- Credibility:
GOLD COAST — A sports bar in Division Street’s nightlife corridor has temporarily closed because of increasing “late-hour criminal activity,” Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said.
Play Kitchen & Cocktails, 7 W. Division St., closed March 29, Hopkins said in a statement. He pushed the bar to close for months after someone shot at the building in December.
Hopkins filed a request for police to temporarily close the business. The request was under review when the owners met with local police and agreed to close voluntarily while they develop a new security plan and branding concept, Hopkins said.
“The amount of late-hour criminal activity associated with this business in recent months is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by our community,” Hopkins said in a statement.
There is no reopening date set. Hopkins said the bar owners have “been working diligently” to overhaul safety protocols.
Chicago police and officials with the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection declined to comment.
Play Kitchen & Cocktails is owned by Mert Hurmeydan, who opened Room Seven in 2015 with his brother in the same location. Hurmeydan did not return a request for comment.
In 2017, the city closed Room Seven, two other Gold Coast nightclubs and a restaurant because of “dangerous and hazardous” building code violations, according to CBS2.
Hopkins at the time said those businesses had “contributed to numerous community complaints” and “repeated gang-related incidents.”
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