The glass bar at Sidetrack was wall-to-wall warm bodies: friends laughing, strangers cruising, everyone drinking. It was like a typical late Saturday night at one of the city’s biggest and busiest gay bars—except it wasn’t Saturday at 11:30pm, it was Wednesday right after work.

The occasion for this hump-day romp? Hands Across the Hole: a benefit for Scot’s on Montrose Avenue, which has been closed since the infamous sinkhole suddenly showed up at the bar’s doorstep in the wee hours of January 22. Exactly one month later, Friday 22, Scot’s will finally reopen.

Sidetrack hosted the benefit to raise money for the out-of-work Scot’s crew, says Sidetrack’s managing partner Chuck Hyde. Speaking by phone, Hyde rattled off a long list of businesses that pitched in raffle items, donated time or gathered people: Buck’s, The Closet, Gay Mart, Glenn’s Diner, Jackhammer, Lather, Lucky Horse Shoe, North End, Roscoe’s, Sofo, T’s, and TPAN. Meanwhile, Stoli and Miller Lite donated alcohol for the open bar.

Hyde estimates about 500 people came, and says they raised enough cash to replace Scot’s full-timers and part-timers’ lost income. “They’re a very, very loved group of people,” Hyde says, adding that Scot’s is one of the few bars in town whose customers include both men and women—a fact apparent in the unusually mixed-gender crowd at the usually man-heavy Sidetrack.

“How was that turnout?” says Scot’s owner, Thom Scott. “It was just amazing how strong the gay community is in this city. It was a remarkable event.”

Hyde seconds that sentiment: “That was overwhelming,” he says. “How everybody comes together: You don’t see that in any other city.”

Image via Scotsbarchicago.com