The LGBTQ+ nightspot Inergy Chicago, slated for a spring 2026 opening, has already been making waves in the community, according to owner Chris Araiza.
Starting with an idea years ago to bring more queer nightlife to Chicago’s southwest side, Araiza and his team have been in local neighborhoods doing more than just sharing their business’s name and plan—they’ve been tackling important issues and making their voices heard.
“There are a lot of clubs that profit off of the Latino community and the LGBTQ+ community that are being completely silent right now,” he said. “I don’t think that they should be doing that. I really would like to see our whole community come together and fight back with this.”
Most recently, Araiza’s work has been focused on the recent ICE raids and kidnappings in Chicago. An advocate for LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities for the last 30 years, he’s lobbied for change locally and nationally.
Today, he’s involved with La Villita Se Defiende—a coalition of organizations and community members fighting back against ICE in Chicago through documenting ICE whereabouts, sharing donation pages for those affected and more.
Se Defiende also educates people on their rights and what to do if they’re confronted by ICE. Araiza is involved with both the documenting and educating areas, as well as advocating for elected officials to “do something.”
Araiza said he is also in the early stages of organizing a class action lawsuit against the federal government to get a temporary restraining order and ultimately compensation for businesses who have been affected or lost business due to ICE raids.
His concept for Inergy has been to both provide something that no one else in the city is—to Araiza, that means “five-star customer service” in a nightlife setting—while also giving back to the community. This led him to hire the handful of staff he has so far and to serve the people that helped make Inergy possible at all.
The entire project—of which around 60% has been funded by Araiza and his husband, Juan Martinez—has been community-funded. With a fundraiser that began in 2022, they’re nearly to their goal of $1.2 million.
“We opened up to community investors … and the community just really responded well to it,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of community support—and we still need to raise some more, but we’re close. We’re close to getting our doors open.”
He’s been in the business for about 19 years, with his last place being Club Kaliente in Pilsen. The idea for Inergy came to him in 2018 and he began looking for a location soon after—however, he experienced major delays due to COVID-19. Once things started opening up, he began location shopping again and landed on the current spot.
From then on, it was “months and months” of research and making sure the team came together well. One of those members was teacher Ana Castillo, who was recruited due to her decade of hospitality and LGBTQ+ event planning experience.
Originally, Castillo turned down Araiza in 2019 because she didn’t want to be involved in the nightlife industry. However, he reached back out post-COVID for help with location searching since Castillo is also a real estate agent. As she learned more about the project—including plans to have celebrity chef Anthony Lamas do the menu—she became interested.
“I’m like, ‘Wait a minute. You’re going to have good food. Let me do your brunch, your Sunday brunches,’” she said. “And so we came to an agreement, so that’s when I became officially part of the team.”
Working in Little Village, Castillo also wanted to have a community-supporting aspect to the project. Since the space isn’t fully completed yet, she said, it’s been limited in what they can do. Last winter, Cats in Action used the space for an event to build homes for stray cats. This past October, a friend of Castillo’s hosted a healing sound bath.
However, only a few events are done in the space. They’re also sponsoring events in other places, such as Castillo DJing for free at a fundraiser for Soluna Wellness Center in McKinley Park. So far, the reaction from community members has been “very positive.”
“Healing events, homebuyer financial literacy workshops—because in our community financial literacy is lacking—legal access especially with setting up trusts and wills,” she said. “That stuff in our community, I feel, is something that is needed.”
Castillo said Inergy’s brunch grand opening will donate 10% of bar profits profits to Chicago Foundation for Women’s LGBTQ Giving Council—Castillo is a recent member. Another 10% of the bar profits will be donated to Rootz of Chicago, a new non-profit aiming to make an impact on youth through music and mentorship. As a high school teacher herself, the mission especially appeals to Castillo.
Castillo is also currently a member of the dance planning committee for CFW’s Women’s International Day fundraiser in March. Inergy is also set to donate alcohol, appetizers and have one of their future resident DJ’s provide music.
Castillo said they are currently leasing the space but have plans to buy in the future. One room will have more of a lounge vibe and be the host of drag brunch and a Latin lesbian party. In the other room, they’ll be playing house music—born from Black and brown queer people. One of the space’s main appeals is its river patio.
Although the plan to open has taken longer than expected due to needs for funding, Castillo said she believes everything happens for a reason.
“I’m grateful that we’re taking our time,” she said. “Along the way I’ve been meeting more and more people, making more connections that I would not have otherwise met if we were to open up within a year or two like we had originally planned.”