The two bodega coolers of premixed, canned cocktails, wine and beer at BABS Comedy Club will soon be replaced with a full bar constructed by the club’s owner.
Over a year-and-a-half after BABS Comedy Club opened in Forest Park at 7316 Madison St. in October 2024, the owner is closing June 22 to build a bar. The venue will reopen at the end of August with a bar boasting an ice machine, soda gun, garnish station, reach-in coolers, a liquor display and five stools for patrons to order drinks from during comedy shows.
“It’s a scary thing to take a temporary closing when the business is so young,” Emily Ramirez, owner of BABS Comedy Club, told the Review. But she hopes the full bar will better match the aesthetics of the club and bring in more revenue.
Ramirez said premixed and canned drinks currently make up 35-to-40% of sales at BABS. And that the markup on these drinks is lower than what she could charge on hand-mixed cocktails, so she’s making 25-to-35% less revenue than she would be with a full-service bar.
By the end of August, Ramirez said she hopes the bar area will be fully functional, even if decorative arches, silvered mercury glass and shelving behind the bar isn’t installed until late fall.
“We wanted to build a bar that looks like it could have existed in this building had it been original,” from the early 1900s, Ramirez said. “It’s going to be very glowy, intimate and pretty.”
Ramirez said, though the comedy club could’ve simply installed drain and water supply lines to add an ice machine and continue operations as-is, part of the reason she wanted to add a full bar was to better serve private parties hosted at BABS.
“I think that the price point and type of events we could host for a private party might level up because visually the area looks so much better, and we would have a proper full bar,” Ramirez said.
After Ramirez closed on 7316 Madison St. in 2023, she and her husband, Chase Maness, completely redid the street-level business that used to be Studio 8 and three upstairs apartments, one of which the couple lives in. Ramirez told the Review that she and her husband, who’s an engineer with experience in plumbing and electric, did a lot of triage in the initial months that they owned the building.
“Eventually the comedy club space was in a good enough state that we were like, ‘Let’s just open,’” Ramirez said. Though they originally planned to open BABS Comedy Club with a full bar, Ramirez said it probably would’ve taken them many more months to build it out. “It takes a long time to build a reputation of a business. If your business is a bar, you need everything to be perfect and ready to go. If your business is comedy, your comedy needs to be ready to go, and it was.”
Ramirez thought that, if she had enough momentum with the comedy club, she might even be able to use revenue to pay for construction of a new bar. Without any investors, Ramirez said she was able to pay off all her business debt after the first year of BABS Comedy Club. Her profit in the second year has covered nearly all the equipment for the new bar.
“Sad to see basically my entire business savings go away, but cool to be able to do with cash,” Ramirez said of the new bar. “I’m really happy I did it the way I did. It’s been so much fun to be open and part of the community, giving so many comedians great opportunities on stage and making so many people laugh.”
Once the full bar is open, Ramirez intends to hire a part-time bartender.
“I have a really specific type of bartender that’s important for me to have,” Ramirez said. “My priority is the safety and comfort of my patrons, and also of my comedians.” She added that having “a big, burly guy behind the bar serves as an invitation to fight. It’s the weirdest thing. I’ve seen it happen a million times in bars, in shows, clubs and cabarets. … I don’t want bouncer energy in my club.”
Until BABS Comedy Club opens again, Ramirez said she’s still available for requests for her house team of 20 improvisers and go-to group of Chicagoland stand-up comedians to perform elsewhere.
“Any opportunity I can give my performers to get some reps and some cash when I’m not able to provide that for them, I would be happy to facilitate,” Ramirez said. “I just want to get the word out that the talent is still here, and we’re ready to go, just anywhere but BABS.”