LOGAN SQUARE — While Chicagoans took in a solar eclipse, the founder of a celestial-themed sober bar received word her dream business was about to become a reality.
Morgan Martinez’s Kickstarter campaign to fund the opening of Solar Intentions reached its goal April 7, with funders kicking in $47,000 for the planned sober bar with an astrology theme. Thanks to the successful campaign, Sober Intentions will look to bring a sober, LGBTQ+-friendly social space to the Logan Square area in late summer, Martinez said.
Martinez — a Kenosha, Wisconsin, native and the editor-in-chief for local arts webzine Hooligan Magazine — is no stranger to bar culture and “bonding through alcohol,” as she wrote on the Kickstarter page. But her relationship with alcohol drastically changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, when drinking spiked substantially as people coped with unprecedented times, Martinez told Block Club.
Following the quarantine era of the pandemic, Martinez experimented with the sober-curious movement and took a month off from drinking. That month turned into a year and now, she said, she has been more than two years sober from alcohol.
“And that just opened my world, really,” Martinez said.
A visit to a sober dive bar in Racine, Wisconsin, called Inmoxicated inspired Martinez to open a similar place in Chicago. Plans for Solar Intentions took shape in March 2023.
“It was an epiphany, a new way of thinking, and I knew I wanted to bring something like that to Chicago,” Martinez said.
Solar Intentions will have an astrology theme and will be LGBTQ+-friendly. Astrology — the study of the movement of celestial bodies and the belief they have an impact on people and world events — has been a unique way for Martinez to connect with others, especially since her sobriety started, she said.
“I think astrology gives people that chance to feel like they’re part of something that’s greater than us,” Martinez said.
Solar Intentions has already held pop-up events. Planning for the bar’s opening is underway, as Martinez is still looking for a location in Logan Square or the surrounding area.
Martinez is getting an assist in her effort from a local businessperson and designer.
Cristina Torres, a Logan Square resident and owner of the Bendición Bottle Shop in Humboldt Park, said she got to know Martinez as a regular at the shop. Martinez later approached her with the idea for a sober bar that would also be a queer-friendly space.
“And I was super into it,” Torres said.
Torres said she has been helping Martinez with business consulting ever since. She noted Chicago has a deep culture surrounding alcohol, especially with Northalsted being lined with bars and bars being a long-time pillar of gay culture.
“I think that [a local dry bar is] a space that’s needed,” Torres said.
Grecia Magdaleno, interior designer for Solar Intentions, echoed Torres, saying they felt aligned with the vision of Solar since day one.
Magdaleno was in an intense graduate school program when they met Martinez. It was a time in which they used drinking as a way to cope with the stresses of schoolwork. Six years later, their relationship with alcohol is a lot more mindful, which was one of the reasons why they were attracted to the idea of the sober bar, Magdaleno said.
“If I had had a space like that six years ago, I know it would have drastically improved my life,” Magdaleno said. “Chicago absolutely needs this.”
Martinez envisions the bar also serving as a multi-purpose community space, one where people who are sober or not can feel welcomed and have a good time.
“Just go and have fun,” Torres said. “You don’t have to constantly think of when you’re going to get your next drink.”
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