(Above) Upper and lower floors of a vacant space on the east side of Hotel Chicago, photographed on February 7, 2012, that was a Crunch fitness center from 1999 to 2008. This area has since been divided into two spaces. The double doors in the distance are about where the main entrance to Tortoise Club is today. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

10-Jun-15 – Actress Susan Sarandon will be in River North for the opening of her “ping pong social club.”

The Academy Award winner is a co-owner of SPiN, a company based in New York with locations worldwide. Each location is an upscale bar/restaurant where customers may also play table tennis.

The Chicago location, on the east side of Hotel Chicago at Marina City, will open in late summer or early fall. A spokesperson for SPiN says Sarandon is “usually able to make it out for these things.”

The last remnants of a Crunch fitness center, the previous tenant, are being removed from the 16,000 square foot space at Marina City. After demolition, a new space, designed by David Rockwell of Chicago, will be built.

The company currently has two employees in Chicago, an operations director and an event sales representative.

Sarandon has been a fan of the sport since attending a ping pong party hosted by one of her business partners. SPiN originated in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York in 2009. (Left) Sarandon playing table tennis in 2011. Photo by Philippe Lopez.

In 2014, she starred in Ping Pong Summer, a film in which she played, according to Roger Ebert, “a friendly reclusive neighbor,” who is a former ping pong champion.

Her career in film and television spans 64 years. She is arguably best known for Rocky Horror Picture Show, Atlantic City, Bull Durham, Dead Man Walking, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress, Thelma & Louise, and Lorenzo’s Oil.