Slammers, one of the city’s longest-standing LGBTQ bars, is turning 25 this year. Just in time for Pride 2018, the bar will reveal a newly renovated space featuring an open air patio and a new mural painted by local artists Summer Schultz and Misty Temple.
“We’re trying to keep up with the times,” says Slammers GM Nikki West. “We haven’t felt pressure [from the changing neighborhood], but it was just time. We just want to make things nicer for our customers for them to enjoy.”
The updates have been the brain child of hers and Slammers owner Marcia Riley for a while now, says West, but they finally put the ball in motion last August, with the installation of a garage door that opens out to the back. It allows both indoor and outdoor patrons to get in on the live music performances they have every second Friday of the month; and it opens it up for the special events they host as well, including birthday parties, wedding showers and receptions, and bachelor and bachelorette parties.
While Slammers is getting a mild facelift, it’ll keep its well known menu of pizzas, subs and appetizers. West also asserts that the bar maintains its “All walks, one groove” mantra.
“Everyone knows that they’re welcome here. Not just our community, but all of Columbus,” West says.
West started at Slammers four years ago and has since found a home away from home.
“I have found my family in this bar,” she says, “with my friends and everyone here, my coworkers. I just got married in May, and my whole entire side of my wedding party was comprised of people I worked with at Slammers or connections I’d made. Marcia was there. It was very much a Slammers-oriented wedding.”
West says everyone will be able to get in on the 25th birthday celebration on Friday, August 31.
“Well have a DJ and who knows what else,” she says. “It’ll be a big party, and we’re hoping that we have some faces in here that haven’t been in here in several years.”
For more information, visit slammerspizza.com.