Holiday Club Under Fire For Owner’s Politically Charged Immigration Posts | Eater Chicago

"After owner Peter Malek posted a politically charged meme—a photo of a mother holding an infant draped in the Mexican flag with the top caption “I don’t want you to take away my child” and the bottom caption “Well then, don’t become an illegal alien across our border”—Holiday Club, an Uptown bar at 4000 N. Sheridan Road, was hit with intense backlash: Malek deleted the post shortly before 12:30 p.m., the bar issued an online apology distancing itself from the post and said Malek would be resigning, and patrons flooded Yelp and Facebook with roughly 100 one-star reviews and calls for a boycott. Critics also found other questionable material on Malek’s Facebook page, including a motorcycle jacket patch that appears to show SS lightning bolts—described by the Anti-Defamation League as a common white supremacist/neo-Nazi symbol—while Ton Up Chicago announced it was moving its meetings to the Cobra Lounge and condemned the imagery as racist and hateful. Management ignored Eater’s request for comment; Malek told Block Club Chicago he had nothing more to share. The bar has been operating for about 17 years, features karaoke nights and a supper-club atmosphere, and its first location opened in 1993 in Wicker Park at the site of Rick Bayless’s former restaurant." - Ashok Selvam