For Park & Oak co-founders Renee DiSanto and Christina Samatas, an office search and a distant dream of turning their design brand into a lifestyle company snowballed into a surprising endeavor: a cocktail lounge.

Two interior designers walk into a cocktail bar … sounds like the start of a schmaltzy joke. But for Christina Samatas and Renee DiSanto, it was the start of a massive, delightful, somewhat wild investment in their firm.

To rewind a little, the pair—co-founders and principals of Chicago-area design studio Park & Oak—went looking for a new office for their growing staff back in 2022. By chance, DiSanto drove by a “For Lease” sign in suburban Glen Ellyn and decided to inquire. The street-level property had once housed a mechanic’s shop; later, it was divided into three separate spaces, including a long-defunct bar. What had started as a need for more office space quickly turned into something else: Why not jumpstart their long-held goal of getting into retail and open up a shop in the former garage? And since there just so happened to be a massive antique bar just next door—well, why not open a cocktail lounge too?