ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Local and state officials are celebrating a new LGBTQ+ pop-up bar in the Del Ray neighborhood.
HomeGrown Restaurant Group opened Pride on the Avenue on Mount Vernon Avenue to help celebrate Pride Month as part of its pop-up series.
It’s the only bar specifically catering to members of the community, although HRG Managing Partner Bill Blackburn said anyone is invited.
“We love it that we can show that everybody is welcome in our restaurants, and this is a good way to showcase that,” Blackburn said. “If there's one thing we've noticed in our first week of being open, is that there is definitely a market for this.”
The group plans to donate $500 to the nonprofit Equality NOVA every week.
“I think it's wonderful at a time when so many cities and states are seeing a surge in anti-gay and anti-trans laws, it's important that places like Alexandria really stand up in our values of inclusion,” Councilmember Kirk McPike said. “Inclusion and diversity are core values in the City of Alexandria and we're always going to be looking for opportunities to build on that.”
Recent FBI data from 2022 shows anti-LBTQ+ hate crimes were up 32% from the year before.
The bar is expected to open for the next two months. It comes weeks after the city painted Pride crosswalks outside city hall.
“Between those crosswalks and this bar here, Pride is not going to be contained to June in Alexandria,” he added. “It's something we celebrate all year round.”
McPike welcomes a permanent business to serve the community, similar to other unique bars in the city. The Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index, which measures how inclusive a city’s laws and policies are, gave Alexandria a 100% score.
The bar is next to Pork Barrel BBQ. It's open from Tuesday-Sunday starting at 4 p.m.