{"id":774722,"date":"2026-05-05T10:53:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T10:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/774722\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T10:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T10:53:22","slug":"meet-the-couple-building-a-mini-empire-of-queer-focused-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/774722\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the couple building a mini-empire of queer-focused spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Fathom<\/a>, the nautical-lite queer neighborhood bar in Lake View, debuted in early April, it became the first official joint project of married business partners Whitney LaMora and Zoe Schor.<\/p>\n

Between real estate negotiations, fundraising, buildouts, hiring and permitting, it took two-and-a-half years for LaMora and Schor to open Fathom from their first glimpse of 1622 West Belmont Avenue (formerly Flagship Tavern). The bar was a few days out from officially throwing open its doors when Schor\u2019s thoughts began straying elsewhere \u2014 to Milwaukee, Wis. More specifically, about the untapped potential of a \u201cdisgusting,\u201d albeit \u201ccharming,\u201d old bar there that was still on the market a year after the couple looked at it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, my wife never stops looking for real estate,\u201d LaMora said archly. \u201cShe\u2019s always hungry for the next project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple, who also own the subterranean lesbian cocktail lounge Dorothy Downstairs<\/a> in West Town, have higher ambitions that stretch beyond Chicago as they build the city\u2019s first lesbian-owned hospitality group solely focused on creating queer gathering places.<\/p>\n

So far, their business venture \u2014 called Friend of Dorothy Bars \u2014 is backed by 30 mostly local investors who\u2019ve bought into their vision, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really showing that the queer community wants and deserves these beautiful spaces,\u201d LaMora said. \u201cHopefully that is also translating to more investors taking what we\u2019re doing and our vision seriously. Because that\u2019s what holds so many women, queer people, people of color, and trans people back. They don\u2019t always have the resources or investment behind them, nor can they get it from banking institutions. I really do feel like that\u2019s changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"The<\/p>\n

Fathom arrives at a time when more prominently queer spaces are blossoming in Chicago.<\/p>\n

Fathom arrives at a time when more prominently queer spaces are blossoming here; new census data reveals a 70% increase<\/a> in same-sex couple households in Chicago since 2005.<\/p>\n

Tryst Hospitality is developing a luxury boutique LGBTQ+ hotel called Tryst<\/a> in the Northalsted neighborhood. The sober, queer social club Everywhere<\/a> is coming to Uptown this summer, according to reporting from Block Club Chicago. Last fall, Nora McConnell-Johnson opened women\u2019s sports bar Babe\u2019s<\/a> in Logan Square with help from a crowdfunding campaign that raised $75,000. The multilevel sports bar Levels Sporting Club<\/a> in Wrigleyville is backed by six women investors. The latter\u2019s founder, Clarissa Flores, also cofounded Lesbian Social Club, the popular roving party series that draws hundreds to LGBTQ+ events at venues like Tao.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the former home of beloved queer nightclub Berlin is transforming into an inclusive club: a craft cocktail bar called The Belmont, and a late-night dance club called Decibel.<\/a><\/p>\n

Even as more LGBTQ+ spots pop up increasingly outside of historically queer neighborhoods to mirror the meandering path of social progress, Schor emphasized the prevailing need for dedicated safe spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though there is, theoretically, more acceptance, even though queer people have spread out in more places around the country, we still do need a place to gather and that\u2019s still really important,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat\u2019s really interesting is, there have always been gay bars, right? But what\u2019s a gay restaurant? What\u2019s a gay hotel? What\u2019s a queer neighborhood bar? How do we determine and define what these things are?\u201d<\/p>\n

She and LaMora have been slowly unpacking these questions in the nine years since they met at Split-Rail, the now-closed upmarket fried chicken restaurant where Schor was the chef and the co-owner alongside Michelle Szot.<\/p>\n

A week after Split-Rail opened in the summer of 2017, Schor declared she was ready to open a lesbian bar. Six months after that, LaMora \u2014 then a prospective gallery owner \u2014 walked in to interview for a server assistant job.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Split-Rail<\/p>\n

Schor and LaMora met at Split-Rail, the now-closed upmarket fried chicken restaurant where Schor was the chef and the co-owner alongside Michelle Szot.<\/p>\n

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Schor and LaMora fell in love and built a working partnership over the ensuing decade, which came with plenty of transition, heartbreak and renewal. LaMora opened a gallery, The Martin, first in Humboldt Park then adjacent to Split-Rail. About a month after the team opened Dorothy, the pandemic shut it down \u2014 ultimately twice. Schor and LaMora reopened it in 2022.<\/p>\n

