Hello lovelies,

This month has been a whirlwind as we’ve started putting together our team, planned our upcoming event, sent about a million emails, and began overhauling our new space(!!!) to make it ours.

Subscribers to this newsletter get the exclusive stuff so look below for progress pics and a sneak peek at what Val’s will look like when we open! We’re not showing you everything here (buy us dinner first) but you’ll see the color scheme. If you hate it, please direct complaints to 202-456-1111.

LoveFest

We’ve received a lot of questions about our upcoming LoveFest events, mostly variations on “Will there be tickets at the door?”

YES. There will be tickets at the door. And, for attentive newsletter subscribers, just tell us you subscribe to the newsletter for a discount on admission. The event is from 4pm-2am, so it’s long, and we expect to be able to move along whatever line might form at the door (our dear friends at O’Neals have offered their warming towers for the line). That said, we can’t guarantee entry. If you’re sick of waiting, you’re in the burgeoning Lezborhood! Stop by Nikki Lopez right around the corner, Marsha’s down the block, Queen and Rook toward the river, any of the other queer-friendly spots that line South Street and the neighborhood.

If you do stick it out to make it in, reminder that our Wet T-Shirt Contest, which is a fundraiser for Ark of Safety, will begin at 7pm, and we take last call to enter at 6:30. It’ll be a $5 donation to Ark of Safety to enter, and contestants will be given a special Val’s white t-shirt to participate in, if they so choose. Winners get a special prize <3

This is not our official official opening! We will not be open the day after Valentine’s Day! Our official opening date is aiming for mid-March, tba soon. We’re getting some kinks out during this party ;)

Which brings us to our talent.

We have a stacked crew of professionals working with us for this party, and we feel absolutely blessed to know anyone stepping up to get a taste will be in extremely capable hands.

And of course, hosting our Wet T-Shirt Contest, the illustrious Little Piece!

We’re not a cash-only bar, but it’s a good night to have plenty of cash on hand.

T-Shirts

We will have some new merch available at the bar February 14th! Apologies if you can’t make it — we are not selling any merch online right now, or for the foreseeable future. You’ll just have to find a way to make it out here. But don’t worry, we have more merch ideas than there are weeks in the year right now, so we anticipate having plenty of options for everyone, even if they’re all limited runs.

Below you can see our little mockups. The actual shirts look a little better. And yes, it’s ComfortColors.

Progress Pics

Okay okay, now comes the delicious secret back-end stuff, just for the subscribers. I won’t bore you with all the details of everything we’ve discovered that’s gone wrong and how we’ve fixed it, and all the specialists and the cottage industries we have to get in touch with and the wheres and whys of everything from soda guns to heat to waterlines to snow to roofs to gas to kitchen sinks and pipes and pest control and meeting everyone in the neighborhood (hi South St. we love you <3) to papers and papers and emails and emails and emails. Come to the bar and talk to me in person if you wanna hear me kvetch.

Instead, here’s some pics that show how much we painted the other week:

Here’s a little before:

And a little after:

And there’s plenty that’s gone on since then, you’ll just have to visit in person to see the current result! Of course, some of it’s still a work-in-progress. We got big plans of making this the dreamiest bar you’ll enter in Philadelphia, with the funkiest upstairs you’ve ever danced all night in. Just give us a little time ;)

That’s all for now, but expect another update soon post-party, with official opening dates and other little progress pics. If this is TOO MANY emails for you, just stick it out a little longer! Soon enough it’ll just be 1, maybe 2 a month, tops.

And if you were forwarded this email from a friend, be sure to subscribe here!

Until then, we’ll be missing you. Mwah,

-Val’s <3