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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday August 13 2015, @09:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the volunteer-labor?-that'll-never-work dept.

Chicago-based "Geek Bar"-- where bartenders dress in labcoats and serve geek-themed drinks-- has been saved from financial ruin by a combination of crowdfunding by patrons, and a sizable personal loan. But The Chicago Reader asks, Geek Bar's fans rescue it from oblivion—but was it worth saving?

It sounds like a feel-good story, something inspired by the kind of movie sometimes screened at the ten-month-old bar. You know, the ones where the scrappy outcasts band together to save their beloved sanctuary from the clutches of evil. But former employees and volunteers now wonder if the bar was worth saving.

Nine and a half months after it first began slinging Cthulhu-themed cocktails, Geek Bar Beta still feels like an experiment, one that hasn't gone according to plan. Former employees say paychecks began bouncing last fall, soon after the bar opened.

The article tells a tale of a business that is obviously loved, but plagued by mismanagement, poor employee relationships, financial woes and an over-reliance on community support and free labor. What value does the "geek" label have, when the underlining business is unsustainable? What extraordinary value does the concept bring that justifies such extraordinary efforts to keep it afloat?


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  • (Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Thursday August 13 2015, @03:26PM

    by scruffybeard (533) on Thursday August 13 2015, @03:26PM (#222344)

    I was looking for photos of the place, and did not find many good shots of the interior. What I did see looks very ordinary, if you take the few posters off the wall it could be any other downtown restaurant. The only thing that seems to make it geeky is the menu, and the people who come dressed up. I know nothing about its location, but I could see how it might not attract walk-ins off the street. You probably wouldn't feel comfortable if you were not in costume, and if the place isn't packed there isn't anything that screams "that is an awesome geek themed place to go have a beer".

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