After over a month of speculation, it is official:Velvet Lounge has changed hands from Chris Connelly to former Local 16 bartenders Abdul Kayoumy and Haile Berhane, who have now officially been at the club’s helm for a week.
There have been some stipulations that Kayoumy and Berhane have also acquired the space next door (once upon a time Joel’s Kingpin) and will be combining the spaces into a bigger, more loungier venue.
(you know how people are, you mention Local 16, they go straight for some upscale 15-dollar-drink visual)
For now, however, it seems like it is business as usual at Velvet with Scott Verastro (of Clavius Productions) staying on at the booking helm (read: expect more psyche legends, shoegazing and post punk circuses around) with Rob Curtis still in charge of the sound.
Both The City Desk and DCist elaborate on the whole deal.
We? We just hope it all works out.
As always.
I certainly hope Local 16’s clientèle stays at Local 16. I would hate to see this place taken over by the cool kids.
January 23, 2008 at 12:07 amThank God for Scott Verastro.
i second the fact that this is the best music venue in the city.
January 23, 2008 at 9:33 amAbdul, is indeed, the Man.
January 23, 2008 at 11:26 ammaking the place a little bigger in the near future wouldn’t be a bad thing as long as the sound is still as good as it is now. i certainly wouldn’t call it the best music venue in the city by any stretch of the imagination, but the sound really is good in that tiny little upstairs room.
and i hear the bathrooms there are already less scary. too bad all the stickers on the walls from all of those bands over the years will be going away with the face-lift. time for some new tags…
January 23, 2008 at 1:29 pm
i work friday nites at the lounge and abdul is the MAN. things are only gonna get better.
upping the scale would just ruin the truest music venue in the city, and abdul, being a smart business man, knows this.
come see the dead husbands (me and haley)
January 22, 2008 at 9:42 pm@ the lounge
jan 26th w/ joe jack from the dead milkmen
930pm