SOURCE ARTICLE: Chicagoreader.com
When Callin Fortis took over Neo in 1982, Lincoln Park had no Gaps, no pet boutiques, and no day cares. It was a nightlife hub, with cheap rents and 4 AM bars and 24-hour diners—”like New York,” says Fortis.
His own nightclub, one of the last of its generation in the area, is now sandwiched between a preschool and an Urban Outfitters in an alley on Clark Street, just south of Fullerton Avenue, less than a mile west of the Lincoln Park Zoo.
“He’s been a longtime partner of ours,” says Fortis of Steve Harris, one of the owners of Debonair. “It’s very much an inside family thing; it’s not a promoter deal. We also care about the people that work here. We’re trying to keep those kids employed while we find something else. That matters to us. It does mean something that those bartenders have a place to go the minute we close.”
Fortis fondly recalls the motorcycles that would line up in Neo’s alley during the club’s peak years. “Neo was constantly an adventure,” he says. “We used to do all of these underground, alternative fashion shows with local designers. We would give them a place to show their art and their magic. I remember a group of guys that had designed this really funky swimwear line, and somebody opened the front door, and these guys rode their models in on dirt bikes into the jam-packed club. I remember watching that in slow motion as these two guys rode their motorcycles through a jam-packed Neo at two o’clock in the morning. There were so many moments like that that I think were precursors to modern-day nightlife.”
Neo had been open for just two years when Fortis moved in, and at the end of July, it will close its doors after 36 years in operation.