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Duplex Diner changes owners

MOVA to close, become new club

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Duplex Diner, gay news, Washington Blade
Duplex Diner, liquor license, alcohol, dining, gay news, Washington Blade

Duplex Diner (Washington Blade file photo by Pete Exis)

Duplex Diner, a popular D.C. restaurant and lounge in Adams Morgan that has catered to a mostly gay clientele since 1998, is changing owners this month but will remain the same as it has always been for the time being, according to outgoing owner Kevin Lee.

Lee, a longtime employee at Duplex Diner who bought the business from original owner Eric Hirshfield in 2011, is selling it now to businessmen Mark Hunker and Jeff McCracken, who own the popular Rehoboth Beach restaurants Eden and Jam Bistro.

They are ā€œsure to continue their success at the Duplex,ā€ Lee said in a Dec. 13 email sent to customers and friends.

ā€œAfter thirteen years of first being an employee and then owning and operating the Duplex, I have decided the time is right for me to sell the Diner,ā€ he said in his email.

Lee said he expected the ownership change at Duplex Diner would be completed by the end of this week.

ā€œThey have chosen our very own bartender, Kelly Laczko, to be the general manager and handle the daily operation of the restaurant,ā€ Lee said of the new owners. ā€œI am delighted to be handing over the keys into their capable hands.ā€

Added Lee, ā€œThe customers walking in next week will not notice any change.ā€

Meanwhile, in a separate development, Babak Movahedi, owner of the D.C. gay bar MOVA, announced on his Facebook page on Saturday that the bar and lounge currently located at 2204 14th Street, N.W., will be closing Jan. 3 and a new venue will soon open in its space.

ā€œIt is with great excitement that I announce the agreement reached between MOVA and one of the owners of the hottest bar in D.C., BARCODE,ā€ Movahedi said in his Facebook message.

ā€œI am even more excited about his future plans for the space as a restaurant and another upscale lounge,ā€ he said. ā€œThank you, D.C., for your patronage over the past ten years. Our closing party will be on Jan. 3, 2015 with $3 drinks on everything and $5 martinis while supplies last. Enjoy.ā€

Movahedi opened his message by offering his greetings from Barcelona, Spain, where he has said he planned to stay for part of 2014.

Steve Rothaus, a journalist who writes an LGBT community column for the Miami Herald, reported in May that Movahedi told him the building in which he operated MOVA of South Miami Beach was being sold for real estate development. Rothaus reported Movahedi as saying he planned to close in the near future MOVA South Beach and its companion bar, also called MOVA, in the Brickell section of Miami to give him a chance to take a break.

But he will soon announce plans for a new club in the Miami area, Rothaus reported.

Movahedi and two business partners first opened MOVA under the name Halo in 2004 at 1435 P St., N.W., in D.C.’s Logan Circle neighborhood. Around 2007 the two partners, gay club owners Ed Bailey and John Guggenmos, sold their share in the business to Movahedi, making him the sole owner of the club. A short time later Movahedi renamed the club MOVA. In 2010 Movahedi announced plans to move the bar to a new location. After a short period of being closed, MOVA reopened in its current location in November 2011.

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HME Consulting and Advocacy stands on frontline of LGBTQ policy

Heidi Ellis is a consultant who doesn’t take clients ā€˜not aligned with my mission’

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ā€˜Even though I am a private consultant … my work is very much mission driven,’ says Heidi Ellis. (Photo courtesy of Ellis)

September is here, which means Congress and the D.C. Council return from their August recess and life for consultant Heidi Ellis quickly gets busy. 

Her days are filled with negotiating with Council members, phone calls with clients, and policy planning for advocacy groups. The organizations she represents are looking to her to help them push policy and she hopes to guide them to victory. 

Ellis’s company, HME Consulting and Advocacy, came after years of working in the public and private sectors as a consultant. In 2019, Ellis decided to shift her focus to work that stood at the center of the intersections in which she lives. She sought to figure out how she could better serve her community as a Black queer Latino woman. Ellis recognized that there was a niche for mission-driven consulting in the District. 

ā€œI was sought out and recruited by a lot of organizations that wanted me and I took a beat, because I was like ā€˜Do I want to go back into a machine where even if I do effect change, I have to answer to someone?ā€™ā€she said, in reference to consulting agencies that were in pursuit of her talent. Ultimately, she decided against continuing her work under another company. ā€œBy doing what I do, I have much more flexibility for one to say ā€˜Yes’ but also to say ā€˜No’.ā€

Although Ellis has considered going back to working in the corporate space, she still loves the flexibility of being able to be nimble as a private consultant. 

Although Ellis doesn’t work entirely in the advocacy space, her consulting clients still align with her personal values. She joked that she differs strongly from the stereotypical money-driven D.C. consultant who sports Brooks Brothers suits on K Street. 

ā€œEven though I am a private consultant … my work is very much mission driven,ā€ she said. ā€œI don’t take any clients that are not aligned with my mission.ā€

Her mission is simple, Ellis is ā€œcommitted to elevating issues that sit at the nexus of education, mental health, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of color.ā€

ā€œThe more marginalized you are, the more you suffer from the failures of policy and the gaps of service,ā€ she said. 

