Steve Davis performs Nintendo with Justin Featherstone, who purchased Mr. Yogato for $1 in 2018. {Photograph} by Jessica Sidman.
Elon Musk has tapped one in all his most loyal lieutenants, Steve Davis, to oversee hiring for the Division of Authorities Effectivity, or DOGE, the unofficial group tasked with slashing authorities jobs and spending. Davis, a longtime aerospace engineer for SpaceX, is president of Musk’s tunnel-drilling Boring Firm and led cost-cutting measures at X, previously Twitter. It was briefly speculated that he may even grow to be CEO of the social media platform.
However locals will acknowledge Davis’s identify from a completely totally different realm: He was beforehand the proprietor of DC’s silliest frozen yogurt store, Mr. Yogato.
Mr. Yogato, which opened in Dupont Circle in 2008, was recognized for its old-school Nintendo console, board video games, and goofy low cost stunts (reciting the battlefield speech from Braveheart in a Scottish accent might get you a deal). Davis additionally briefly owned an excellent goofier Dupont Circle bar referred to as Thomas Foolery, the place you can drink a beer ice cream float whereas enjoying Hungry Hungry Hippos or sit within the “king seat” and order a Smirnoff Ice by way of walkie-talkie.
In 2018, Davis bought Mr. Yogato for $1 on the situation that the brand new proprietor maintain a SpaceX signal within the store and provide him with free boba tea each week. The frozen yogurt store closed completely within the wake of the pandemic.
In newer years, Davis made headlines for sleeping in Twitter’s headquarters along with his accomplice and new child child as he helped Musk minimize $500 million from the corporate’s annual working prices. He entered the political fray this previous election cycle, volunteering for Musk’s pro-Trump tremendous PAC. Davis’s function in DOGE, first reported by Bloomberg, includes overseeing recruitment for the cost-cutting group, which isn’t an official authorities company. It’s nonetheless unclear who’s paying DOGE salaries.
“I’m only a regular engineer. I work on the capsules, I work on the rockets, I work on the launch websites,” Davis instructed me after I profiled him greater than a decade in the past. Moderately than speak about being a literal rocket scientist, Davis most popular to talk concerning the annual karaoke event he co-hosted or the film Pitch Excellent, which, on the time, he’d seen within the theater seven instances.
“I suppose there’s in all probability a deficiency of maturity happening right here,” Davis stated in that interview. “I ought to repair that sooner or later. As I’m speaking to you proper now, I’m at SpaceX in shorts and a T-shirt. I suppose I ought to in all probability get nicer garments.”
Meals Editor
Jessica Sidman covers the folks and traits behind D.C.’s foods and drinks scene. Earlier than becoming a member of Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Meals Editor and Younger & Hungry columnist at Washington Metropolis Paper. She is a Colorado native and College of Pennsylvania grad.
