Like the 1996 film The Birdcage, in which a Gay couple running a Queer club must hide their queerness to appease their conservative in-laws, the former employees of Jake’s on 4th in Olympia reportedly found themselves in a similar predicament with the bar’s ownership.
When it reopened in July 2025 after being closed for multiple years, not much was known about the new owners who decided to take over the beloved, historically Queer establishment. But after a Halloween night drag show gone awry — one in a long line of grievances from staff — new information has been revealed.
Multiple Queer employees have since quit, due to alleged mismanagement and exploitation. Charles Burk, Arthur Gottlieb, Nicole Swigert, and Chad Swaney have all since come out publicly to share their side of the story on social media, which has been creating LGBTQIA+ community pressure on the establishment.
On November 10, a post by the owners of the Jake’s on 4th Instagram account responded to the mounting criticism.
“We will not tolerate negativity inside of Jake’s nor on our social media platforms,” the post stated. Dismissing the claims made by its former employees, the bar also wrote, “We’ve been under attack recently, threats, organized negative campaigning, lies, twisted stories.”
Taking it a step further, the owners also stated that “we are pursuing the perpetrators to the full extent of the law.”
On November 29, Gottlieb told the SGN that a Lesbian bar patron was assaulted and called homophobic slurs while trying to enter the establishment. He also said this patron has since filed a police report, further heightening concerns that the bar that was once known as a safe space for LGBTQIA+ people no longer is.
It had remained publicly unknown who these new owners of Jake’s on 4th were — until now. Here is the story of how Matt Acker, Paul Gallagher, and Adam Lukomski came to run a local Gay bar — and decided to push their drag and Queer staff out, according to testimony of former employees.
Rebuilding the bar
Swaney and Gottlieb, both Gay DJs, shared their experiences and struggles working at Jake’s. Burk, Swaney’s husband, also performed for Jake’s and hosted shows as his drag persona Synergy. The bar has a long history of being a safe space for Olympia’s LGBTQIA+ residents, according to Gottlieb, who was born and raised in the city. “I used to actually work at Jake’s under the previous ownership years and years ago, and I grew up going in there,” he explained. “It was kind of like a staple in Olympia and a rite of passage for all of us to work there at some point in time.”
Now living in Tacoma, Gottlieb shared how excited he felt once it was announced that the bar was finally coming back after sitting vacant for five years. As soon as the new management got the keys, he described volunteering for several days to help clean the space, which had become filthy with mold. That is when Andrea Pareigis, known by locals as “Dryte,” reportedly tasked him to also paint a mural for the space.
“I spent probably like the better part of a month and a half painting that mural, well over a hundred hours,” Gottlieb recalled. He described the mural as having a Wizard of Oz theme, featuring a giant rainbow with Glinda and Elphaba kissing in the corner. An estimated $700 of paint was used to create the artwork, all out of his own pocket. He was also never reimbursed.
At the time, Gottlieb said he was glad to have donated the money, time, and energy toward rebuilding the space for the community. “You don’t have Queer spaces unless Queer people show up and make it happen,” he said.
This was also the mindset of Burk who, working with his husband through their company, Drag Daddy Productions, helped to produce the bar’s drag shows and promotional materials for social media free of charge. “I actually had a big hand in their early programming when they launched,” he said.
Burk listed the things he did in the hopes of revitalizing Jake’s as a local Queer institution, such as the booking of its drag and burlesque shows and MCing the “Star Struck” talent shows and “Friday Night Lights.” An informal agreement to do this for free to help get the bar off the ground. “It is probably one of the most perfect bars for Queer entertainment,” Burk explained.
Gottlieb reported agreeing to help the bar further by DJing on Fridays and Saturdays when it first opened. He worked five hours a night (from 9 p.m. to closing), but only made $200 a night during that time. “The going rate for a DJ is $100 an hour, and so I was being significantly underpaid for that,” he explained.
Another element of the bar that was in serious disrepair was its sound system, left over from the previous owners. Swaney told the SGN he began DJing for Jake’s on 4th starting in September, taking over for Gottlieb on Friday nights. Swaney recalled rebuilding the system for Jake’s: “I went in multiple times, did a lot of troubleshooting, and set up the sound system and told them what kind of sound system to buy.”
Swaney also contributed in other ways, setting up go-go boxes and a catwalk for the drag performers. He did not ask for compensation, like Gottlieb, wanting instead to help a local LGBTQIA+ space thrive. He only requested to be reimbursed for the materials — which has not happened as of press time. There was no formal contract or labor agreement between Jake’s on 4th and Swaney and Gottlieb for these services except for the DJing itself.
Jake’s on 4th has not responded since November to the SGN’s request for comment.
