Even on a cold Monday night, the corner of Morgan and 18th Streets are crowded with patrons. What used to be a Curves gym is now a new bar in Pilsen.

The owners of Simone’s, 960 W. 18th St., opened their doors to the Near South Side neighborhood on Feb. 12 with a different mindset when it comes to the environment and decor of the place. By decorating with used materials instead of new, the bar hopes to become members of the Green Restaurant Association.

The booths are decorated with recycled pinball machines. Seatbelts found in junkyards are now seats, and old bowling lanes make up the bar and tabletops.

When it comes to the business end of owning a bar, co-owner Michael Noone has it covered. Noone is one of the owners of Danny’s Tavern in Bucktown and Francesca’s restaurant. The other two owners of Simone’s are Desiree and Russ Grant.

After purchasing the building in June 2007, three designers from AlterEgo Form, a design company, took over and revamped the place. They created Simone’s lab, or party room, out of an old garage.

“The concept was to use recycled materials and materials that were found in salvage yards and bring beauty to something that was in a state of decay or dying,” Noone said. “It was a rejuvenation of materials into a different use and to make beauty out of something that wasn’t beautiful before.”

Desiree Grant met with the designers and after seeing their work, hired them. Grant has been in the bar industry for eight-and-a-half years, and so far, this is the first bar she owns that has a recycling aspect to it.

“[The designers] are former Pilsenites,” she said. “They have lived down here; they are artists and part of the community. They had a sense of what a good decor would be for this area.”

Customers can sit on a seat made from a church pew or an old door, rest their feet on what used to be a handrail at a New York City subway, choose dinner from an old file folder now used as a menu and select from the variety of options of food and beer, while sitting by a fireplace and listening to classic rock.

Some of the walls are decorated with graffiti, courtesy of a local artist who also has artwork displayed in Simone’s lab. The double glass doors to enter the back room have a WBBM sticker on them, showing where they came from.

Simone’s lab was designed out of materials from a high school chemistry class. The tabletops are lab tables that were furnished and glossed to make the carvings of names and sketches stand out. The drum of a washing machine, bicycle chains and rocking chair arms make up a chandelier that hangs from the ceiling. Behind the bar, a chalkboard rests on the wall, and old test tubes and beakers sit next to the vodka and tequila bottles.

“We’re trying to become more ecological when it comes to this type of business,” Noone said. “Restaurants and bars have a terrible history of being very wasteful and we’re learning to become responsible.”

During his second visit to Simone’s, Oscar Oliva, a senior marketing student at University of Illinois at Chicago, said having a bar that recycles is a great idea. Although he doesn’t live in Pilsen, he said it was time the Near South Side got a good spot such as this one.

“It’s a cool idea to have a green bar,” Oliva said. “This [bar] shows how places can be environmentally friendly without looking too organic. This is the only bar that I know of that’s trying to go green.”

Selecting the location of the bar was one of the priorities for Noone. After owning other businesses and living in Wicker Park, he decided Pilsen was the next big spot.

“One of the things that attracted us to Pilsen was the sense of creativeness and artistic creativity,” Noone said. “We decided to come down here because we thought Pilsen [has been] the center of creativity for a long time.”