Help Us Open Lilli’s: A Sapphic & Queer Bar in Arlington, VA

She opened her home. Now we're opening Lilli’s.

More than 50 years ago, lesbian activist Dr. Lilli Vincenz saw that queer women in Northern Virginia needed somewhere they could gather, connect, and simply be themselves.

So she did something remarkable...She opened her Arlington home to them.

Throughout the 1970s, Lilli hosted the Gay Women’s Open House, welcoming women into her home week after week to meet one another, talk, listen to music, build friendships, and find community.

Lilli later remembered: “Lots of women who didn't know where to go… they just wanted to be in a place that was safe, so we provided that.”

More than half a century later, we want to carry that legacy forward—right back here in Arlington.

We're building Lilli’s Bar: A Sapphic, Queer Space, a lesbian-owned bar and restaurant celebrating queer joy, community, and the extraordinary LGBTQ+ history of the DC/MD/VA area. Coffee and community during the day, cocktails and ambiance at night.

We need our community to help us open the doors.

Our Goal: Raise $200,000 to Bring Lilli’s to Life

Opening an independent bar and restaurant requires significant upfront capital. We're raising $200,000 through grassroots community support to help fund the costs of securing and opening an approximately 1,500 - 2,500-square-foot space in Arlington.

Funds raised will help us pay for expenses such as:

* Securing our future space and lease-related startup costs

* Construction and renovations

* Bar and kitchen equipment

* Furniture, tables, seating, and fixtures

* Licensing, permits, insurance, and professional fees

* Initial food and beverage inventory

* Technology and point-of-sale systems

* Signage and branding

* Pre-opening staffing and training

* The many other startup expenses required to get our doors open

Every donation—whether it's $10, $25, $100, $500, or more—moves us closer to opening day.

And if you can't donate, sharing this fundraiser, showing up at our pop-up events, and bringing friends is an enormous way to help!

️‍ Why Lilli’s?️‍

Lesbian and sapphic spaces have always been about more than having somewhere to get a drink. They're places where we find each other.

Where friendships begin. Where first dates happen. Where chosen families form. Where people walk into a room and, sometimes for the first time, realize: I'm not the only one. I'm not alone.

Lilli understood that more than 50 years ago.

Our goal is to create that kind of gathering place for a new generation—while making sure the history that brought us here isn't forgotten. Where we pay homage to the queer folx who paved the way for us today.

Lilli’s will be a sapphic-centered, welcoming and inclusive queer space for lesbians, sapphic people, queer people, gender-diverse people, and the friends and allies who celebrate our community. Men are more then welcome, but just not centered in this space.

This will be a place to eat, a place to drink, a place to meet, a place to celebrate, a place to belong. And above all:

A place for queer joy.️‍

Who Was Dr. Lilli Vincenz?

Dr. Lilli Vincenz wasn't just an Arlington resident. She was one of the pioneers of America's LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.

After being discharged from the Women's Army Corps because of her sexual orientation, Lilli became a lifelong activist for LGBTQ+ equality.

She participated in some of the earliest organized gay-rights demonstrations in Washington, D.C., became the first lesbian member of the Mattachine Society of Washington, appeared on the cover of the groundbreaking lesbian publication The Ladder, documented the early gay-rights movement through film, and helped establish the publication that eventually became the Washington Blade.

Later, Lilli became a psychotherapist and continued serving the LGBTQ+ community, including working with queer people affected by the AIDS epidemic.

But one of our favorite pieces of Lilli's legacy happened quietly inside her own Arlington home. When queer women needed somewhere to go, Lilli made room for them.

That's the spirit we want Lilli’s to carry forward.

Lilli’s Is Already Beginning

We aren't waiting until opening day to start building this community.

Our first-ever Lilli’s pop-up is happening October 2 at the Crystal City Water Park in Arlington! RSVP free here!

It will be our community's first opportunity to experience Lilli’s before we even have walls—a night of sapphic community, queer joy, history, food, drinks, and fundraising for our future permanent home. And this is only the beginning.

Over the coming months, we'll continue hosting pop-ups, community events, and fundraisers while searching for the right Arlington location to become Lilli’s permanent home.

Follow @lillis.dmv on Instagram to watch us build Lilli’s from the ground up.

Whether you give $10 or $10,000, you're becoming part of the story of Lilli’s.

Donate today. Share this fundraiser. Come to a pop-up. Tell your friends. Help us bring Lilli’s home to Arlington.

Fundraising Goal: $200,000

Instagram: @lillis.dmv

lillisdmv.com