New owners, new rules
All four former employees observed a disconnect early on between what the Queer staff and performers at Jake’s on 4th were doing, and the vision the new ownership had for the space. Swigert shared with the SGN that she had worked at Jake’s for seven years under the old owners before leaving in 2014 to focus on raising her kids, while her husband continued working there until it closed down in 2020. “We’ve been a part of Jake’s for a very long time between the two of us,” she said.
Swigert reported being asked by Dryte to rejoin the bar in July. She explained how Dryte served as the public face of the bar, to both the community and staff, while behind the scenes, Matt Acker and Dryte’s brother, Adam Lukomski, were the ones primarily running the business.
Before the bar reopened, she described multiple planning meetings in which Acker, who is also the owner of the Port Angeles Lefties baseball team and a mobile bartending business, initially took more of a back seat while Lukomski and his sister where more hands-on. “We were never paid for those,” Swigert mentioned.
But it didn’t take long for conflict to arise. “Friday Night Lights” was the bar’s inaugural drag show, which also served as its grand reopening. Both Gottlieb and Burk reported it having been a smashing success, with a full house, line outside the door, and much of the social media promotion done for free by Burk via Drag Daddy Productions.
However, soon new directives were given to employees, delivered by Dryte via Acker. Swaney paraphrased the conversation: “It’s starting to look like we’re only a drag bar, and the other owners weren’t really comfortable with starting be known as the drag bar, because that was not really aligned with the image they wanted.”
All four former employees gave examples to the SGN of alleged misbehavior by Acker. Swigert explained how he would allegedly take bartenders and security staff from Jake’s for his own events without giving notice, putting staff and patrons at potential risk. In another instance in September, Swigert reportedly saw Acker come into Jake’s while under the influence, along with an older gentleman who brought in two young women. She shared how Acker committed several inappropriate acts that night, including taking people behind the bar to grab drinks. “That was disturbing, because it’s really not the energy for me that I would want at Jake’s,” she said.
Swigert also noted how one of the inebriated young women kept touching the go-go dancers. But the most concerning incident for her was when Acker took one of the women into the upstairs area, reserved for performers and staff. She later saw another man carry down the woman over his shoulder, and related how Dryte was furious at Acker afterward for bringing people into a space where people leave their personal belongings.
But this was not the only instance in which Acker was observed engaging in this behavior. Gottlieb also said of Acker, “A number of times I had seen him behind the bar, groping his girlfriends — which … were never the same woman. He’d have his hand up their skirts behind the bar while they’re drinking and dancing. It was absolutely disgusting.”
De-queering Jake’s
Burk shared with the SGN how Acker, and also Gallagher, were antagonistic toward the drag-related events produced at Jake’s. Before Halloween night, he explained, “there was all of this tension already, and constantly [it was] ‘Matt’s got a problem, and Matt doesn’t like that, and Matt has this issue.’”
For example, when Swaney put up a “Destroy the Heteropatriarchy” poster near the DJ booth, Gottlieb witnessed Acker tearing it down. “Matt came across the sign and flipped the fuck out and like ripped it up and yelled at everybody,” he said.
This was not out of the ordinary for Acker, according to Gottlieb, who said that there were “so many instances like that about him not wanting it to be a Gay space.”
Another incident that Burk described concerned a planned Sunday drag show called “Church.” The theme was supposedly called “blasphemous” by Gallagher, as it made him uncomfortable, according to what Burk was told by Dryte. But ultimately, the explanation he was given was that “it does not match their vision of inclusion… meaning a space for everyone with all political viewpoints.”
Unsatisfied with how they were using the term, Burk said, “I had to go back to tell them that is exactly not what inclusion is. But they didn’t want to hear that.”
Gottlieb also had objections to how this language was used by the bar’s owners. He pointed out that “as a hetero person, you can walk into any bar and feel safe. We [Queer people] don’t have that luxury.”
One element of the story Burk addressed was that the official reasoning the bar’s ownership gave for why drag was canceled was inaccurate.
He explained how, weeks before, there was a strategy meeting between the owners to decide on what to do about drag, with Dryte and Lukomski being for it, and Acker and Gallagher against. Ultimately, the decision was reached to end all drag after Halloween.
“This whole narrative that they canceled drag because of scheduling, and how things went down on the Halloween show, is an absolute fabrication,” Burk said. “I was literally canceling [drag performers] the first week of October.”
Burk said Lukomski told him, “Matt [Acker] thinks drag is bad for the weekend brand.”
Swaney also gave further details: “They agreed to let us do the Halloween show, but canceled the November and December shows. And in fact, they agreed to still pay the performers, even though there wasn’t going to be a show. That is how badly they didn’t want to have drag.”
