Upon approaching the dark, industrial building where Happy Goat’s Coffee Co. is housed, you might think you’re in the wrong place. It becomes evident once inside that this event is no mistake and neither is anyone’s presence here.
This is Mugnots, a multifaceted fundraiser hosted by former employees of the well-loved bar Mugshots with the support of the Worker’s Action Group (WAG).
In July 2015, Mugshots closed unexpectedly, leaving both its patrons and its employees in the dark.
“It happened very suddenly,” said Tyler Goodman, a former employee. “We just received an email the day we were supposed to be open that said the bar was closing effective immediately, and that all our shifts were cancelled with no idea as to when we would get work back.”
The bar was hosted in an old jailhouse building, attached to the neighbouring Hostelling International’s (HI) Ottawa Jail location. On HI’s website for Mugshots, a small statement at the bottom of the page reads, “Please note that as of July 2015, the bar is only open to guests staying at the hostel.”
“Our manager said keeping the bar open was not conclusive to a good hosteller experience,” Goodman said, “which is a complete fabrication because I would personally serve 20, 30 hostellers a night, easily.”
“Even if it’s only locals in the bar, those are all potential HI customers. Those are people that if they saw— ‘Whoa, this is an HI bar? This is what HI bars are like. When I go to Spain, I’m going to stay at an HI hostel because their bars are amazing,’” Goodman said.
The employees of Mugshots hosted Mugnots as a way not only to have the final gathering they were never granted, but to fundraise in order to be able to afford legal counsel. Supporting them in this is the Worker’s Action Group.
Keltie Cameron, a representative for WAG, was heading a display table at the front.
“The Worker’s Action Group is a working group of a broader alliance called the Solidarity Against Austerity, an Ottawa-based alliance of workers, students, and environmentalists that have come together to essentially fight what is an austerity agenda as it expresses itself in Ottawa,” Cameron said.
A line from a WAG handout on the table summarizes their intentions with Mugnots: “The former workers at Mugshots Bar are trying to ensure that what happened to them will not happen to other workers and WAG supports them in this effort.”
Underneath the music and chatter of the event is an undeniable feeling of loss and nostalgia. Ceremony, the popular group of DJs that defined Mugshots, were in attendance.
“For a lot of people who were trying to do dance parties, the courtyard was a very special place to try and do events,” said Eric Roberts, a member of Ceremony.
Another member, Gary Franks, loosely described the style of their music as “disco, some techno, house music. Everything that’s not in a bro bar.”
No one can answer the question of where Ceremony will frequent now. Black Squirrel Books has acted as a performance space for a handful of Mugshots acts in the past, but it is understood that Mugshots was an irreplaceable venue.
Regular Mugshots attendee Ming Wu said, “What’s gone is an arts community connection . . . You’ll be like ‘that’s a cool act I got to see before they hit it big.’”
“If you talk to anyone that worked there they’ll say that it was more than just a job,” said Serene Bayona, a former employee. “It was a place where we all hung out, gathered—a second home essentially.”
