Intimo Lounge Owner Defends Bar After Brawl, Gunshots

TINLEY PARK, IL — The owner of a Tinley Park nightclub that was the scene of a 60-person altercation over the weekend is defending his establishment on social media. Marc Garritano said in a post on his Facebook page that he operates a "respectable business" and complaints about his Intimo Lounge stem from people not liking that most of his customers are black.

Tinley Park police responded to a disturbance at the nightclub, 7068 W. 183rd St., just before 2 a.m. Sunday, May 20, according to the village. About 60 people were involved in altercation, but the crowd dispersed once officers arrived.

During this incident, a Cook County police dispatch received a call concerning possible shots fired at Dendrino's, a bar about a block away from Intimo, according to the village. Officers left the martini bar to head to 18300 S. Oak Park Ave., but they found no signs of gun play once they arrived.

RELATED: Gunshots At Intimo Lounge Convince Tinley Woman To Start Online Petition

Three spent .45-caliber shell casings, however, were found near a shared parking lot in front of Intimo. A resident of the condos above Intimo who has started an online petition asking the village to create more safety measures for the bar said she heard someone in the crowd outside the nightclub threaten to get a gun before she saw that individual fire three shots in the air.

"This was a verbal altercation. People who rented our party room and NEVER have been to Intimo. Someone who wasn’t even IN the bar caused this problem.," Garritano, whose Facebook account is "Marc Martini (Intimo Lounge)," wrote online. "Unfortunately some people who live above my bar have an issue with my clientele being mostly black.

"I’ve been in business for OVER 10 years, have lived in Tinley park for 17, and do everything I can to run a respectable business. My track record will show that my bar is one of the least problematic bars in Tinley," he added.

A message to Garritano to to talk about the weekend incident has not been returned to Patch. Intimo Lounge has been open since April 2008.

Garritano's comments were a response to a supportive post shared on his Facebook page from a DJ who has worked at Intimo's in the past. Rodney "HotRod" Washington said that residents' complaints that fights happen at the nightclub every weekend are exaggerated. He also suggested the race of Intimo's customers might play a factor in how people feel about the bar.

"And honestly and Ima say it those white folks don't want black people out there shit just look at the comments (Tinley turning ghetto, their acting like animals)," Washington wrote, referring to comments connected to a video of the Sunday fight posted online by Amy DeLise.

Washington wondered where DeLise had been a month ago when a drunk individual who was white screamed racial slurs at black patrons outside Intimo. He did admit, however, that the nightclub does need more security.

"It’s so surprising to me how people are attacking my business when they’ve NEVER stepped foot inside," Garritano wrote. "We have some of the best people in the world frequent our bar. The ones who know us, know this is an isolated incident and is NOT who out customers represent and certainly not what Intimo is about."

Intimo Lounge (Image via Google Earth)