Sick of doing office jobs for other people, 20-year-old Jason Choe applied for bank loans and invested about $70,000 in what he thought was a novel concept in Evanston: A coffee lounge where customers could smoke. “A bar without alcohol,” Choe said. “A sociable place where people could hang out.”
He opened the Potion Liquid Lounge in July 1999 at 910 Noyes St., just west of the Northwestern campus. But “Potion” closed Feb. 13.
Choe watched Potion become the smoky, sociable hang-out he envisioned. But paying $2,500 per month in rent and answering complaints about smoke and noise started to overwhelm him. The stress of running a business was a “dream killer,” said Choe, now 23.
“It wasn’t fun anymore,” he said. “I wasn’t enjoying myself.”
A new carry-out caf
