlord,” Alexander said. “They’re trying to work with us. We’re trying to work with them.”
The Violet Hour bar is nestled inside an unmarked building, often painted with murals or other works of public art. Property records show the building was purchased by Magic Carpet LLC for $13.2 million in October of 2012. The address associated with the LLC is listed as Newcastle Investors, a Chicago-based real estate investor.
The Wicker Park bar is owned by One Off Hospitality, a restaurant group whose other ventures include The Publican in Fulton Market and Big Star taqueria, which has locations in Wicker Park, among other places.
Founded in 2007, The Violet Hour has become synonymous with Chicago’s craft cocktail trade, producing a tree of bartenders that branches across the city and country, as well as numerous cocktails, including the Paper Plane and the Juliet and Romeo, that are now considered classic libations in other bars and lounges.
The prohibition-style bar has occupied the same building on Damen Ave. for the past 18 years, according to Alexander. He said he hasn’t considered moving.
“To find a space, to redesign a space, that’s not two weeks,” Alexander said. “That could be two years from now.”
Alexander said most staff have been moved to other locations owned by One Off Hospitality. He hoped this wasn’t last call.
“We’re just going to continue to take literally one day at a time to figure out what we can do to move forward,” he said.
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