Washington D.C. lost yet another LGBTQ nightlife venue with the announcement that Cobalt, located at 1639 R St. NW, has closed its doors for good. This comes less than a year after the devastating blow to D.C. LGBTQ nightlife when Town Dancebotique closed in 2018.
Owner Eric Little confirmed the closure in a message posted to the club’s Facebook page:
It’s no secret that the building that housed Cobalt (1639 R St NW) and the adjacent property recently sold.
With the combination of the sale of the buildings, the start of demolition, costly infrastructure repairs and upgrades that we would need to shoulder to remain open for the short remainder of our lease (without an opportunity to extend the lease) along with a slow decline in sales we decided it was the right time to close the business to focus on our other businesses and some personal family needs.
For more than 20 years, our amazing customers and incredible staff have contributed greatly to the DC-area LGBT community and we have always strived to do our part to strengthen local organizations, businesses, and the entire 17th Street neighborhood and we couldn’t be prouder of the legacy Cobalt leaves behind.
The gay bar industry has been changing over the past few years with the popularity of dating apps, changing social norms, and pop-up parties/events at non-gay venues and we applaud these evolutions as positive progress. And it is our hope that patrons will encourage these businesses to support the greater LGBT community to continue the good work and social change that Cobalt and all of the many other gay bars, restaurants, and businesses (past and present) have worked so hard to achieve.
We understand the property will be redeveloped into residential use and we wish the new building owners and future residents the best of success and hope that the buildings will bring them all as much joy and happiness as it has brought the entire Cobalt family.
The end of Gay Dance Nightlife in D.C.?
There are a few parties that are still going on.
Avalon Saturdays DC are a weekly event in a downtown venue where Dougie Meyer brings his Saturday night LGBT dance party. DougieMeyerPresents.com has more info.
Fruity Boi Productions/CHORUS-DC is actively working on finding a new home for its monthly events as well as the other promoters that held the events at Cobalt. They are hoping their down time will be a short one.
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