Evanston’s got the blues.
A veteran Chicago music promoter is planning to open a new blues club on Davis Street this April, pending approval from Evanston City Council at its next meeting.
Bill Gilmore, an Evanston resident who has run five blues bars in Chicago, plans to open Bill’s Blues at 1029 Davis St., currently a vacant storefront.
“I’ve really never seen an upscale college town without a blues club,” Gilmore said. “I perceived this as a very affluent, quite large, extremely underserved market.”
Gilmore has explored opening a club in Evanston for the past five years because he says the North Shore lacks blues venues. He was searching for a downtown location that offered good parking and was close to public transportation.
On Oct. 15 Gilmore and his business partners leased the space, which was formerly a workshop for Turin Bicycle Evanston.
The Evanston Zoning Board of Appeals approved a special use permit for the entertainment venue in January. City Council will decide whether to approve the permit at its Feb. 10 meeting. No council member expressed opposition to the measure when it was introduced Monday.
“There was a lot of positive feedback,” said Ald. Joseph Kent (5th).
The building will be renovated to include 89 seats, although it will be able to accommodate about 150 people, Gilmore said. The bar, which is still waiting to receive its liquor license, will only admit patrons age 21 and over. The club will be open seven days a week in the afternoons and evenings, and Gilmore said he expects cover charges for live music to range from $5 to $8 on weeknights and $10 to $12 on the weekends.
“The thing I like best is the proximity to Northwestern and downtown Evanston, which I see giving me both an after-work business and also a Sunday through Thursday business, which is the toughest business to develop,” Gilmore told the zoning board at a Jan. 7 meeting.
Gilmore’s business partner, Bill West, said he wants NU students to attend — and sometimes perform at — the club.
“We plan on having venues where perhaps students can come in and play Sunday open stages,” he said. “We’re trying to attract the whole community.”
Gilmore said he hopes to bring Chicago blues musicians like Koko Taylor, Eddy Clearwater and Magic Slim to the club.
“I’m going to be booking talent on the level of any of the clubs in the city of Chicago,” said Gilmore, who added he has booked more than 10,000 concerts. “As far as I know, I’ve booked more Chicago blues acts than anyone in the world.”
The club will add to Evanston’s musical venues and bring more tourists into the city, said Jamie Fritz, manager of Nevin’s Live, 1450 Sherman Ave.
“We’ve always been firm believers that the more places that come into Evanston, the better,” Fritz said.
Many NU students were excited at the possibility of a blues bar coming to Evanston.
“I’ve been waiting for something like this my whole time here,” said Medill sophomore Jeff Kane. “That’s something I’d really like to see.”
