You would walk right past Tantrum (1023 S. State St., 312-939-9160) in the South Loop without knowing what was inside. And even if you did know it was a bar–and it’s really more of a bar than a club although there was some dancing last night–you wouldn’t expect it to be as low-key and pleasant as it is.
Last night it was full of reveling college kids, who were less obnoxious than they were just plain high on life. One of them shouted “F— YOU!” with a huge smile on her face when she got a bit of apparently good or surprising news from her friends. This led me to conclude that the expetive-exclamation is the new equivalent of “No WAY!” from the 1980s, and “Get OUT!” from the 1990s.
And speaking of the 1980s, when the song “Africa” by Toto came on, two young men removed their shirts and began dancing around a young woman seated in a chair. It was her birthday and they were prodividing her with a sort of South Loop Lap Dance, complete with pelvic thrusts, but in the most fun-loving way, as you can imagine. A crowd stood by laughing, as did the birthday girl, but one regular customer did not approve.
Apparently a bit of a neighborhood booster, he said, “Those guys are from Wicker Park.” He looked away, then glanced back at the spectacle one more time.
“That’s not South Loop,” he said, “that’s Wicker Park.”