We’re Losing Recipes!
The rent is being raised, and the bar is closing. With it, no more Magic Mondaze, half-off burgers on Wednesday, Saturday night caps, and no more Looking Glass Lounge. Sadly, it’s a theme that has become far too familiar to the regulars and bartenders of Looking Glass Lounge. It wasn’t too long ago that DC Reynolds, whose buy one, get one free happy hour made it legendary amongst DC residents, closed down for similar reasons a few doors over. Similar to DC Reynolds, Looking Glass’ fate was decided by a landlord and market that decrees that every cent must be squeezed out of the walls that house it. No compromise to keep a 15-year establishment and community fixture was to be had. That isn’t to say that the workers and clientele of the bar didn’t maximize the potential of the space. Not an inch of the walls isn’t covered with a portrait, mirror, poster, or a Riz the Great Don’t Trip sticker. Not an inch of the bar was wasted; there is the upstairs dancefloor, the kitchen, the booths, the back patio, the barstools, the speakers, the upstairs and downstairs bars, and the people who fill in the gaps.
To learn more about the people who filled the gaps, we interviewed Looking Glass bartender Odunayo Fabunmi
What makes working at Looking Glass different?
Working at LG is different for me than other bars in the way where there aren’t that many rules to limit us from bringing our personalities to the days we’re assigned to work. Some people may come in for a day, their favorite bartender is working or because they love the music taste of the bartender playing music throughout the shift. The fact that we can play our own music and don’t have to adhere to a specific playlist all the time is truly a luxury most bartenders don’t have. And the locals themselves also makes work- ing at LG different because we have people that come in damn near every day. Even
on slow days, we can rely on our locals to never let us have a “boring” shift or feel like we’re not making any money because they also tip well. It’s a beautiful understanding between bar and patron that we coexist and one can’t do without the other. As a bartender, I don’t really need to get into the details of the stress that comes with bartending, but Looking Glass alleviates most of that stress by not micromanaging like in other bars that I have worked and currently work at.
What is DC losing with the closing of Looking Glass?
With the closing of Looking Glass, DC is losing ANOTHER location where local and mainstream can coexist peacefully with the rest of the world. We get a lot of local creatives that see Looking Glass as a hub to casually enjoy their down time throughout the day. We’ve had plenty of mainstream celebrities from Chaz French, Ari Lennox, and Donnell Rawlings to the local celebrities like Sir EU and UCB band, bless us with their presence and patronage. It’s almost like a TV show of that place “where everybody knows your name,” but nobody is above the next person. We’re here to have a couple of drinks and have a good time. Most other places in DC still operate with that veil of chasing clout, that it’s impossible to recreate the safe space that LG has. There aren’t many safe spaces like that left.
What did DC gain by having Looking Glass in it?
Other than the best cast of down-to-earth bartenders, DC has benefited a lot from just the history alone that’s behind Looking Glass and its former identities. With so much gentrification happening in the whole district, it’s rare that you find places that preserve historical pieces of DC. If not for just being an amazing establishment for any and everyone, it has given a lot of people purpose and fulfillment no other city can match.
Do you have a favorite Looking Glass Memory?
My favorite memory of Looking Glass would have to be one of the holiday parties we hosted. We would hire a bartender from a sister bar or someone we know very well
and have them work as we invite all the employees, friends, and family, and we pretty much just have an amazing time. Yes, of course, there’s a lot of inebriation, but during the holiday seasons, it’s well deserved. I won’t say too much, but trust and believe the holiday parties at the end of this year will overtake and become my new favorite memories. (Also with New Year’s Eve being our last day open and my birthday being on New year’s. I have no doubt it’ll be like Project X)
Do you have any plans for what’s next?
I do. I can’t speak for all of us, and that may be the hardest part to swallow, really. I also work at another bar in Ivy City called Vera. It’s amazing. I like it, and I’ll probably be working more days there. But it sure doesn’t feel good knowing not everyone has that same net to fall back on. We’re doing our best to help each other land on our feet after the dust clears, but until everyone is secure, I try not to speak on what I’ll do afterwards as far as work is involved. But I will be taking a vacation when the new year starts and revisit some talents and endeavors that I neglected so that I can make a living. I still have music to work on. I have projects with different bands that were meticulously putting together. And I still want to put some time to finishing my African Space Odyssey novel that I’ve been writing for god knows how long now.
I can say for sure 2024 is going to be different.
If you have anything else you want to say about looking glass feel free to write it here:
Well, first things first. I am entirely grateful for Looking Glass and almost everyone that works there for all of the love, motivation, support, memories, hardships, revelations, and magic that we were able to share together. I was struggling down bad during the pandemic while taking care of my sick mother when LG threw a Hail Mary and hired me on the team. That was a chance I didn’t think I would get from anywhere at the time, so it truly changed my perspective on a lot. And for the two years I worked there all the way until my mother passed, I was surrounded by love and support. I was constantly reminded of me, the good, the bad, and everything in between. Had it not been for Looking Glass, I would have succumbed to the intense grief and pain of losing the person who loved me most. And this has nothing to do with bartending, DC, or anything really outside of the fact that I was in pieces and there were people who loved me enough to try and put me back together. Of course, i had family to do the same, but i live very far from almost everyone in my immediate family, so my people at LG taking said initiative means a lot more to me. For that, there’s no greater sentiment that I can express to them other than my utmost gratitude. This surely won’t be the end of LG. They say Home is Where The Heart Is, be we say IF YOU DRINK AT LOOKING GLASS YOU LIVE FOREVER!