Married couple Whitney LaMora and Zoe Schor are working to make Chicago history. The couple is in the midst of building the city’s first lesbian-owned hospitality group with an exclusive focus on opening more queer spaces.
Friend of Dorothy Bars, as the group is called, currently includes the lesbian cocktail lounge Dorothy Downstairs in the city’s West Town neighborhood, as well as the queer bar Fathom in the Lakeview neighborhood.
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According to WBEZ Chicago, the group is backed by about 30 investors, mostly local. “We are really showing that the queer community wants and deserves these beautiful spaces,” LaMora told the outlet. “Hopefully that is also translating to more investors taking what we’re doing and our vision seriously. Because that’s what holds so many women, queer people, people of color, and trans people back. They don’t always have the resources or investment behind them, nor can they get it from banking institutions. I really do feel like that’s changing.”
Schor added that despite increased LGBTQ+ acceptance, there absolutely remains a need for queer-specific safe spaces. As WBEZ pointed out, Chicago business owners are definitely recognizing that, as a slew of LGBTQ+ establishments have been opening around the city, including a luxury boutique hotel currently in development by Tryst Hospitality. “What’s really interesting is, there have always been gay bars, right?” Schor said. “But what’s a gay restaurant? What’s a gay hotel? What’s a queer neighborhood bar? How do we determine and define what these things are?”
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The couple has been through many ups and downs to get them to this point, including some failed initiatives and pandemic-fueled closures. Now, they are focused on financial security and creating environments that don’t lead to employee burnout, which is what led them to purchase the property in which Fathom lies.
“We’re both very devoted to this idea of professionalizing this very unregulated industry,” Schor said, “with safe spaces where nobody who’s working is drinking, where people are taken care of, where they don’t have to beg for vacation pay if they’re leaving the job. It’s also a great transition moment for us out of being in the spaces all day, every day. One of us is in her 40s, one of us is on her way.”
Jasmine Santiago, who has been a bar manager at Dorothy since November 2024, gushed about the working environment. “We do so many different types of events, it’s not a monotonous kind of bar at all.”
“While at Dorothy, I’ve learned that softness is a power and there’s a way to really harness it so it doesn’t feel like I’m muting myself. I’m a mom, so you can be motherly, you can have those maternal qualities, and also say, I need this to happen. I can be more firm and soft at the same time.”
She said she’s excited to see where her role takes her, but is also content right now to help the LaMora and Schor solidify their business. “For now,” Santiago said, “let’s get those standard operating procedures down; let’s open the second bar; let’s open the third.”
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