Bollywood Nights Bar & Grill
In the middle of the room, between taking phone calls and directing the activity around them, owners Benhur Samson and Waqas Mirza were engrossed in an interview with a heavily made-up belly dancer. They asked her rate; she said it was $150 per show. They asked if she had experience dancing to Bollywood music–songs from the lush productions India’s film industry is famous for. She told them she did–not only that, several friends know the choreographed numbers as well and regularly perform at “crossover parties,” as gatherings of Arabs and Indians are called.
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“I’ve never seen a belly dance in my life,” admitted Samson, a 43-year-old who grew up in Hyderabad, India, and moved here in 1987 (his mother chose his name after seeing the film Ben-Hur). His first job in Chicago was pressing shirts at an Elmhurst dry cleaner at a rate of a quarter each. He worked a string of other dead-end jobs–including sweeping the Willy Wonka candy factory in Itasca–before meeting a man through his church who worked in the insurance industry and was willing to take a chance on Samson. Soon he was winning sales contests (“I won every trip they ever had,” he said) and marrying the boss’s daughter (they’ve since divorced). These days he lives in Carol Stream and works in the banking industry, processing credit card accounts for First Data Resource, the largest such processor in the country. But if his new business takes off, Samson said, he’ll quit banking to make Bollywood Nights his full-time job.
“The 18-to-25-year-olds have their clubs, but there’s no place for people over 35 to enjoy their Bollywood music or take their wife or girlfriend out,” said Samson. “I saw that there was a huge gap, that there were people who needed a place like this. . . . They don’t want loud noise; they want to sit back and listen to live music and dance, something they can kick back and enjoy. That’s why we’re going to have hookahs on every table.”
This week’s entertainment lineup features Vancouver, B.C.-based dancers Robin Merchant and Melena Rounis, plus a couple of belly dancers. The week of May 26 will be headlined by another Canadian dancer, Krystal Kiran Garib, who appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s recent Broadway production of Bombay Dreams. Doors open at 6, and dancing starts at 7. The kitchen closes at midnight; the club stays open till 3 AM on Saturdays and 2 AM other nights, except Monday, when it’s closed. There’s no cover.
