A mother can be many things. The word can be used to describe a female parental figure; biological, adopted or found. In drag culture, a mother is a protector and a mentor.
Best friends and co-founders of Mother’s Lounge, Trent Shepherd and Montanna Mercer, opened their bar with this exact idea in mind.
Looking around Baton Rouge, Shepherd recognized it’s often difficult deciding where to go out because there aren’t many places with a big mix of LGBTQ+ people.
“And that got me thinking, if we feel that way, we can’t begin to imagine how trans, nonbinary, and other parts of the queer community in Baton Rouge feel,” Shepherd said.
With Mother’s Lounge, Shepherd and Mercer wanted to create an inclusive space for the whole LGBTQ+ community, not just for gay men and lesbian women.
From that idea, Mother’s Lounge blossomed. The name comes from ballroom culture, an underground LGBTQ+ drag scene that originated in 1960’s New York. In that era, the term “mother” came to signify a person who’d take in wanderers off the street, giving them a safe place to be.
Many parts of Mother’s Lounge are an homage to the past.
A woman’s likeness used in the lounge bar’s brand, for example, is based on a picture of Mercer’s mother from a glam shoot she did in the ‘80s.
Customers walk through great red doors to reach the bar’s mirror-plated front hall. With a marble counter, velvet booths, giant mirror balls and an outdoor seating area, the lounge bar frequently draws a crowd and always has something going on.
Mother’s Lounge is open every day but Monday, with drag performances every Friday at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. and karaoke on Sundays. The bar also recently started a weekly event called Mother’s Motion Pictures, showing two movies each week on Wednesdays.
Since the bar opened, Mother’s Lounge has been an active part of the Baton Rouge community. The lounge has teamed up with local nonprofits such as the Mystic Krewe of Apollo and Baton Rouge Pride, according to Shepherd.
“We definitely took a risk,” Shepherd said, “and seeing people come in, let loose and be themselves is a success in itself.”
Support for Mother’s Lounge has been overwhelming, Shepherd said. Friends and members of the community have all shown up and shown out.
Drag performer Dylan Pontiff has been working the red-velvet framed stage as Mother’s show director since opening day.
Pontiff, better known by his drag name Santana A Savage, has been performing drag since 2010. Thirteen years ago, he was the youngest winner of Miss Gay Louisiana at just 21 years old.
“This place is absolutely gorgeous,” Pontiff said, recalling his first impressions after seeing the completed lounge.
Having performed as Santana A. Savage at another gay Baton Rouge establishment, Splash Nightclub, Pontiff said there isn’t much difference in performance styles. There is, however, more intimacy in the closer quarters of Mother’s, Pontiff said.
Mother’s Lounge is a 21-and-older bar. Pontiff said it’s nice, especially for the bartenders, to not have to worry about selling alcohol to underage college students.
“It’s nice to have a venue that’s catering to adult gays,” Pontiff said.
According to Shepherd, Mother’s Lounge opens its doors to all members of the community, including straight and/or cis allies—but the bar will always cater to the needs of the queer community.
A frequent attendee of Mother’s, Alex Marcantel said he heard about the lounge from social media and from having lots of friends in the bar industry.
Marcantel said his favorite time to go is during the day, when the environment of the bar is the best for having conversations with friends and bartenders.
“Depending on what time and what day you go there is a different vibe,” Marcantel said.
In fact, the first time Marcantel went was on Mother’s opening day.
“My first impression was very friendly, very chill,” he said.
He called Mother’s Lounge a marketable middleman between Baton Rouge’s two other prominent gay bars, Splash Nightclub and George’s Place.
Marcantel said that Splash can be a little too “clubby” for middle America and that George’s feels more like a dive bar.
Marcantel also said it surprised him how kept-up Mother’s was, that he was used to legacy bars that have been around awhile or bars that appeal to a younger demographic that just don’t have the “upkeep.”
“You kind of get used to that certain bar feel, and then this is definitely more elevated,” Marcantel said.
Another patron of the bar, Angel Fernandez, said he usually only goes at night.
“At night it gets kind of full, so it turns into more of a disco club setting,” he said.
Fernandez also said Mother’s Lounge is unlike any other bar he’s been to in the area, like walking into another world.
“God, you forget you’re in downtown Baton Rouge,” Fernandez said, “You’re in this beautiful, red building with a giant disco ball on either side of the room.”
