Bloomington's openly gay business shuts its doors

One of Bloomington’s gay-friendly establishments is now closed.
  
Inner Chef, a local contemporary retro kitchen accessory store, shut its doors Jan. 1 after six years  of service as Bloomington’s only openly gay business, co-owner David Wade said.

“The gay pride flag doesn’t fly anywhere anymore, and that is really kind of sad,” he said. “For a town that has such a huge per capita gay population and the number three gayest town in the U.S., there is not one openly out business in this town.”

Visitors would come into the store because of the gay pride flag even if they didn’t know what kind of store Inner Chef was, Wade said.

Wade said he would direct visitors to particular Bloomington establishments that are gay-friendly.

“They wanted to know where the gay bars were, where the hot spots were and where the restaurants were,” he said. “Unfortunately, Bloomington only has one gay bar. There are no openly gay restaurants. There are no openly gay coffee shops. We really had to guide people to certain places.”

Inner Chef loved serving as Bloomington’s guide to the gay community, Wade said.

“We loved it,” he said. “Talking to strangers is out of habit for me so being the host to Bloomington’s gay community, I was fine with. I was making maps and lists to get people to certain places.”

Wade said the goal of Inner Chef was to be a different type of store that was not already found in Bloomington.

“We wanted to do more a European, contemporary kitchen as opposed to Grandma’s kitchen,” he said. “We had a slogan that was to give up bad design for good.”

Wade had been a chef in Bloomington restaurants since the ’80s and met co-owner Stephen Chambers at a Waffle House more than 25 years ago.

“He has no cooking skills whatsoever,” Wade said. “What Stephen did for Inner Chef was come in and make sure the checkbooks were balanced. He did that kind of paperwork. It was for me. It was my store.”

Customers were encouraged to do the store’s name, Wade said.

“We wanted them to find their Inner Chef,” he said. “The catchphrase was ‘let your Inner Chef out’.”

The cooking classes were a way for customers to do this, Wade said.

“We did what they called skill sessions,” he said. “We taught individual skills so you could take the skill and adapt it to what you needed to. We only did like eight people in each class. It was really hands-on. There were at least two of us in the class for eight people, which was pretty darn good.”

Christmas time was the most fun because the store was all decorated, Wade said.
“Another really fun time was anytime the UPS man showed up because it was like Christmas for us,” he said. “He brought new stuff and more work for us.”

Inner Chef hit its peak in Christmas 2008, Wade said.

“Our third Christmas, we had made money, and then that was the January the president announced the recession,” he said.

Wade said his experience as an owner of Inner Chef taught him how to treat business owners.

“I was a business owner and now I get what it takes to be that person,” he said. “It is not easy. It is a lot of stress. You don’t get a lot of extra free time like you’d think you would. You learn how to be very humble and giving to your customers.”

After six years bringing Bloomington a “pleasant, happy, artful place to go,” Wade said the economy forced Inner Chef to close its doors.

“People would come in during Christmas time for the same type of thing and wanted more of that same stuff,” he said. “There are going to be people who come in this coming Christmas and see the doors locked, and they are not going to know that Inner Chef is gone.”