The Pleasure Chest has been at the forefront of sexual exploration for over 35 years. With three locations in New York, Los Angeles and now a new location in Chicago on Lincoln Ave., they know sex. After a long and controversial change of locations in Chicago from their long standing Broadway location to their new location at 3436 North Lincoln Avenue, Owner Brian Robinson has been granted his business license and will be able to conduct business in this uptight Lincoln Park neighborhood. Brian, a very busy businessman, here in Chicago to change locations from Broadway to Lincoln was faced with a problem he didn't foresee, the neighborhood. It seems that the residents of the Lincoln Park neighborhood didn't know what the Pleasure Chest was, or what kind of business it was until they went in to take a look. Much to their amazement, they must have never seen butt plugs or dildo's before. This sparked an all out media blitz bringing Pleasure Chest to the living rooms and now the bedrooms of the Chicago land area. Let's talk to Brian and see what he has to say about this triumph and his store, the Pleasure Chest. Brian, all the hoopla about Pleasure Chest in a conservative neighborhood, what was really going on? Many of the people in our new neighborhood didn't really understand who we are. Perhaps several people intentionally spread misinformation about us to get things stirred up. Fear of the unknown has played a pretty big factor. Now that we're open, many of the most vocal people who have opposed us have now become our friends. They have been appreciative to our response to their concerns, and like the improvements we've made to the corner property. Did you think about backing down? We had been working with the city for quite some time on this project. With out a clear indication from the city during the winter that we would be able to operate on Lincoln Avenue, we wouldn't have started the project from the beginning. Our position once we signed our long term lease was to fit into the neighborhood, through design, respect and discretion. New things are always scary, we wanted to be available during this time for people to understand us, answer their questions and be responsive. We consider it being good neighbors. Tell us about the new Pleasure Chest on Lincoln? Parking parking parking! One of the biggest complaints was people reaching us on Broadway, the congestion and parking was prohibitive. We found our new location because of the parking lot, which now is nicely landscaped. The interior was designed by a gifted designer from New York, Sylvain Bazinet, but don't tell anyone that he's my boyfriend. The store has a red-ly modern design that is inviting in its clean, upbeat, warm approach. The back display wall has more toys than ever to turn on and do a "dry run" before you take it home. How did you get started in the Pleasure business? My uncle, who founded the The Pleasure Chest in New York in the early seventies, left it to his siblings, my mother, aunt and uncle in the late eighties. After 10 years of disagreements between them, the stores really had been left unattended, I saw the dream my uncle had started and worked with my family through year-long negotiations to buy out the stores. What do you like most about what you do? The most rewarding part of what I do is the end result, and that is reaching people who, through societies' rigidness, have a misconception of sexual health. When everyday people take that first step to explore their ideas about sex and visit us, they find it isn't as scary as they had thought and there is a lot of information that helps one to understand where and how to explore. Also a lot of what I do is project oriented, so personally one of the most rewarding aspects is working with a dynamic staff, full of ideas, and energy as we move on to other projects. What else do you want our readers to know? We haven't left boystown, we've just expanded the boundaries by a couple of blocks! Actually there's quite a gay population on this section of Lincoln Avenue amidst all the baby strollers. We've even seen gay dads behind the baby strollers- we love our new home.