‘Miserable’: D.C. LGBTQ Venues Hit Hard by Federal Police Takeover
D.C.'s gay bar owners say checkpoints, heavy police presence, and fear of profiling are driving customers away and slashing weekend revenue.
Owners of several D.C. LGBTQ bars and nightclubs say the federal takeover of the city’s police force — and the surge of federal agents stationed on 14th Street NW and along the U Street corridor — cost them thousands of dollars in lost business this past weekend.
Mark Rutstein, co-owner of Crush Dance Bar at 14th and U Streets NW, told CBS affiliate WUSA that August 15 was the worst Friday the bar has seen since opening last year. He estimated losses to be approximately $15,000 for the night.
Rutstein told The Advocate that Crush sat near a multi-agency checkpoint, including agents from the Department of Homeland Security, set up on Wednesday evening. Authorities reportedly made 45 arrests, 29 of them immigration-related.
Although DHS and other federal agencies insist they are targeting only “the worst of the worst” criminals, Axios has reported cases in which U.S. citizens — primarily Latino or Native American — were detained on suspicion of being undocumented, even after providing valid identification. The fear of being stopped by federal agents, or racially profiled, is widely seen as a factor behind declining sales and foot traffic at LGBTQ venues in D.C.
Rutstein warned that if Crush continues to see steep declines in business — and if weekend foot traffic remains low during the 30-day federal control of the Metropolitan Police Department — the bar could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.
Zach Renovátes, managing partner of the District Eagle, Bunker, and Lucky Pollo — all located near the intersection of 14th and U Streets — said the businesses lost “thousands of dollars” over the weekend because of the heightened police presence.
“Friday, specifically, we saw a tremendous decline, to the tune of 40%, maybe even 50% in foot traffic,” Renovátes told Metro Weekly. “And people are scared, right? They see what’s happening in the media, in the news. They see these police checkpoints going up, literally beside or adjacent to our venues. And they see increased police presence all along the corridor. That’s frightening.”
He added that “bar revenue and [the number of] bodies through the door were down substantially” across their properties.
While both Bunker and District Eagle employ their own security personnel to check patrons entering the venues, Renovátes said he was not aware of MPD or federal agents searching customers or their belongings. “People need to understand that we will, under no circumstances, allow any police or federal entities into our establishment without a valid warrant that’s been issued [by a judge].”
Despite the financial losses, Renovátes said the attention on establishments affected by the heightened police presence highlights the need to support local LGBTQ businesses — and he expressed hope that patrons would return by “showing up and showing out.”
Even Trade — which has become one of the city’s most popular nightlife spots since its recent expansion — saw a “dip in business” over the weekend, according to owner Ed Bailey.
“While there are a number of potential factors, we can definitely attribute the drop off to the current national guard/federal law enforcement situation,” Bailey told Metro Weekly in an email. “We know of many customers who live outside the city that chose not to drive in because of the unpredictable nature of this situation.”
A WUSA analysis of OpenTable data found that local restaurants saw diner numbers fall more than 25% in the days after Trump announced the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Reservations dropped 27% compared to the same day a year earlier on Tuesday, and 31% on Wednesday — when the takeover officially took effect. While numbers rebounded slightly from Thursday to Sunday, they still remained more than 20% below last year’s levels.
David Perruzza, owner of Pitchers and A League of Her Own — one of the few LGBTQ bars that serves food — told WUSA that he saw sales drop by $7,000 on Friday alone, despite Adams Morgan’s 18th Street corridor not having the same level of federal law enforcement presence as 14th and U Streets.
Perruzza later told Metro Weekly he lost an estimated $5,000 on Saturday, August 16, and another $1,000 on Sunday, August 17.
“People don’t realize, but that’s like my taxes, or part of my payroll, or half my rent,” he said. “Electricity, gas, all those fucking bills. I have a big 10,000-square-foot place with six air conditioning units.”
Perruzza said reduced food sales are affecting his ability to pay kitchen staff, including food runners and chefs.
“The good thing about my business is we serve food all night,” he said. “We don’t charge a lot of money for our food, either. I feel like a burger and fries is cheaper at my place than if you go to McDonald’s, and I do that so that people will stay at the bar.
“But when we’re dead, I’ve got a whole kitchen staff to pay. Chefs aren’t cheap. Food runners aren’t cheap, and they’re not tip-based employees.”
Perruzza called the decline in foot traffic — even in restaurant-packed Adams Morgan along 18th Street — “miserable.”
“We’re always going to have some foot traffic, but we do rely on a lot of people coming from out of town, because we’re the only lesbian bar,” Perruzza said, referring to A League of Her Own. “And when there’s roadblocks and stuff, people don’t want to deal with it.”
Perruzza recently opened Mor, a bustling new Latin venue on the top floor of the Pitchers complex.
“A lot of Latinos did not want to come out this weekend, because even though they’re citizens, they didn’t want to deal with the possible bullshit they might face,” he said.
“We had a Latina entertainer — a drag queen — not come in. Because what if she was coming into the city, even if she’s in an Uber, and they pull the Uber over, and there is a Latina in the back in drag, and they want to see her ID and then she gets harassed because she doesn’t look like her [official government] ID?
“I’m terrified for drag queens more than anything else,” he continued, “because most take Ubers or scooters, and don’t look like their IDs. Are these people going to harass them because they don’t look like their IDs? My biggest fear is for my friends. I have friends carrying around passports with them, and they’re U.S. citizens. That shouldn’t be happening.”
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