On July 11, Pitchers in Adams Morgan opened MOR, a “Latin-fusion” pop-up bar. The area is full with Latin music movies, specialty cocktails, and a vibe centered round “mor” (slang for love) of Latin American tradition and neighborhood.
The “tropical paradise” is open each Friday and Saturday, and was created with and for the Latin LGBTQ neighborhood. Pitchers’ proprietor Dave Perruzza spoke with the Blade about how he and his enterprise associate/DJ Felipe Pino Ferreira made the concept a actuality.
“I’ve been desirous to for the final six months,” Perruzza instructed the Blade. “I didn’t need to simply do a Latin evening. I wished to do extra of an upscale, chill place for folks to hang around moderately than only a dance membership—we’re going to have parts of dancing, nevertheless it’s largely going to be like specialty cocktails, and a spot to hang around the place they’ll really feel comfy. It’s extra like a Latin video bar.”
Visitors can take pleasure in their go-to favorites from a Latin American–impressed menu that features a number of tequilas, or strive one thing new and never typically served in LGBTQ bars—like Pisco Sours, Maracuyá Sours, or Chilcanos.
“We’re going to ensure we’ve cocktails and liquor that aren’t at different bars that the neighborhood drinks,” Perruzza mentioned. “We need to make folks really feel as at house as attainable. And we’re going to do specialty drinks, and we’re going to do specialty nights that includes totally different cultures of the Latin neighborhood … We’re really eliminating lots of our liquor in that room and changing it with among the tequilas and the opposite stuff you can’t discover in different places.”
Perruzza defined that the concept for this area got here after redesigning the highest flooring of the bar thrice prior to now yr. First, it was ‘Pop! Bar’—themed after native drag legend Cake Pop!—then a pop-up Christmas bar, and lastly a WorldPride-themed bar to coincide with the town’s huge LGBTQ celebration in June.
Following the a number of themes, Perruzza partnered with Ferreira to ensure MOR displays the LGBTQ Latin neighborhood—not one white man’s tackle it.
“[After going through these themes] I used to be like, you recognize what, I’m going to make it the Latin bar,” Perruzza mentioned. “And I’ve a DJ, Felipe, who I work with, and he’s very in contact with the neighborhood—and I’m not a Latino. We’re doing Brazil, Colombia, Puerto Rico—we’re making an attempt to make all people really feel comfy. There may be not one sort of individual within the Latino neighborhood; it’s all people as a complete, and he’s obtained a very good grip on that. He’s helped me out quite a bit. It’s mainly like he simply instructed me what to do.”
Perruzza went on to clarify that in his a few years working and proudly owning LGBTQ bars in D.C., he has witnessed some segments throughout the neighborhood really feel excluded from nightlife areas that usually cater to white cisgender males. One particular occasion he remembers from his time at JR.’s concerned somebody talking up about wanting the area to be extra inclusive—an expertise that helped him notice he may do extra in his function to advocate for range.
“I discovered a very long time in the past—we had a problem at JR.’s years in the past. Some folks of coloration got here in and mentioned, ‘We don’t really feel comfy.’ I requested, ‘Why is that?’ ‘We don’t see us on the TVs,’ [they responded]. And I spotted as a white man, I don’t take into consideration stuff like that as a result of if you’re white, it’s a must to depend on different folks to let you know what they need to see.”
He added that since such a big portion of his employees is a part of the LGBTQ and/or Latin American neighborhood, opening MOR made sense—particularly when different Latin pop-up bars didn’t essentially make area for Latin LGBTQ of us.
“Most of my employees are Latin,” Perruzza mentioned. “I believe round 40% of my employees is Latin. I’ll at all times have any person who’s Latin in that bar… I’ve been to the Latin pop-up nights, and I really feel like, you go to this bar, they’re often like a straight bar that typically doesn’t give again to the neighborhood. I at all times give again to the neighborhood. So I really feel like if I construct this area for and by homosexual [Latin] folks, my cash at all times goes again.”
MOR is open on Fridays and Saturdays on the highest flooring of Pitchers (2317 18th St., N.W.). Examine the Pitchers (@pitchersdc) and MOR’s instagram (@barmordc) for particulars on the theme of the week.
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