There’s a DJ booth in the corner with a reel-to-reel and stacks of 8 tracks and records. Colorful rugs cushion the floors. A Bob Seger song plays overhead.
The Wah Wah Room is cozy and chill, like the back room of a concert hall or a recording studio. And as I stand in line at the bar, I notice a guy in a white dress shirt recording himself.
“I’m here at the Wah Wah Room, and it’s very cool, very eclectic. I dig it,” he says into his phone, whirling so his viewers can see the cork-paneled walls adorned with photos of ’70s stars like Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. “Well, we haven’t had the drinks yet, but I bet they’re gonna be great.”
He turns his camera on a lady in a tight skirt who’s photographing two cocktails: one with a candy cigarette on the rim and one served in a ceramic flamingo mug. She agrees with him: the drinks look great.
I peruse the menu of boilermakers, $12 craft cocktails, and shots—which, I learn upon ordering The Unicorn, are more like delicious mini-cocktails. A tattooed bartender tells me that the Wah Wah Room launched in May. It’s open only Thursday through Saturday, but the eventual plan is to serve drinks five days a week.
My friend and I find a comfy spot and watch as a waitress in rainbow platform sneakers carries drinks to the patio. Nearby, a couple gets cozy. One of the bartenders tells the man in the white dress shirt to check out the restrooms (which I later discover are covered in celebrity portraits). The guy bounds off down a narrow hall, phone in hand. He passes a neon sign with a message: Living my best life. It feels relevant, so I take a photo of it.
