What’s the deal with Nightshop in downtown Bloomington?
Nightshop is a bar, restaurant, and music venue located in downtown Bloomington. It is a popular spot surrounded by sports, country, and college bars. However, Nightshop has always had an eclectic vibe attracting a more towny and artistic crowd than its downtown competitors.
Nightshop advertises itself as, “Spacious hangout with creative eats including vegetarian options, a full bar, live music & games.”
Opening in 2018, WGLT’s Jon Norton wrote a glowing description saying:
“Walk through the venues front doors off Main Street during the daytime and Nightshop will show as a classy, well-lit restaurant. Indeed Golwitzer says the lunch and dinner menu serves high-end bar food that includes vegetarian, vegan and omnivore fare, as well as local and national craft beer and spirits.
“At night, the room is cleared of tables and chairs, and despite the punk, metal, and hard-rock shows that will dominate the bills, Nightshop looks like a classy, big-city jazz club. The stage just behind large windows facing Main Street frames the live music for pedestrians walking by. It’s not unlike the WGN radio studios on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, where you can watch announcers do their live shows.
“Nightshop was an ambitious vision that required a significant financial investment, not to mention time and money, to realize. Golwitzer believed in the club because he thought it would attract music fans from other central Illinois cities, including Peoria, Champaign-Urbana, and Springfield, as well as Bloomington-Normal.”
Jon Norton, WGLT
Nightshop is owned by PLIP LLC 507. PLIP LLC is run by David Golwitzer of Hudson Illinois, and his son Christopher Golwitzer of Bloomington. Chris is a long-time musician and local promoter and is the operating manager of Nightshop.
On its website, Nightshop says, “Give us a try, and you won’t be disappointed!”
However, this promise does not seem to have been kept. There appears to be a darker side to Nightshop… a more frightful side.
It all started last year in August of 2022, when an anonymous Instagram page calling itself “StopFrightshop” suddenly appeared exposing a litany of salacious allegations of abuse & harassment against the owner1 and former staff members.
The Instagram page allowed individuals to anonymously submit statements. These are those stories:
The owner of this Instagram has not returned Agitation Rising’s multiple requests for comments. Obviously, all of these allegations are anonymous. However, Agitation Rising has talked with several sources that have witnessed similar behavior.
In the immediate aftermath of these allegations, multiple musicians pulled their shows from Nightshop, and the local Young Democrats of McLean County (Young McDems) canceled an event planned to be hosted at Nightshop.
Nightshop was known for hosting many liberal, progressive, & Leftists events. Chris self-identifies as a progressive.
For a brief time, these allegations caused an informal boycott by many. Nightshop posted on its Facebook a message not directly acknowledging the allegations.
They also placed one whole sheet of paper on their bulletin board.
As with all things in life, time inevitably passes on and so too did the prominence of the Instagram page’s allegations. Events, shows, and business have largely returned. This includes some bands that swore off ever playing at Nightshop again.
Recently, new allegations have surfaced regarding abusive behavior by the head cook of Nightshop, Dan Garrison, towards regular customers of Nightshop as recently as early April of this year.
In a shocking series of unhinged comments on Facebook, Mr. Garrison attacked a Nightshop regular for seemingly no reason. This person did not wish to be named in this article for fear of potential legal action against them.2
Furthermore, Mr. Garrison has refused to cook any food for this person, intentionally cooking food for other members of their party. When this person asked the bartenders (who are legitimately good people and don’t deserve to put up with any of this) if they could order food, the bartenders said Mr. Garrison refused to cook them food. Furthermore, the bartenders said they did not have the power to force Mr. Garrison to do so.
Despite this abusive & unprofessional behavior, Chris had refused to fire Mr. Garrison. After the publication of this article, Chris Golwitzer terminated Mr. Garrison’s employment. The person being prejudiced by Mr. Garrison no longer feels comfortable going to Nightshop despite them being a long-time supporter and regular at the bar.
Agitation Rising reached out to Chris Golwitzer for comment. He said, “I take this with utmost seriousness as these are egregious claims. This has consumed me from the moment I learned of these claims. I have been consulting attorneys in pursuit of defamation suits, as mine and my family’s lives and liberties have been threatened as a result of anonymous and false allegations.”
Whether these allegations will mark the demise for Nightshop or even cause it to make major changes is unknown. The fact all allegations are anonymous requires a healthy dose of skepticism.
UPDATE: Since the publication of this article, Mr. Garrison has been terminated.
This article was originally published on Strangecornersofthought.com.
