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Meet Michael Roper of Hopleaf Bar in Andersonville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Roper.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
While attending Wayne State University in Detroit in the early 1970’s, I began working in the bars in the Cass Corridor neighborhood south of campus. In 1977, with a former fellow employee of one of the bars, I bought into a troubled bar, then called Ken’s Lounge. Renovating it ourselves, we paid homage to it’s 1930’s-60’s name, the Miami Lounge and opened it as “The New Miami” in 1978. In its three year life span, it became a legendary music venue and artist mecca. A fire in 1981 ended our tenure there. After licensing, building out and managing a large entertainment venue in downtown Detroit in 1981-82, I left for Chicago in mid-1982 hoping to get back in the bar business soon.

As I quickly earned, bars and real estate in Chicago was vastly beyond my financial means in Chicago. For the next 10 years, I worked in other people’s bars and music clubs, record stores, and in the construction trade while scouring streets for a hard-luck bar, like Ken’s Lounge was, that I could afford.

After some near misses, I stumbled on a failing bar in a sleepy, fading Swedish immigrant neighborhood on the North Side of Chicago that was in terrible shape, losing money and seemingly lacking in any potential. What it did have was a spotless license, a long lease with very low rent and the future possibility of building ownership and expansion. I bit and in February of 1992, I took over the keys of Clark Foster Liquors AKA Hans’.

This was barely a going concern. It was a double storefront with a type of place known in Chicago as a “slashy” which is to say a package liquor store with a “tap room” where people can drink from a glass. There were few customers. Most who came gambled on the illegal poker machines or in crap games on the bar. They opened at 7 AM for those who did not want a drink but needed one. They showed porno videos at noon. It was dirty and unwelcoming to non-whites. The windows were covered and at night there was a buzzer on the door. It was far from obvious that there was any potential there.

I began dismantling the place immediately while never closing. We slowly morphed from an old white man’s bar to Hopleaf over the next year. In February of 1993, we had a party celebrating our progress. We opened with a selection of better beers, wines and spirits, comfy booths, nice vintage lighting, a restored pressed tin ceiling that was once covered, and full view windows across the front. We had found and installed a 1933 Brunswick back bar that fit perfectly in a defunct tavern on the west side that was appropriate to the 1896 former German meat market and barber shop spaces.

More importantly, the new bar, The Hopleaf, was welcoming to all people. It was comfortable, conversation friendly and it, lacking TV sets was defiantly not a sports bar. There was a 1958 Seeberg jukebox filled with my private collection of vintage jazz, blues, R&B, and vintage country music. There were interesting bartenders. While most of the former patrons fled a place where gambling and racist and foul language were no longer tolerated, a few stayed and mixed with the younger crowd. We were popular from day #1.

I had always envisioned a food component to the concept but as we were, it was impossible to implement. My landlord lived upstairs. There were two apartments in the back of the building, plenty of room for a kitchen and dining area. I worked toward buying the building and succeeded in 2000. This allowed for expansion back and up with a kitchen and full food service beginning in 2003. Our aim was to match the adventurous beer program with a food menu atypical of most bars. We succeeded beyond all expectations, learning the hard way that our kitchen was woefully undersized. We were becoming known for long waits for seating, crowing and slow ticket times for food. We were choking on success.

In 2005, we added a 48 seat patio. In 2009, after two years of difficult negotiations, we purchased the building to our south. Delayed for two years when the national banking crisis made financing impossible, we began the build out in 2011 and opened our south bar room, new kitchen, south mezzanine, prep kitchen and ample storage and office space in 2012.

With that addition of 115 more seats, a large new kitchen expanded draft lines and bottles beer and wine storage space, our concept’s potential was realized. We began lunch service and were able to fine-tune our food offerings. We source our food thoughtfully and ethically, with sustainable agriculture a focus. We prep everything except bread from scratch in-house. We are still a “beer bar” but one with a notable wine list. Our beer offerings are personally curated and diverse.

