Entry No. 129 — the Chicago file — filed under: records
Gramaphone Records
Gramaphone opened in 1969 selling folk, jazz and blues, then turned in the early 80s into the first Chicago shop stocking vinyl specifically for DJs — which is a large part of why house music has a paper trail here at all. It's owned by DJ Michael Serafini, it turns up in the documentary Better Living Through Circuitry, and the list of people who worked or shopped here reads like a lineup poster: Derrick Carter, Mark Farina, DJ Heather, Colette, DJ Sneak, Cajmere. The bins are sorted the way the music actually splits — house, techno, disco/funk, italo disco and hi-NRG, and a ghetto house/juke/footwork section — and there was a whole rack built around 40 Years of Dancemania. Ahead of ARC Music Festival 2026 the shop had Mike Dunn, Stacey Pullen, Colette and DJ Hyperactive each pick a stack, so you can literally shop somebody else's taste. It only opens four days a week now.
→ Three more vintage, record & maker shops in Chicago — never the same twice
The story
Gramaphone opened in 1969 as a general-interest shop selling folk, jazz and blues, which is not the reason anyone crosses the city for it. The pivot came in the early 1980s, when the store reorganized itself around vinyl for DJs and became the first of its kind in the Chicago area. That timing was not an accident: it put a counter and a stack of 12-inch singles directly in the path of the music being invented a few miles away, and a good deal of the reason Chicago house has a paper trail at all is that somebody here was ordering it, filing it and selling it week after week.
The store is owned by DJ Michael Serafini, and its alumni-and-regulars list reads like a festival lineup: Derrick Carter, Mark Farina, DJ Heather, Colette, DJ Sneak, Cajmere, Kaskade. It turns up in the dance-music documentary Better Living Through Circuitry, and it passed fifty years of trading in 2019 — an unusual span for a specialist singles shop in a format everyone kept declaring dead.
What is physically at 2843 N Clark is a narrow room organized the way the music actually divides rather than the way a chain would file it: house, techno, disco and funk, italo, industrial, drum and bass, hip hop, downtempo. Around the records sit the working accessories — slipmats, record bags and storage, cleaning fluid, books and magazines, shirts. The shop also runs guest-DJ picks racks; for ARC Music Festival 2026 it had Mike Dunn, DJ Heather, Colette, Stacey Pullen and DJ Hyperactive each assemble a selection, so you can shop somebody else's ear instead of your own. It sells on Discogs and streams DJ sets on Twitch and YouTube. It is open four days a week.
What it's like
You arrive in daylight, because there is no other option: noon to 6pm, Thursday through Sunday, dark Monday through Wednesday. The 22 Clark bus stops out front and there is metered parking on Clark. Inside it is a working DJ shop, not a browsing lounge — bins by genre, sleeves flipped fast, staff who will tell you plainly that you are in the wrong store if you came for rock albums, because this is a 12-inch singles place first. Nobody minds a beginner who says so; they mind vagueness. Name a track, a label, a tempo, a night you liked, and you will get somewhere. Prices on the curated racks run roughly $14 to $43. Buy something rather than photograph the racks, and give way at the bins to whoever is digging with a gig on Friday.
The move: Go Saturday or Sunday afternoon before the 6pm close and shop the guest-DJ picks racks — pull Mike Dunn's or Colette's ARC selections and each buy the other one 12-inch, no vetoes, roughly $14 to $30. Take them home, put them on, and settle whose ear was better before you go out for the night.
📍 Before you go Closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — open 12pm–6pm Thursday through Sunday only, so this is a daytime plan and the window is genuinely narrow. It's a 12-inch singles shop first; if you want albums and rock, you're in the wrong store and the staff will tell you so. Prices on the curated racks run roughly $14–$43. The 22 Clark bus stops out front and there's metered street parking on Clark.
- 📍 Chicago
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Low-key
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 2843 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60657
Hours: Added 2026-08-26 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- The Wiener's Circle — A few blocks south at 2622 N Clark, and the loudest counter in Lincoln Park — the natural after-dark bookend to a shop that shuts at six.
- Replay Lincoln Park — Four blocks west on Sheffield, a bar full of arcade cabinets and pinball: the same instinct to feed money into obsolete formats, applied to a different obsolete format.
- Graceland Cemetery and Arboretum — Straight up Clark to 4001 N, where the monuments and the arboretum give you somewhere quiet to argue about which 12-inch was the better buy.
More weird in Chicago
Good to know
When is it actually open?
Thursday through Sunday, 12pm to 6pm. It is closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so the usable window is four afternoons a week and a weeknight visit is not possible. Phone (773) 472-3683 to confirm before you make the trip.
How do I get there, and is there parking?
2843 N Clark St, at the Lakeview end of Clark. The 22 Clark bus stops out front, and there is metered street parking on Clark itself — easier midday on a Thursday than on a Saturday afternoon.
What will it cost me?
Browsing is free. Records on the guest-DJ and ARC 2026 picks racks run about $13.99 to $42.99, with most titles landing between $15 and $27. Slipmats, sleeves, bags, cleaning supplies, books and shirts are also on sale, and they do gift certificates.
Is it worth going if I don't DJ?
Yes, but know what the room is. It is a 12-inch singles shop specializing in house, techno, disco, funk, italo, drum and bass, hip hop and downtempo — there is no rock LP section, and the staff will say so. The guest-DJ picks racks are the easiest way in for a non-specialist, since somebody has already done the curating.
Can I buy from them without going in?
They run their own webstore and a Discogs seller profile, and they stream DJ sets on Twitch and YouTube featuring Chicago artists — useful for working out what you want before the four-day window opens.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia
last checked: 2026-08-26