A Halloween-themed pop-up bar is coming back to Mount Vernon Avenue for the fifth year running, and this time the crew behind it says their storage space can barely contain all the seasonal decorations. Nightmare on the Avenue opens Saturday at 2312 Mount Vernon Avenue, taking over the seasonal Del Ray Pop-Up Bar space with Halloween-themed cocktails, bites, and a full month of frights leading up to the big night.
The bar is owned by HomeGrown Restaurant Group, which also runs Pork Barrel BBQ and Holy Cow Del Ray in the neighborhood, according to ALXnow. Customers can expect Halloween-themed cocktails and bites throughout the run, culminating in a spooky party on Halloween night itself, Saturday, Oct. 31. The pop-up will then stay open through Sunday, Nov. 1, before the space presumably turns over to its next seasonal identity.
Before Nightmare on the Avenue moved in, the same address was home to a dive bar concept for four months, which closed up shop in August. That kind of rapid turnover has become something of a signature for the Mount Vernon Avenue address, which has cycled through a rotating cast of pop-up personalities over the past several years.
A Storage Room Packed With Ghosts and Cobwebs
HomeGrown Restaurant Group co-owner Bill Blackburn told the same outlet that the pop-up's storage is bursting at the seams as staff work to install all the decorations ahead of Saturday's opening. Blackburn framed the appeal of the holiday simply, noting that Halloween is a holiday that everybody loves, young and old.
Blackburn co-owns HomeGrown Restaurant Group alongside “Mango” Mike Anderson, and the pair have repeatedly used Nightmare on the Avenue as one of their go-to seasonal creations, according to Northern Virginia Magazine. The Halloween concept has become an annual fixture at the location since HomeGrown began experimenting with pop-up bar ideas there.
A Revolving Door of Themed Concepts
The 2312 Mount Vernon Avenue space has built a reputation as Del Ray's most theatrical piece of real estate, cycling through concepts tied to whatever season or cultural moment is in the air. Per Patch, the address has previously hosted a Miami Vibes concept along with Bartanical and the Christmas-themed Joy on the Avenue.
Before all that, the location spent eight years as The Sushi Bar, according to Alexandria Living Magazine, before HomeGrown began experimenting with the seasonal pop-up format that has defined the space ever since. More recently, the site hosted the Taylor Swift-themed Eras bar, which ran for six months before closing, as previously reported by ALXnow.
The address has also served as home base for a Tiki Bar concept, according to the Zebra, on the same footprint that once housed The Sushi Bar. Each iteration has drawn its own crowd of neighborhood regulars curious to see how the space gets reimagined next, and Nightmare on the Avenue has become one of the more anticipated returns given its five-year run.
Saturday's opening kicks off roughly six weeks of Halloween programming on the Avenue, with the pop-up scheduled to remain open through Nov. 1 before the calendar turns toward whatever comes next for the ever-changing Del Ray storefront.
