WICKER PARK — One neighbor is relieved about the city-ordered closure of Chris' North Land Tavern: a 27-year-old woman who says she and her two roommates were attacked outside the Wicker Park bar last month.
Around 2 a.m. on June 17, the Bucktown resident who works as a grants coordinator for a Downtown nonprofit organization, said she was walking by the bar at 1610 W. North Ave. while on her way home from a diner.
"The bar was closing, and its patrons were hanging out on the sidewalk in front of the bar. As I walked through the crowd, two females accosted me, accusing me of 'talking s--- about their mom,'" she said.
Instead of listening to the woman, who tried to explain that she did not know anything about the strangers' mom, the two women punched her in the head, pulled her hair, bit her arms, kicked her legs and tore at her clothes, even ripping the victim's bra.
The woman said she tried to fight back but as soon as she did, a man who turned out to be the husband of one of her attackers, punched her in her nose, his hand covered in rings, knocking her to the ground.
"I crawled to a car tire in the street and covered my head. Luckily, my roommate came out of the diner and was able to bend over and shield me from more blows from the women and the man, but the man punched my roommate in the eye with his ring-filled hand as well," she said.
Another male roommate also came out of the nearby diner and tried to intervene.
"He tried to get the women and man off of us and [the attacker] punched him in the head as well, basically right as the police showed up," she said.
The woman suffered a bruised face and arms and said she somehow lost her shoes and earrings during the attack. Her second roommate sustained the fewest of injuries — a cut from the guys' rings and a little swelling. The first roommate who intervened got four stitches below his eyebrow.
"This was a horrendous and horrible experience, but luckily the man was arrested and charged with battery," she said.
The alleged attacker, Jonathan Dejesus, 30, of the 1900 block of North Karlov Avenue, was charged with three misdemeanor counts of battery, according to Officer Jose Estrada, a Chicago Police Department spokesman.
He's scheduled to appear in Cook County Court Branch 23, at 5555 W. Grand Ave., on Monday. Efforts to reach Dejesus for comment were unsuccessful.
Estrada said police arrested the man on signed complaints after he struck a 27-year-old female and two males, ages 33 and 39, with his fists.
Estrada said all three victims were transported to St. Mary's Hospital where they were treated and released.
A lawyer for Chris Gramatis, owner of the bar, did not return calls about the incident.
The woman said, "I feel relief that the bar is currently shut down, even temporarily. I usually feel safe in Bucktown, but this experience has left me a little wary."
Earlier in the week, a spokeswoman for the city's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, said that the bar's mandatory city-ordered closure of 30 days, which expires on Aug. 6, was related to an undercover narcotics investigation last Friday.
On Yelp, fans of Chris's North Land Tavern call it a "solid dive bar" with a pool table and a clean bathroom.
Another said, "It's like Cheers but weirder."
