It’s a good news/bad news situation for magic lovers in Chicago. The bad news is that the Chicago Magic Lounge‘s Andersonville location, originally due to open in December, now won’t be debuting until some time in 2018. The good news is the delay is so the space currently being reworked to house the theater can include a one-story addition that would allow patrons to see the shows from an upper viewing area. 

The location on N. Clark Street, which used to be a commercial laundry service, will eventually house a 120-seat cabaret theater with a separate 40-seat speakeasy bar called the 654 Club. The founders hope to have a full week of magic programming in the cabaret.

The Chicago Magic Lounge currently does two shows a week at the Uptown Underground Theater on  N. Broadway, but the Clark Street location will be a full-time magic bar. Co-founder Joey Cranford told the Chicago Tribune. “Magic is such a solo art; there is nowhere in town for magicians to gather, unless you want to hang out in a magic shop in the middle of day and drink bad coffee.”

Cranford said he hopes to make the Chicago Magic Lounge a hub for magic in much the same way The Magic Castle is in Los Angeles.