Clark Street in Andersonville, home to Hopleaf Bar. Photo: Charles Carper / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
The latest group of businesses to join Business Partners, the Chamber for Uptown, includes one of the North Side’s best known beer bars, a longtime Broadway bookstore and a disability law practice.
The members who joined or renewed in the last three months of 2006 are Digital Interplay, Fiesta Mexicana, Hopleaf Bar, Krys of Europe Skin Care, the Law Offices of Richard I. Feingold, Manske Dieckmann Thompson, Map Lab Inc., Shake, Rattle & Read/Book Box, Tiara Reign Contracting Consulting Services Corp. and Wing Hoe Restaurant.
Reaching beyond the core
Several of the new members sit outside the blocks most people picture as Uptown. Hopleaf, the Belgian-style tavern on Clark Street in Andersonville, is better known to beer drinkers across the city than to many Uptown residents. Its membership reflects how closely the commercial districts on the North Side’s lakefront overlap, with customers and workers moving easily between Andersonville, Uptown and Edgewater.
Other additions are closer to the heart of the neighborhood. Shake, Rattle & Read, the used book and record shop on Broadway next to the Uptown Theatre, has roots in the Book Box, which opened in 1966. Fiesta Mexicana and Wing Hoe add to the area’s restaurant mix.
Services as well as storefronts
Professional firms are a growing share of the membership. Attorney Richard Feingold, who handles Social Security disability cases, opened his own practice in 2006. Smaller offices such as Digital Interplay and Map Lab round out a list that leans more toward services than retail.
The chamber’s associate director is handling questions from businesses interested in joining, and an application form is available on the group’s website.
Marcus Hadley covers business, transit and real estate in Uptown.
