Do you need to be drinking to have a good time? To socialize? At the Upper Room Connections Café, they think not.

"Where do you go to meet people? You go to a bar. And for a lot of people, that's just not where they want to be or what they want to do," said Terri Palmer.

Palmer is one of the founders of the Connections Café, an alcohol-free option for Friday nights, hosted by Hollywood Church of the Nazarene.

"We're a late-night weekend venue," said co-founder Craig Haskell. "We have a bar-like atmosphere where you can shoot pool, listen to music, hang out, and have that social bar feel. We just don't serve alcohol, that's all."

While it is hosted at the church, the event is intended for the community as a whole.

"We make it so it's not in your face," Palmer said. "We are still a religious establishment, but it's the first thing we're talking about. We're not going to be pulling out the Bible; we're not going to be Bible-thumping."

The event is intended to cater to a wide variety of ages and audiences.

"It benefits people who might have a history with alcohol and need a social place to go, but it's not just geared to that," Haskell said. "It's also geared to people who are just trying to get away from the alcohol."

In addition to being alcohol-free, the café is completely free of charge. They do have a jar for donations, but there is no obligation.

"A lot of people will go to a local restaurant for karaoke or something, but of course when you go to those places you have to spend money," said Junell Zambrano, Haskel's fiancée and a regular at the café. "For some people it's like, 'Do I have money to go hang out tonight?' whereas we are providing a venue where people can come, have a great time, and kick it with new people without worrying about spending $50 or $100."

One frequent feature of the Connections Café is live music.

"We have either someone booked to do a set or we'll have people get up and do some song as more of an open-mic night," Haskell said. "A lot of people just feel free to bring their instruments in. The idea is just to be a venue."

In addition to having musicians, they often stream football games or show movies. Sometimes they even book special performances like stand-up comedian Matt Merchant, an L.A.-based entertainer who is originally from the area.

"I already feel like a regular," Merchant said after one performance at the Connections Café. "It's warm and very inviting; everybody is very supportive. The aspect that I have to use only clean material is a fun new challenge, but to have people here who just want to be here and are enjoying themselves is great."

In addition to entertainment, the café offers free refreshments for guests.

"We always serve food," Palmer said. "Also anything that's alcoholic, like piña coladas or strawberry daiquiris, we make non-alcoholic. I'm a bartender, sort of … the dry bartender. We can even do mudslides without the booze."

Currently the café has an average of about 30 attendants, but the numbers continue to grow.

"There really isn't anywhere else in the area that does something like this," Haskell said. "So as word has been spreading, we've been having really good reactions and a lot of new people are checking it out."

"It doesn't matter if people come here for the first time or if they've been coming here for a while," Zambrano said. "We treat everyone like family, and everyone is welcome."

The Upper Room Connections Café is open every Friday night starting at 6:30 p.m. For more information, contact Palmer at 301-844-8082 or visit the community calendar at some.com for weekly updates.
--Republished with permission from The County Times