Sydney Bradford and Drew Benbow have seen the comments. And they’re not going to lie, some of the feedback they’ve received about their politics-themed bar on U Street, which soft-launched last Friday, has stung.
“The worst GW student you can think of is going to want to go,” one X user posted. “How long did it take Deloitte to come up with this bar concept and how much did it cost, I really must know,” read another post from earlier this month.
“When someone says your baby is ugly it hurts,” Bradford said on Monday of the bar, which they named Political Pattie’s. “But we can’t take things too personally.”
Instead, Bradford, an attorney who started her legal career as assistant counsel with the Senate sergeant-at-arms, and Benbow, who once worked on the Hill in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Congressional and Legislative Affairs, said they are trying to adapt.
The result is a rebrand. Sort of.
The political theme will remain, they said. A gavel will still be placed at each table, and the walls will still be dotted with photos of politicians and famous (and sometimes whimsical) quotes.
But by Tuesday afternoon, changes were underway on the exterior. Just a faint outline of the word “Political” was visible under a fresh coat of white paint, though the owners said it would be back in larger blue print. The elephant and the donkey that briefly flanked the bar’s name had also been covered, as had the slogan “Putting the ‘lit’ in ‘politics.’”
The makeover generated a fresh round of online mockery and anger. Pattie’s is situated on a strip once known as D.C.’s “Black Broadway” that more recently has been home to an array of LGBTQ+ hangouts. One of those, the Dirty Goose, closed down this summer, and Pattie’s took its place. Seeing a Republican elephant appear there, symbol of a party that has launched political attacks on trans people this election season, did not feel welcoming to everyone. A paint job was not enough, some said.
In a social media post Tuesday night, the owners acknowledged that “the representation of the red elephant was hurtful to the community,” emphasized that Pattie’s is a Black-owned business and quoted Maya Angelou: “When you know better, you do better.”
Describing the changes to their logo, they wrote, “We are still Political Pattie’s — ‘Pattie’s’ for short.”
“What has been happening online to Pattie’s directly resembles what happens in society daily. Our business was judged by its outside appearance before anyone ever took the chance to learn what we were about on the inside,” the statement continues.
The blowback was not what Bradford and Benbow expected when they decided earlier this year to make their first foray into the hospitality industry.
Both are native Washingtonians who wanted to “unchain” themselves from their laptops, though Bradford said she’s never been more attached to her device.
They hoped to create the kind of place where people of all political stripes — or even the politically apathetic — could rub shoulders while sipping cocktails with kitschy names like the “Filibuster Fizz” and the “Gerrymander Martini.” There’s a DJ booth and a library filled with books people can take with them or read right at the bar. They plan to host political trivia and watch parties for the upcoming vice presidential debate and the presidential election.
“We can’t underscore enough that it’s a bar. It’s fun. We’re poking fun,” said Benbow, a novelist and an Army veteran. “The goal is not for people to come in and be inundated with these deep, heavy, political questions. It’s to look around and poke fun at politics.”
But they were also driven by some high-minded ideals.
Bradford, for one, said she learned from her time on the Hill how important it is for lawmakers and staff to listen to and engage with constituents. On a personal level, the pair also believes strongly in the importance of interacting with people from diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. Bradford said she is a Democrat, and Benbow describes himself as a moderate Republican. Their party-spanning love exists at a time when few people are open to dating across the aisle.
“We as humans have a tendency to self-segregate,” Benbow said. “That’s what we’re working against. If you’re white or conservative, you share one space. If you’re Black, you share a space. If you’re LGBTQ, you share another space. That’s fine, but I think self-segregation prevents people from learning about the humanity of other people.”
It might take some work to combat the narrative that Pattie’s is a Republican bar, or that it’s intended solely for junior Hill staffers. When their bar’s concept didn’t land the way they expected, they said they tried to listen.
“A lot of folks told us to read the room and to understand that this wasn’t needed,” Bradford said. “We’ve read the room, and we think it’s more needed than ever to have a space that encourages this type of discourse.”
In an email exchange Wednesday, as the backlash continued, the pair reiterated that message.
“We are trying to promote unity with our concept, and want to make it clear that our bar is no place for intolerance against anyone regardless of political affiliation, sexual orientation, or gender identity,” they wrote. “To be clear, the existence of trans people is not up for debate, period. This type of discourse will not be allowed at our bar.”
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