At the corner of Halsted and Roscoe, long before the neighborhood became a rainbow landmark, Little Jim’s held down the heart of Chicago’s LGBTQ scene. Opening in 1975, it became the longest-running gay bar in Boystown, a place where generations of locals, newcomers, night shifters, and weekend wanderers gathered under low lights and familiar faces.
Little Jim’s was equal parts dive and home base — strong drinks, late nights, cheap beer, and a crowd that was always a little mixed, always a little rowdy, and always ready for one more song. It wasn’t the flashiest spot on the strip, but it was the one people came back to. A true neighborhood institution where countless stories, romances, heartbreaks, and first nights out began.
A sweatshirt for the Chicago nights that felt endless, the friends made on barstools, and the corner that helped shape queer life in the Midwest for nearly five decades.