The pair married in the fall of 2023, the same weekend Split-Rail was broken into \u2014 a memory that haunts them whenever they hear a sound like the phone alarm that awoke them that night. In November 2023, they shuttered Split-Rail and The Martin, morphing the space into the queer wedding and events venue Villanelle, which closed in October 2025, the 10-year mark of the lease on the ground floor of 2500 W. Chicago Ave. Schor still carries the burden of Split-Rail\u2019s financial failure, even as she evolves in her notions of what success and failure look like.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money part will never sit right for the rest of my life; people gave me money for that and it all got lost,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you remove that part of it, it feels much more organic. I don\u2019t feel like a chef anymore; that\u2019s just something I did for a couple of decades. When you\u2019re young and learn you could be good at something and want to do it with your life, you don\u2019t know all the different ways you could apply that idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building Dorothy into a cultural homebase \u2014 one packed to the gills for events ranging from karaoke and immersive theater to a senior LGBTQ+ storytelling panel<\/a> \u2014 solidified the couple\u2019s prowess as queer bar owners. The place has the kind of employee buy-in such that requests to fill shifts render Schor\u2019s inbox overflowing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do so many different types of events, it\u2019s not a monotonous kind of bar at all,\u201d said Jasmine Santiago, bar manager at Dorothy since November 2024. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to come to work everyday.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dorothy<\/p>\n

Building Dorothy into a cultural homebase solidified the couple\u2019s prowess as queer bar owners.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Tracy Conoboy<\/p>\n

Previously the general manager at Moneygun, Santiago worked with the hospitality group 16 On Center (The Salt Shed,, Mariscos San Pedro, Longman & Eagle, All Well) for nearly six years before departing amicably, eager to fully assert herself as a manager without apologizing as a woman of color. In the year and a half since joining Dorothy, Santiago has felt herself \u201cchange profoundly\u201d as a professional, embracing the nurturing style of hospitality she inherited from her grandmother. It owes partly to conversations with Schor and LaMora affirming her past experiences and encouraging her to stand in her power, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile at Dorothy, I\u2019ve learned that softness is a power and there\u2019s a way to really harness it so it doesn\u2019t feel like I\u2019m muting myself,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a mom, so you can be motherly, you can have those maternal qualities and also say, I need this to happen. I can be more firm and soft at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple are increasingly empowering staff to take the lead on social media and to oversee events, like the bimonthly trans- and nonbinary-focused Trans \/ Enby Night at Dorothy, spearheaded by Dorothy\u2019s product manager, Lou Neimerg. Santiago aims to keep growing in her own role and is open to how that might look.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now, let\u2019s get those standard operating procedures down; let\u2019s open the second bar; let\u2019s open the third,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Whitney<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though there is, theoretically, more acceptance, even though queer people have spread out in more places around the country, we still do need a place to gather and that\u2019s still really important,\u201d Schor (right) said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the couple\u2019s vision of a multiconcept future that won\u2019t burn out them or their employees is taking shape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re both very devoted to this idea of professionalizing this very unregulated industry<\/a> with safe spaces where nobody who\u2019s working is drinking, where people are taken care of, where they don\u2019t have to beg for vacation pay if they\u2019re leaving the job,\u201d Schor said. \u201cIt\u2019s also a great transition moment for us out of being in the spaces all day everyday. One of us is in her 40s, one of us is on her way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buying the property that houses Fathom was a key piece of securing a future on their terms.<\/p>\n

Unlike its sapphic, \u201870s speakeasy sibling with a packed dance card of events, Fathom positions itself as a \u201csimpler, more casual gathering place,\u201d with easygoing packaged beer, wine and non-alcoholic drinks and classic cocktails that tip a tricorne hat to rum. (Think pineapple rum daiquiris and lush, mutedly tropical rum old fashioneds.) A nautical term to measure depth, Fathom also refers to the average wingspan, nodding to the open arms that initiate an embrace.<\/p>\n

The couple tapped Siren Betty Design to design the bar, which subtly nods to the sea-worn east coast joints of Schor\u2019s native Massachusetts via oceanic blues, brass and dark wood accents, luffing linen fabric draped above the bar and porthole-style mirrors in \u201cthe boat lounge.\u201d Schor\u2019s mom even handed over 100 seashells from her extensive collection, which adorn the bar\u2019s fireplace.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The couple tapped Siren Betty Design to design Fathom, which subtly nods to the sea-worn east coast joints of Schor\u2019s native Massachusetts via oceanic blues, brass and dark wood accents.<\/p>\n

Drawing on nautical themes required the team to confront some gendered design baggage. Take the wallpaper in the third bathroom, whose early pattern mockup featured the prevailing imagery of buxom, white and blonde sailor women. When they noted this, Siren Betty designer Susan Yong Williams happily offered to do a custom design. After a bit of back and forth, they settled on a pattern that depicts a diverse range of bodies, many of them tattooed, swimming, diving, toasting and posing in swimwear.<\/p>\n

The same custom wallpaper adorns the interior of Fathom\u2019s photobooth, a vestige LaMora and Schor rescued from Berlin back when they opened Villanelle; \u201cso, you know, it\u2019s still in the family,\u201d LaMora said. This small artistic gesture has a deeper mission, much like the friendly neighborhood bar it adorns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s most important to us is to show a wide variety of bodies, and a wide variety of people who could, for the first time, see themselves in a wallpaper,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s for anyone who\u2019s been othered.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Fathom, the nautical-lite queer neighborhood bar in Lake View, debuted in early April, it became the first…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":774723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-774722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116521600889376622","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}