Can Uproar Survive? Owner Tammy Truong Speaks Out
Tammy Truong explains why her business is feeling the squeeze, and details her efforts to keep D.C.’s beloved bear bar open.
The gay community in D.C. has been all abuzz ever since Uproar, an LGBTQ bar that has become a major hub for the District’s bear community — as well as the adjacent “daddy” and leather scenes – launched a campaign earlier this month to help the bar keep up with its rent payments and utility bills.
Tammy Truong, the owner of Uproar, posted an appeal asking for financial help in response to “unexpected costs” in a message on the bar’s website, and on GoFundMe, where supporters can donate to the cause. Thus far, the campaign, which seeks to raise $100,000 by February 6, has raised slightly over $7,400.
“It’s gotten a little bit of traction,” Truong says of the campaign. “I would like it to be a little bit more successful, but I know it’s a hard time for people financially.”
When I asked Truong about the “unexpected costs,” she answers that increases in the bar’s insurance rates for 2025 have forced Uproar’s management team to deplete their reserves. The things that would have been paid for with that reserve money — rent and utilities — now constitute looming expenses.
Despite being open for nine years and never having to file an insurance claim, Trong’s liquor liability insurance is $72,000. That’s up from $68,000 during the pandemic, and $32,000 prior to the pandemic. And even that policy contains several exclusions. For example, she has had to purchase umbrella policies to supplement her coverage.
Truong tells me her previous insurance carrier refused to renew her policy amid the COVID-19 pandemic and ultimately dropped her, citing concerns about an uptick in crime in major cities that, in the company’s view, made Uproar — and other establishments like it in D.C. — riskier to insure than their counterparts in Maryland or Virginia.
Because businesses serving liquor must carry insurance, Truong had no choice if she wished Uproar to remain open.
“Basically, I had to make a decision,” she says. “Close the doors or pay the insurance and figure out rent and utilities later. And hope that we can keep holding events that can help us catch up.”
In addition to the insurance woes, Truong says she is not seeing the same volume of business as she did before the pandemic and its resulting lockdowns.
“After the pandemic, people got used to being quarantined,” she says. “They realized they can just have a gathering at home.” She also believes that some of her former patrons have moved away from D.C., especially if they were able to work remotely and did not have to remain in the city during the lockdown years.
She also points out that many businesses have been forced to raise drink prices or introduce service charges as a result of inflation and increased payroll costs, the latter of which have spiked following the passage of I-82, a voter-approved ballot initiative that gradually phases out the tipped minimum wage.
Those costs, added onto patrons’ tabs, have led some customers to stay home, contributing to a further decrease in foot traffic. And not just for Uproar, but other bars as well.
“When I’m not busy, I’ll go and briefly walk around the block,” Truong says. “I’ll walk past the other bars in the neighborhood, and they’ll be empty. It’s like, ‘Where is everyone?’”
She says raising prices makes it harder for bars to stay competitive. “When I did raise prices a little bit after the pandemic — by a dollar — everybody was complaining,” she says.
After the passage of I-82, Truong temporarily introduced a service charge to cover increased payroll costs, only to be accused of wage theft. She subsequently reversed course and eliminated the service charge.
Truong is also seeing evidence that some patrons may be pinching pennies.
“I’ve seen an uptick this year in beer drinkers when we have our Beer Bust on Sundays, where you pay $20 for bottomless beer. We have more beer drinkers this year than we ever had in the years before,” she says.
“Even in 2022 or as far back as 2019, when business was great, our highest number of wristbands we sold for the Beer Bust was 111. This year, I’ve hit 190 wristbands, and my roof capacity is 200,” Truong notes. “So we definitely see the difference in people’s spending habits.”
“There was a time when I had a few people saying to me, ‘Oh, Tammy, just raise the price. These gays will pay for it,’” she continues. “But it’s like, ‘No, we already all paid for this during the pandemic.’ We need to do the right thing for the people, and the city needs to do the right thing for the people and the businesses. Stop saying that they can pay for it. Everybody’s hurting.”
Taken together, all of these factors have conspired to make it harder for Truong — or any business owner in the District — to get ahead.
“Somebody made a comment saying, ‘You should have planned better,’ she says. “But that was the thing with the pandemic — it was unprecedented. No one had ever experienced it. And when we were done with the pandemic, we didn’t recover because we had all these increases — in payroll, the price of alcohol, in insurance, in rent. And there’s decreased foot traffic. There’s a lot of struggles. It would be different if you had only one or two of those problems, you could work around it. But when everything is happening at once, you’re stuck.’”
Asked what will happen if the crowdfunding campaign falls short, Truong replies, “I don’t know. Play the lottery?”
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