Seo, who had been a regular at the Chicago Bar in the early 1990s, called Neon Prophet what the Chicago Bar was the closest thing to a house band.
“You’re the godfather of the Chicago Bar,” he said.
General Manager Ben West said the bar will open with limited capacity as per the county’s COVID-19 protocols. But once the restrictions relax, he plans to hire more employees, including former Chicago Bar employees.
Right now, popular former bartender Kerwin Lewis is the only former employee coming back, West said.
Running a bar is the latest career move for Seo, a South Korean who moved to Tucson in 1986 to work at the Hughes Aircraft missile plant. Nine years later, Seo left Hughes to partner with Peter Wilke at the Time Market on East University Boulevard.
In 2004, Seo sold his interest in the market and bought the cafe.
He and West had loudly dreamed of opening a jazz bar at the time, “but everyone told me not to do it in Tucson because I didn’t have an audience,” Seo said.
“I think Tucson is more of a jazz night or two kinds of cities, not a place that can survive playing jazz seven nights a week,” West said, which is why Chicago Bar Redux has a mix of musical styles, including acoustics, Bluegrass, rock and reggae. “They’ve been saying for years that Tucson is the next Austin. So we’re going to mix up the music as best we can.”
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