As a consultant in the advocacy space, Ellis does the behind-the-scenes work for organizations to help correct these policy failures and close the gaps. Whether she is facilitating training for companies to better understand how to serve their LGBTQ communities, or she is on the frontline of education policy changes –– Ellis aims to only do work that she is passionate about.

She said that the balance of her combined passion and level-headedness help her to build trusting relationships with her clients and in the end, ā€œGet stuff  done.ā€

Since starting her organization, some of her proudest work has been done with the DC LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition. The coalition is made up of more than 30 organizations that aim to advocate for investments and policy changes that affect LGBTQ lives. As a leader of this coalition, her services include policy support, facilitation, training, initiative development and organizational redesign. Since she began leading the coalition, they have raised more than $5 million of investments in LGBTQ programs.

Later this fall, she will work with the DC LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition along with the ANC Rainbow Caucus to convene the first LGBTQ+ Housing Summit from Nov. 29-30.

ā€œThe one thing we all recognize is that housing is the common denominator of every other social affliction facing LGBTQ communities,ā€ she said.  

At the summit they will focus on the barriers within the current housing system and explore revitalized approaches to dealing with the current housing market. To pre-register for the event, visit the LGBTQ+ Housing Summit website.

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Comings & Goings

Former D.C. resident opens art gallery in San Francisco

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Jonathan Carver Moore

The Comings & Goings column is about sharing the professional successes of our community. We want to recognize those landing new jobs, new clients for their business, joining boards of organizations and other achievements. Please share your successes with us at: [email protected].

The Comings & Goings column also invites LGBTQ+ college students to share their successes with us. If you have been elected to a student government position, gotten an exciting internship, or are graduating and beginning your career with a great job, let us know so we can share your success.

Congratulations to Jonathan Carver Moore on opening his contemporary art gallery in San Francisco. The gallery specializes in working with emerging and established artists who are BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and women. As the only openly gay Black male-owned gallery in San Francisco, Moore is committed to amplifying the voices of the often-underrepresented artists through a Black queer lens. He said, “I want the gallery to be a place where the LGBTQ+ community and people of color walk inside and see themselves knowing that they belong. I want us to be able to collect work from and support underrepresented artists who are often overlooked, but add some much value to our culture.”

Moore is also the founder of ARTUCATED, a digital journal that helps share, spotlight, and educate people about marginalized artists. Previously he was director of Donor Relations, Partnerships & Programming Director with the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco. He was Communications Manager, Rosenberg Foundation; and Associate Director of Public Relations, Out & Equal, San Francisco Bay Area. 

Moore earned his bachelor’s in Sociology, Women’s Studies, from George Washington University in D.C.; and his master’s in Public Relations, Advertising and Applied Communications, also from George Washington University.

Congratulations also to Jim Bobick on having his paintings included in a permanent collection by Saks Fifth Avenue. He said, “I am thrilled Saks Fifth Avenue chose my art for its permanent collection. I have long been a customer of the store and an admirer of the fashion designers represented there. I am especially pleased to know my work is on public view in the Chevy Chase, Maryland store. Not only did I grow up in the area, for part of my education I attended art school nearby, where I had the good fortune of studying under the notable painter Allen Dester Carter of Washington, D.C., whose work is in the Smithsonian collection. My ties to the Washington area art scene and my love of Saks makes this professional moment especially important to me. I am grateful and honored the store chose my paintings for their collection.” 

He has had numerous exhibitions of his work, including: Gallery 101 Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (solo); Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, Fla. (group); Studio B “Delicacies” Washington, D.C. (group); Columbia Art Center “Abstract Paintings” (solo); and Gallery 50 “Freestyle” (solo) Rehoboth Beach, Del. He has been written about in several publications including Michael Mills, Jim Bobick Creates Landscapes of the Mind at Gallery 101, New Times; Arterpillar South Florida Arts Blog; Stefan Braham, Eclectic Expressions, Coastal Style Magazine; Artist Looks Beyond the Temporal Beauty, Coast Press.

He earned his bachelor’s in Visual Arts, University of Maryland, College Park, Fine Art; and attended the Maryland College of Art and Design. 

Jim Bobick
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Arts & Entertainment

2023 Best of LGBTQ DC Readers’ Choice Award Finalist Voting

Vote for your favorite finalists through October 2nd!

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It is time to celebrate the best of LGBTQ+ DC! You nominated and now we have our finalists. Vote for your favorites in our 2023 Best of LGBTQ DC categories through October 2nd. Our 2023 Best of LGBTQ DC will be announced at the Best of LGBTQ DC Awards Party on October 19th and our special issue will come out on Friday, October 20th.

Thank you to our sponsors: ABSOLUT, Heineken, PEPCO, Shakers, Infinite Legacy.

VOTE BELOW OR BY CLICKING HERE!

ARE YOU A BEST OF FINALIST? DOWNLOAD ASSETS HERE!

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