Swipe right: Meet Matt McDermott

by DGO Web Administrator

One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever see, and in this week’s Swipe Right, we only have one eligible single. (Insert sad face emoji here.) We had a tough time rustlin’ up a second single to publish alongside this here cowpoke, but you can change that loneliness – at least in his dating life, anyway. What we’re trying to say is this single bar owner is just a bachelor, lookin’ for a partner…which is why he’s in our magazine in the singles section. So if you know how to ride, or just know the lyrics to this song we’re quoting, you should reach out at [email protected] and tell us about yourself. Or, shoot us an email to be featured as a single. Either way, reach out and touch us via the interwebs. Hands off otherwise.

Matt McDermott

Age: 28

Sign: Capricorn

Occupation: Owner and manager of Starlight Lounge

What’s your poison?Mainly tequila, but I have recently developed a thing for Hennessy. I don’t know why. I’d never drank it in my life until this last year. I don’t know, maybe I listen to too much rap music.

Why are you still single?I guess because having dated girls throughout the earlier part of my 20s, I feel like it is a lot easier for people to date really quickly when they are younger. I’ve gotten a little older and I don’t want to say picky, but I’m not going to jump into anything if I don’t really look at it and see it going well.

What other qualities do you look for in a lady?I look for someone who is independent on their own. And the reason being, working in the bar, there are a lot of gold diggers. A lot of moochers. I’m a generous person, so I don’t want to get taken advantage of. Definitely a good sense of humor because I joke around and talk a lot of shit. And that’s about it, for the most part.

Is there something about you that people don’t really know?I’m left-handed and double-jointed in (points to thumb) that thumb only. I was home-schooled most of my life. I was also brought up extremely religious; that kind of goes hand in hand with being home-schooled. I’ve kind of gone the other way. I guess I’m doing the devil’s work here.

Do you have Peter Pan Syndrome?What is that? I never got around to Googling it.

Peter Pan Syndrome is when you don’t want to grow up.To answer that question, I don’t really want to grow up in the traditional sense of what growing up means, no. But I still want to be 40 and make some still somewhat irresponsible choices in my life. I don’t know. I do want to grow up financially, and keep that going via my actions.

Now that you are a business owner, what are the likes and dislikes of this industry?I’ve always wanted to own a bar, but it wasn’t really a possibility. It’s nice to be in charge. If I have to come here and put away an order, and for some reason I can’t find parking and I’m five minutes late, no one is going to yell at me. I might be a little annoyed with myself, but I like that part. I like the aspect of dealing with people. I like the mental puzzle that is dealing with multiple employees, customers, regulars, and new people. It can also give me a raging headache at the same time, but I think it helps me develop myself as a person as well. If you can communicate well and work through issues with other people, again, it really helps me as a person. Books is what I hate the most, crunching numbers. I almost failed out of freshman math in high school. Numbers have never been easy for me; I was into more cosign, tangent stuff. I guess I hate when people are rude for no reason, too. I’ve been bitten; he was unruly and had to be physically removed. I’ve had people attempt to stab me with the world’s dullest car key. So yeah, that part can be stressful, but in about 10 minutes it’s funny to me.

That’s basically a whole separate question.It’s never really me instigating it. I actually learned the bar business working as a door guy. The biggest thing I learned is even if someone is yelling at you or getting physical, you have to remain as calm as possible and keep it from becoming a physical altercation. It’s brain over brawn. I think that is really character building, too. It takes a lot of self-control not to punch someone in the face. But then you have cops in front of your bar. People are going to leave and people aren’t going to come in. Now, as an owner, I have to keep that in mind.

What do you see for the future of Starlight Lounge?I don’t want to change too terribly much about the bar or the long-running events we have. It’s been a successful business for 12 or 13 years now. So, Rick, the guy who passed it off to me, knew what he was doing. I’m not going to try and reinvent the wheel. Something that will be more of a focus is more live music. We have two resident DJs and an open mic, but we want to go more into that. We’d like to explore the local artists and get involved in giving back to the community through fundraisers. It’s more important than ever that we all work together to support each other. That’s the only thing that may change a little bit.

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