‘Everybody is welcome here’: Martini Room celebrates 20 years in downtown Elgin
While celebrating 20 years of successfully owning a bar in such a volatile industry should be a moment to celebrate, Martini Room owner Ula Borodzinska found at least one way to make it bittersweet.
“It feels good, but at the same time it shows me how old I am,” she said with a laugh.
The downtown Elgin cocktail bar at 161 E. Chicago St. is celebrating its 20th anniversary under her ownership on Tuesday, Aug. 5, with a number of events, including the unveiling of 20 portraits of local celebrities, supporters, and friends photographed with cocktails specially chosen to represent them.
Borodzinska said running any kind of small business is hard, but bars are a different breed.
“I think you’ve got to be some sort of crazy person to be in a business like this, because it’s not easy,” she said. “I never expected the bar and nightlife scene to be so challenging.”
Borodzinska has shown she isn’t afraid of a challenge.
While studying architecture in her native Poland, she decided to move to the United States about 25 years ago for a change, and so she could better learn to speak English.
Borodzinska enrolled in ESL classes at the University of Illinois Chicago and later took a job as a bartender at the original Martini Room in 2004. She ended up investing in the business in 2005 and buying out her partner.
“Back then, I was young, crazy and ambitious,” she said. “I mean, I’m still ambitious, but I knew nothing about running a business. So it was a pretty crazy plan.”
Borodzinska said part of the reason she hasn’t gone crazier over the years is because she’s developed a staff she can trust so she isn’t there 24/7.
“You have to find those great people to work with you, people that share your standards and your vision, because in the long run, you absolutely cannot be in this place constantly,” she said.
Still, it’s been hard letting go even a little.
“I used to be obsessed with Martini Room, to the point of like treating it like a 5-year-old baby, ‘Oh, the baby’s going to fall down, break a leg,’ that type of thing,” she said. “Now it’s almost a grown-up. So I’m just much calmer and easy going.”
Twenty years later, Martini Room is a place that draws people from all walks of life.
“This is what I really, really, really love about this place,” Borodzinska said. “I used to say that we are like the United Nations. Everybody is welcome here.”
As a supporter of the arts, Martini Room has become a hub downtown for the scene, hosting art shows, live music, drag events and more.
“I’ve always considered myself artistic, and I like doing things differently,” Borodzinska said. “There were people who were interested in working with me. I liked them, and I like to collaborate and, boom, the network just sort of happened.”
Many people from that network will be featured during the poster reveal party scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday.
The bar has been teasing the event for weeks with behind-the-scenes photos and videos on social media featuring people from the local art scene such as Erin Rehberg and Tanner Melvin from Side Street Studio Arts and Elgin Cultural Arts & Special Events Director Amanda Harris, as well as several city council members, local business owners, current employees and more.
And in a change of pace for an establishment that has no kitchen and doesn’t normally offer food, catered appetizers will be served.
Other events during the week include live music by Mark Bettcher on Friday, Aug. 8, and a dance party with DJ Brenn on Saturday, Aug. 9, (no cover).
The poster idea is a recreation of something they did 10 years ago for National Martini Day, which was just a month before the bar’s 10th anniversary. Borodzinska said she has the same goal now as she had then.
“I’m hoping we’re gonna make it another 10,” she said. “I’m not planning to go anywhere.”