02DC8: More ⭕Bar Advocacy

Last night, we hosted some out-of-town friends for their first O Bar night, which I feel is always a special thing. Said friends are not the ones in the cover photo for this blog post -these friends are quite near and dear to us and a lot more familiar with O Bar. And the night, like any other O night, was a good mix of different friends who all got to enjoy the magic of O Bar.

Our love for the bar drives how we handle people during their first time. I always joke that Tobie goes into GRO mode whenever he realizes it's someone's first time, even when they're complete strangers. And it takes a lot for Tobie to practice patience with other people at times, so it's an effort that should be lauded - or at least it's one that I do. Every bit goes a long way towards helping others have a good time. 

And yes, people go to bars for different reasons and we tend to click more with others who are there primarily for the show more than other *social pursuits* as it were. This is probably how we inevitably end up encountering people who may have caught my O Bar YouTube videos or may even be full subscribers. I've lost track of the many times from out of town have introduced themselves just to say thank you.

O Bar is always going to be our happy place and we'll always want to help other people see why that is so. The shows are truly some of the best and you know that we're big friends and supporters of the performers. Getting more people to appreciate what makes the bar special and unique ultimately helps the bar, thus further enabling them to do greater things.

I know it's not easy to maintain a business like this and it kinda blows my mind that they've been at it for nearly 19 years now. Recording videos of the performances and sharing them with the world (or at least YouTube) still feels like the very least I can do to help the bar. If we had more resources, I'm sure we'd find more direct ways to support them and help keep the bar going for as long as possible. They are doing truly great things for drag and just the entertainment space in general.

Sometimes people assume we're owners or something, but we're not. In the end we're "just" customers, but you don't need to be an investor to consider the entire team true members of your family. That's who they are to us and it may not be the case for everyone else who goes (nor does it need to be) - but it still means we'll go out of our way to stand up and sing our praises of what makes them stellar.