Smartbar

Smartbar is a 400-capacity, 21-and-over club in Chicago, housed below its sister venue Metro in a former Swedish Community Center. Its defining feature is scale: a basement dance room that puts touring selectors, Chicago residents, and the crowd in the same compact space. The club opened in July 1982 with Frankie Knuckles on its opening-party bill, giving a current night out a direct connection to Chicago house history.

A club born above the dance floor

Joe Shanahan opened Smartbar in July 1982 on the top floor of the Clark Street building, then home to Stages Music Hall. The building had begun life in 1927 as a Swedish community center; Shanahan’s new room drew on the punk, disco, soul, postpunk, and new-wave records he had been playing around Chicago. Frankie Knuckles played the opening party, and Chicago Magazine identifies Smartbar as the city’s longest-running house club still operating.

Smartbar soon moved downstairs to its present basement location while Shanahan developed the upstairs room into Metro. That arrangement remains the venue’s useful quirk: dance music has its own enclosed room, yet certain all-building events expand the action across both floors. A 2015 anniversary program brought residents and guests including Colette, Michael Serafini, Garrett David, Mark Farina, and DJ Heather into Smartbar and Metro, reflecting the club’s DJ-first identity.

The room after dark

Smartbar books as an independent nightclub centered on dance music and DJs, with house, techno, club music, pop-forward parties, and occasional live-oriented bills sharing the calendar. Expect a one-flight descent to the basement, a main bar flanked by gender-neutral bathrooms, and a slightly raised dance floor reached by three steps. Limited seating is available by advance arrangement, while the club’s standard format favors standing, dancing, and a late-night crowd.