Swigert reported that she and multiple others left the bar in mid-September, objecting to both this new direction and Acker’s behavior and treatment of staff.
Halloween walkouts
But it was ultimately the aforementioned Halloween drag show that pushed tensions to their breaking point between the remaining Jake’s employees and its owners. According to Burk, he came into Jake’s the evening of the final drag show to find the space not only unprepared but also in a different configuration from a previous event. It was not until 20 minutes before the show’s start time that Burk was able to start getting into drag as Synergy.
He listed the things that had to come together frantically: “We’ve got to get the catwalk set up, we’ve got to get the lights set up, we have to get the fog machine set up.”
He recalled going into that night’s show knowing this was going to be a problem for Acker. As he explained, “Matt’s number one sticking point, the thing that pisses him off the most, is the show running late… I knew that, but I couldn’t control the fact that we started 35 minutes late.”
According to Swaney, who was running the DJ booth, it was 10:11 p.m., during the show’s last performance, when Lukomski walked across the stage to confront Burk. Speaking into his ear, Lukomski said, “Matt’s furious! Shut this show down now!”
Burk explained how, turning away from the audience, he responded: “You can tell Matt [Acker] that if he has something to say, he can come fucking down here and say it to my face. Secondly, we’re late because of y’all. So don’t you take this out on me. Third, how dare you interrupt someone’s number? We still have a costume competition that we promised them, and we’re going to have the costume competition. I don’t fucking care what Matt [Acker] thinks, because we promised that and we promoted it and it is my reputation. So, after that, y’all can do whatever the fuck you want. But for right now, we’re going to finish this show. We are going to have the costume competition, and then I’m never setting foot in your fucking bar again.”
He told the SGN that when the show ended moments later, the on-stage altercation felt like the final straw of disrespect from the bar’s owners toward him and everything that the Queer staff had done for them. In his view, he felt that the moment was the universe’s sign for him speak out to the audience about what they’d all been going through: “I would like to let you know that drag has been canceled on the weekend. We will not be returning, because it’s not good for their brand, according to them. What we have learned is that it is okay to be Queer during the week, but how dare be visibly Queer on the weekend. Apparently they needed our Queer dollars to open this bar, but now that it makes straight people uncomfortable who want to dance, the drag queens are getting the boot.”
Swaney left alongside his husband that night, and the day after, Gottlieb followed in their footsteps. “Toward the end of the night, I got on the microphone and said, ‘This is going to be my last song. I appreciate everybody dancing their ass off, but Matt Acker does not want Gay people anymore,’” Gottlieb said, “and the crowd went crazy booing and saying ‘fuck him.’ It was quite the spectacle.”
The aftermath
Gottlieb was the first to speak out publicly over social media about the events at Jake’s. He explained to the SGN that after making his post the following Monday morning about why he left the bar, Dryte gave Gallagher his contact information. He described how Gallagher, to whom he’d never spoken directly before, pleaded over the phone to take down his Instagram post. “He literally started the conversation with: ‘My wife’s boss got shot in the neck, and I’m that conservative investor that you’re mentioning in your post. And I’m worried that people are going to do some investigation and try to figure out who I am and hunt me and my wife down. Cancel culture is real.’”
When asked whether this was in reference to Charlie Kirk, Gottlieb said that although Gallagher didn’t reference him by name during their call, Dryte had shared with him some information, including that Gallagher went to the Kirk funeral with his wife and sat next to Vice President JD Vance. However, the SGN could not verify this information independently.
It was also during this conversation that Gottlieb discovered that “Matt Acker had been feeding lies to Paul [Gallagher]. He claimed that I pulled the fire alarm on Saturday, which I didn’t do. He was claiming that there were drag shows three times a week, which there weren’t. There was at most two a month.”
Gallagher allegedly tried to bribe Gottlieb to delete the posts, to which Gottlieb explained that the impact had already been made and he wasn’t interested.
Gottlieb reflected on the outcome of the events. First, he felt that Dryte, as a staunch LGBTQIA+ ally, had been used as a tool. “I know for a fact that they brought her on board because the old owner probably would not have sold to them without her and her reputation in town,” he explained.
However, he also didn’t think she was completely off the hook either: “I think it came to a point where she decided to protect her investment over fighting him and just kind of became complicit.”
Despite the SGN delivering copies to the establishment since its reopening, Swigert, Gottlieb, and Burk all reported never seeing a single copy on display in the bar while working there.
Burk had a final message for the owners:
“Change your fucking name. Stop trying to be Jake’s. Like, we’re not going to ask you to be Queer. That is clearly not your jam. Stop the pinkwashing, stop the extraction, stop the appropriation. Change your name, be the bar that you really envision. Stop trying to be something you’re not.”
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