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“It also meant that we were able to keep what we were doing close to the vest, and not really have a lot of people weigh in,” Barnes said of the decision not to seek a business loan. Barnes, a corporate attorney by day, said that she and Riddle did not need to seek financing to open the bar, which was fortunate because the debt load from financing can often be unsustainably high for new business owners. Those challenges weren’t lost upon the owners of Nobody’s Daring, they said, but a few factors boosted their confidence in moving forward with opening. Prospective Black business owners also face an additional barrier to opening their doors: Research shows Black entrepreneurs are more likely to be denied capital funding compared to white people with similar credit qualifications. We’re out to have a good time, we're out to meet each other, enjoy each other’s company, and have a great cocktail," says Barnes. “Everybody’s welcome and everybody's invited, as long as there's that respect for the fact that we're kind of in it together. A survey of almost 3,000 small businesses conducted by tax prep company H&R Block found that 53% of Black business owners saw their revenue drop by half since the pandemic started, compared to 37% of White owners. Nobody’s Darling is beating the odds on two fronts, not just as a Black, LGBTQ+ bar opened during the pandemic but one that is also thriving.
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The latter category includes Harlem’s Lambda Lounge and Nobody’s Darling, both of which are Black-owned. Many of those businesses did not survive, several others launched crowdfunding campaigns to stay alive, and only a small handful have opened their doors for the first time. reported in our Queer Spaces Project, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has proven challenging for LGBTQ+ bars trying to survive periods of quarantine and lockdown, especially prior to the availability of vaccines. And also what we’re doing here - you don’t get an attorney and an auditor who come together and say ‘Oh, we want to open up a bar,’ let alone two Black women, but we just decided that we wanted to do it.”Īs them. When we’re talking about outcasts, you sometimes think about queer people being outcast. “When I heard the name, because I’m from the South, I was sold.” Riddle told them. Riddle said the motif is both a nod to the bar’s name and her mom’s favorite term of endearment, as well as a reference to Riddle’s Alabama upbringing.
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A few of the libations also carry the name “darling”: Darling Spritz, Carry Me Home Darling, and Darling Mule. All of the cocktails, Barnes and Riddle said, are based on their favorite drinks from over the years.