LINCOLN PARK — A dog-friendly bar recently opened in the spot formerly occupied by Golden Dagger, a music venue known for promoting local up-and-coming artists.
Hunter’s On Halsted, 2447 N. Halsted St., opened in November. Donnie Biggins, who owned Golden Dagger (previously Tonic Room), sold the bar to open a music venue in suburban Forest Park, the Forest Park Review reported.
Biggins, who worked at Golden Dagger for 14 years, sold the business because he had become exhausted with its upkeep and the long commutes from his home in Oak Park, he said in an interview with Block Club.
The owners of Hunter’s On Halsted didn’t respond to requests for comment. In an automatic response to an email, the bar owners said most of the Golden Dagger staff quit shortly after they took over.
The neighborhood bar is a place where people can bring their dogs and enjoy a drink while watching University of Illinois sporting events, according to its website. Hunter’s On Halsted may still offer some live music events, but nothing has been booked yet because of the staffing issues, according to the owners’ email.
“While we are open to booking shows in the future, our focus for the time being is to interview and hire staff, so we will not be confirming any new shows for now,” the email response reads.
Biggins said he expected the new owners would keep the staff and continue Golden Dagger’s legacy when he sold the business. But they canceled the two months of shows he’d lined up for them, and Biggins tried to help those artists schedule performances at other venues, he said.
John Rose, a Golden Dagger and Tonic Room regular who saw shows there multiple times each week, said he’s sad to see the music venue turned into a more traditional bar.
“It took me about 45 minutes to an hour to get there on a bus and on a train, but it was worth it for the music,” said Rose, who lives on the West Side. “I never saw a bad show there. It’s really sad to see it go because it was like a second home to me. I knew everyone who worked there and it was just a great place to see music.”
‘It Wasn’t Just Four Walls’
Built in 1894, the Halsted Street building previously housed an occultist temple, a speakeasy and a brothel, among other things.
Biggins began working at Tonic Room in 2010 as a concert promoter and was promoted to talent buyer within a few years, he said. He bought the venue in 2016, and reopened it as Golden Dagger in April 2021 after remodeling it and adding a coffeehouse.
Throughout its history, numerous artists who later became famous played some of their first shows in the bar, including Chance the Rapper and each member of the rock band Ween.
“It wasn’t just four walls, it had some really cool Chicago history within it,” said Debbie Benjamin-Koller, who hosted the monthly Amplified Chicago event at Golden Dagger since November 2021. “There’s a dagger above the bar that was found in the walls during a basement renovation, wrapped in a bloody rag. It just had the cool vibe of a really old bar.”
A few employees reported ghost sightings during the 14 years Biggins worked there, he said. Previous owners passed down stories about a cult called the Golden Dawn that met in the basement, where the dagger was found along with paintings of a pentagram and other symbols, Biggins said.
When a fire severely damaged the venue in November 2021, neighbors raised more than $32,000 to support the staff and help with repairs.
Mysteriously, the bar’s namesake dagger was one of the only things that wasn’t damaged in the fire, Biggins said.
“Firefighters sprayed the whole place down with water, everything behind the bar was wrecked and ripped off the walls, except the dagger seemed untouched,” Biggins said. “It was just up there, loosely hanging on a hook. I usually had to straighten it out every day because of the bass of our subwoofer, so I always found that to be strange.”
Biggins was known for booking early-career musicians and helping them connect with others in the city’s music industry, Rose and Benjamin-Koller said. Biggins offered open office hours where he’d share advice and help aspiring artists connect with other industry professionals.
“I hope Golden Dagger’s legacy is that it was the breeding ground for so many different types of artists and music industry workers,” Biggins said. “This was the first space that so many people worked out of, and that type of space is super important for the culture of any art scene. I’m really proud of that.”
Looking back on his time at Golden Dagger, Biggins is most proud of his decision not to charge artists to play at the venue for about a year and a half after the city reopened venues during the pandemic. During that time, the venue gave up about $60,000 in revenue so that artists could keep more of their profits as they recovered from the impacts of the pandemic, he said.
“During that time, everybody needed help, and I felt like the artists had been forgotten,” Biggins said. “They’re the ones doing the work and bringing people out to the bars, so I felt they needed to be compensated fairly.
“I got my start as a band leader, just trying to figure out how to make a living in the music industry, so it’s been my MO from day one to figure out how to give artists fair deal structures and make sure they get paid.”
Many of the performers and event organizers at Golden Dagger were women, LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized artists, said Benjamin-Koller, whose event featured DJs playing rare vinyl.
“Golden Dagger gave people the opportunity to display their artistry and build a following so they could get off the ground,” Benjamin-Koller said. “You don’t see that very often, it’s hard to find a space that gives people a chance.”
Because Biggins gave Benjamin-Koller a chance, she was able to grow her meetups from a few friends to more than a hundred regular attendees, she said. The success of the monthly events also inspired Benjamin-Koller to start a soul music club, Heart of Chicago Soul Club, “which probably wouldn’t have happened without Golden Dagger,” she said.
“Donnie was very clear about the fact he wanted to empower women and others who might not have access to opportunities in the music industry,” Benjamin-Koller said. “We were able to build a community at our events because of how friendly the space was.”
Since Golden Dagger closed, Benjamin-Koller said she’s struggled to find another music venue to host Amplified Chicago because most venues aren’t open during the day or don’t have the necessary space.
“It was a lovely little nook to gather and build community,” Benjamin-Koller said. “There are a lot of bars in this city, but this was truly a local gem. It had a neighborhood feel to it, but it was progressive at the same time.”
For any Golden Dagger fans who want to head west, Biggins encouraged them to check out his new venue, Robert’s West Side in Forest Park.
“I’d encourage young performers and artists to venture out and experience it because there are people who love live music in the suburbs too,” Biggins said. “My mission is the same; this is just a new place to amplify it.”
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