Nobody’s Darling: Chicago’s Black Woman-Owned, James Beard-Nominated Cocktail Bar Where Everyone Belongs

Angela Barnes and Renauda Riddle didn’t ask permission to open Nobody’s Darling. They built the bar they wanted to exist — and Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood has never been the same.

Opened in July 2021, Nobody’s Darling is a full-service cocktail bar and gathering space at 1744 W. Balmoral Avenue, co-owned by two Black women who brought a James Beard Award-nominated bar program to life in one of Chicago’s most vibrant neighborhoods. The name itself is a declaration. In a bar industry that has historically overlooked Black women, queer women, and women of color, Barnes and Riddle built a place that centers exactly the people the industry left out.

The cocktail program is where the philosophy becomes tangible. Drinks like ‘Giovanni’s Pride & Passion’ and ‘Maya’s Pleasure’ are crafted with intention — each one rooted in story, culture, and the kind of deliberate creativity that earned the bar its James Beard recognition. The menu changes with the seasons and the mood, but the standard remains constant: every drink should mean something.

Nobody’s Darling is more than a bar. It is a genuine third place — the kind of space where community actually lives. The LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce holds mixers here. DJs take the floor on weekend nights. Pitch competitions bring entrepreneurs together. Latin Fusion nights and the Sunday Funday happy hour pull in regulars who treat the place like it belongs to them — because in every way that matters, it does. The Pink Sappho series has become a recurring anchor event that draws crowds who know exactly what they’re coming for: a bar that sees them completely.

In a city with no shortage of places to drink, Nobody’s Darling has carved out something that cannot be replicated — a cocktail experience rooted in Black queer women’s vision of what hospitality should feel like. That combination of craft, community, and intention is exactly why the James Beard Foundation noticed. And it’s why regulars keep coming back.
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