We have expanded our outreach to the needs of our community, “adopting” our neighborhood public elementary school, supporting arts, technology and after-school programs there. We are also active in environmental and social justice fundraising events. We have always found that doing good is good for business. We also believe that supporting neighborhood needs like schools, programs for seniors, the homeless, and needy builds a stronger community that also fosters a better business environment for us and our neighboring businesses. As we have succeeded, the whole area has gone from a sleepy unheralded area to one of the best places in the city to live, work, do business and raise families.

We just completed 26 years of business success. Hopleaf’s reputation is known far beyond Chicago. It has brought my wife Louise and I a good life that included regular travel. We live only a few blocks away and when not traveling, I am at the bar every day maintaining a very “hands-on” management style. Many of our customers have become our friends. Sometimes, we even travel together. The bar rooms are the center of our social life as well and our work. We plan on being around for a long time even as the business becomes more and more challenging. I could have never guessed nearly 45 years ago that that early waiter/bartender job in Detroit would lead to a place like Hopleaf.

Lastly, people often ask why I have never “built my brand” by opening other locations or new concepts. I have never desired an empire. I have never wanted to take on any more debt than I absolutely had to. I have never wanted partners or investors. I also like day to day operations of one place that I am identified with. Hopleaf is a short walk from our home. It would be hard to duplicate what we do at Hopleaf and in expanding to other places, Hopleaf would suffer. There will never be another Hopleaf. It is Louise and my special place.

Has it been a smooth road?
Not smooth at all. My main struggle comes from wanting to stay independent of partners and investors while having very limited financial assets myself. That is why we grew so slowly, raising capital as we went and borrowing prudently from banks and the SBA. Raising capital has always been a struggle. Fortunately, we have no further growth plans.

Today, the struggle is with a static population and a boom of restaurant, bar and brewery tap room openings, making our piece of the customer pie a but thinner every year. The proliferation of new restaurants, many owned by well-financed “hospitality groups” also means labor is very, very tight.

Staying fresh and relevant after 26 years is a challenge too. So far, we are holding our own.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Hopleaf Bar – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are a specialty beer bar, a chef-driven restaurant, and a relaxed neighborhood pub and gathering spot. By not having TV’s, loud music, and splashy promotions, we tend to be a place where people come to drink eat and talk. People like our aesthetic and atmosphere. They like that we are dependably consistent. They like our long-term employees and my personal involvement. People feel safe and relaxed. Customers and I are proud to be associated with a place that openly supports causes and neighborhood needs. We are not corporate. We are not cookie cutter. We make decisions that are not always obviously driven by a profit motive. I am proud of what we’ve created, our staff and our customers. I love the look of the place. If Louise and I were not Hopleaf’s owners, we would love to have a place like this near our home and we’d love to stumble on such a place as travelers.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I like that Chicago is a “real city”. It is densely populated. It is diverse, multiethnic and dynamic. It is a city where a car is optional. It has the fabulous lakefront, the “el”, great music, literature and art. It has great neighborhoods that often are like little villages within the city. There is wonderful architecture. Few cities have a better food culture. Chicago is old enough to have real history. It attracts wave after wave of immigrants from across the globe. I like all the options I have when I walk out my door every day. And I love our growing skyline. Chicago is a great looking city.

On the other hand, there are “two Chicagos”. The “other” Chicago has intractable poverty and crime. It has racial strife. It has too many gangs, drugs and guns. It has fiscal mismanagement and debt. It has frustrating bureaucracy and petty fines and fees. It has political corruption and waste. It often misses opportunities to be a better place.

Pricing:

  • Our one price bottled wine program is unique. All reds $50, all Whites $40.

Contact Info:

  • Website: hopleaf.com
  • Phone: 773-334-9851
  • Email: michael@hopleaf.com
  • Instagram: Hopleaf Inc
  • Facebook: Hopleaf Inc
  • Twitter: Hopleaf Inc
  • Yelp: Hopleaf Inc
  • Other: Hopleaf Inc

Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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