Café Society, Museum staying put

New agreements with the Chicago Park District (CPD) will allow Café Society and the debt-ridden National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum to remain at their current location, 1801 S. Indiana Ave., for the next few years.

“Of course, this is all contingent on the Park District’s acquisition of the property,” CPD spokeswoman Jessica Faulkner said. The City had conveyed the building to the museum a decade ago; it recently decided to take the site back and give it to the Park District because the museum had been experiencing financial troubles.

“We are not planning on moving,” said Jerry Kykisz, the museum’s general manager. “Sometime in the very near future, the Park District is acquiring the building, but we are staying where we are for at least three years.”

Café Society owner Jorge Armando said he also has signed a letter of intent with the CPD that allows the restaurant to stay for three years, with an option for three more years. Faulkner, however, said the letter of intent is a two-year agreement that requires written notification six months in advance for a two-year extension. Regardless of the agreement’s terms, however, Café Society is staying.

CPD officials and neighborhood leaders eventually want to use the building for a community center.

Meanwhile, CPD and museum officials are searching for another museum site and have received a number of proposals. Kykisz said nothing has been settled, but he and other museum representatives hope for a site that is more convenient for visitors and provides more parking.

Armando said the letter of intent settles the “nuisance suit” the museum filed against his restaurant; at one time, the museum tried to get Café Society to leave the building so it could bring a nightclub into the restaurant’s ground floor space. “I continue paying my rent on time, my lease is on time, and [we are] serving the community,” Armando said.

On May 24, the museum opened a special exhibit featuring five artists who are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a show from Los Angeles about Vietnam veterans. It also reopened the popular exhibition The Things They Carried. All displays run through Veterans’ Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11.

-- Susan S. Stevens