Chicago success, Polish style
JOYNT | Nightclubs are in Stanley Wozniak's blood
Nightclubs are like an early morning dream. They come and go.
Then there are places like the Joynt, which opened this spring at 650 N. Dearborn. The sign on the door says "Swing Bar" and "Retro Club." That stuff never goes out of style.
(Scott Stewart/Sun-Times)
The Joynt is the 10th Chicago nightclub operated by managing partner Stanley Wozniak. He is only 46.
In 1993 he helped open the Red Head Piano Bar, and later he made his mark with Jilly's on Rush Street. He has been riding high in April and shot down in May, as his pallie Frank Sinatra used to say.
But each effort has drawn profoundly from Wozniak's Southwest Side roots.
• His grandfather Stanley was a Polish immigrant who built Wozniak's Casino Lounge No. 1, which operated from 1938 to 1972 at 2258 W. 19th St. Wozniak's Casino No. 2 (with a bowling alley) was at 2530 S. Blue Island Ave. between 1951 and 1991.
• His late father Stanley and mother Theresa were factory workers at Fleischmann's Yeast Co., 43rd and Oakley. But his father was best known for playing trumpet, violin and concertina with Eddie Blazoncyk's Versatones and Marion Lush's Musical Stars. He is in the Polka Music Hall of Fame.
• In 1988 young Stanley ran for Republican committeeman in the Hispanic-majority 25th Ward. And won.
Wozniak is a chip off the Old World.
"I'm more like an old saloon keeper more than these new kids running nightclubs," Wozniak says during an afternoon conversation at the Joynt. "It's probably a natural thing."
Nightlife is full of pulp fiction. Wozniak is a hardcover classic.
He always wears an immaculate dark suit, a bright silk tie and bold splashes of Eternity for Men. He acquired this style as a gofer for Sinatra in the Chairman's later years. Wozniak says, "Coming from the neighborhood, my first coat, other than my communion suit, was something I wore to a Sinatra concert.
"Then my grandfather was a rough, rough guy. He bought the Cyrus McCormick executive clubhouse in the 1950s." With Polish immigrants rooted not far from his birthplace of Mszana-Dolna, the original Stanley Wozniak remodeled the clubhouse into Wozniak's Casino Lounge No. 2.
The since-razed clubhouse was at the McCormick Works plant on Blue Island Avenue. The basement contained 10 bowling lanes. The 2,000-seat picnic grove was used for gatherings of local politicians. Wozniak booked the Buckinghams and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas to perform in the garden.
President Ronald Reagan appeared in an ethnic salute at the casino. The films "Backdraft" and "Men Don't Leave" were shot at Wozniak's Casino No. 2.
The 7,000-square-foot Joynt updates the casino in spirit.
The upstairs "Swing Bar" features live trios and quartets Tuesday through Saturday. The room is lined with a hip '60s-style brick veneer. "We got it at Tile Outlet," Wozniak says matter-of-frankly. The basement is divided into a dance club that plays lots of '80s music and a smooth lounge, lined with more brick veneer. This vibe has led to online comments about "Michigan moms in Capris." Said one commenter, "I've never been to the Joynt. I've also never purchased Fixodent."
Wozniak says, "I've got the father's kids hanging out now. Everybody becomes a man downtown. Even the females have to leave their neighborhood bar. There's new faces, but I'm used to new faces through the years. One heavy spender gets replaced with another heavy spender. One mob guy goes to jail, one mob guy returns. Its a revolving door."
Chicago-based author and Sinatra biographer Bill Zehme says, "Stanley is and talks Chicagoese in a way that is poetic and mellifluous. He's a throwback to another time because he always looks about 10 years older than he actually is. He is a cross between Toots Shor, Jilly and throw in a dash of Mike Ditka."
The Joynt is in a former clothing store.
"It was never a place before," Wozniak says, dealing a Wozniakism. "But [mass murderer] Richard Speck used to live in this building. [Former Ald.] Burt Natarus told me there was a speakeasy downstairs and transient housing upstairs."
Wozniak opened the Joynt with partner Paul Babcock, a 42-year-old UPS executive whom he met at Jilly's of Lake Geneva (1999-2002).
Wozniak's resume is full of many colorful notes.
"Gov. [Jim] Thompson gave me a spot as the ethnic director of the Illinois State Fair," he says. "I was 25 when I ran for commiteeman. I was hurtin'. The neighborhood was changing pretty radically."
Wozniak was a good choice for the fair. In 1988 he started the annual Taste of Little Italy. At his family's Polish banquet hall. In a Hispanic neighborhood.
According to David K. Fremon's Chicago Politics Ward By Ward (Indiana University Press), Democratic Commiteeman Marco Domico "put up Wozniak, fueling speculation that the 25th Ward Regular Democratic Organization might transfer en masse to the GOP should Domico fail to win re-election as Democratic commiteeman." Domico wound up losing to Juan Soliz.
Wozniak, now a registered Democrat, says Domico didn't "put him up" but was worried about losing crossover votes to the GOP.
Wozniak served as commiteeman from 1988 through 1992. As the 1988 Rat Pack reunion tour was launched, Wozniak occasionally went on the road with the Sinatra entourage. The late Nick Caruso Sr. -- a confidant of Sinatra's best friend, Jilly Rizzo -- had introduced Wozniak to Sinatra at the Pump Room in 1979. At the time Wozniak was a teenager listening to Black Sabbath and Foghat.
"I'm just a kid from the West Side," Wozniak recalls. "My dad was 40 when he died. I was 16. That's why I was kind of a rough kid. What else would I be doing today?"
It is nearing 7 p.m. at the Joynt and Wozniak has to open the doors for the night. He then begins to live his dream.