PHOTOS: Swingers Crazy Golf Opening Party

Swingers Crazy Golf is an adults-only miniature golf sensation imported from London. It hosted a private VIP party Thursday night before it opened its doors on Friday. And judging from the crowded turnout, the “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom now includes putters.

DSC_8582a - Washingtonian — Symone Sanders (senior adviser and chief spokeswoman for Vice President Kamala Harris), Shawn Townsend (director of DC Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s Office of Nightlife & Culture), Betsy Fischer Martin (executive director, Women & Politics Institute at American University), and Jonathan Martin (national political correspondent for the *New York Times*).

JGA_1552a - Washingtonian — IA Interior Architects designer Shannon O’Toole tries her luck at the windmill obstacle.

Fans of the now shuttered Buffalo Billiards and Front Page will recognize Swingers’ familiar Dupont Circle location. But that’s about the only similarity. The new two-story, 20,000 square-foot venue has undergone a complete revamp in order to transform itself into a self-styled 1920s English country golf club.

DSC_8546a - Washingtonian — John Falcicchio (DC Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and Chief of Staff to Mayor Muriel Bowser), Susana Castillo (press secretary for Mayor Muriel Bowser), and Sarosh Olpadwala (DC Director of Real Estate in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development).

DSC_8554a - Washingtonian — Kate Bennett (CNN White House correspondent) and Elizabeth Thorp (vice president at Sunshine Sachs).

Guests are welcomed via a ground floor entrance, where they are greeted by a colorful and airy cocktail bar. For anyone who’s looking to simply enjoy one of the more than 20 cocktails on the menu, the journey might end there. But for those looking to partake in a round of “crazy golf,” the real fun requires a trip down the clock-tower staircase to the lower level, which boasts two nine-hole miniature-golf courses.

DSC_8557a - Washingtonian — Philanthropist and entrepreneur Susanna Quinn and clinical social worker and therapist Glennon Gordon.

JGA_1572a - Washingtonian — Swingers’ clock tower connects the ground floor bar area with the lower level golf courses.

Swingers’ “secret sauce” combines mini golf with a theatrical backdrop, thumping music from live DJs, craft cocktails, and gourmet street food. For the latter, co-founders Matt Grech-Smith and Jeremy Simmonds have partnered with DC-based KNEAD Hospitality + Design to feature mini outposts of its existing restaurant locations, such as Lil’ Succotash, modeled after chef Edward Lee‘s Succotash in Penn Quarter, and Tu Taco, serving Mexican street food from Mi Vida at the Wharf chef Roberto Santibañez. Pastries and soft serve from NYC-based bakery Mah-Ze-Dahr are also on the menu.

DSC_8538a - Washingtonian — Chef Christian Plotczyk (KNEAD Hospitality + Design director of culinary operations) presides over the kitchen at Swingers.

DSC_8547a - Washingtonian — Neil Grace (head of media relations, North America, at McKinsey & Company), Nikki Schwab (*Daily Mail* senior US political reporter), and Rodell Mollineau (co-founder and partner at Rokk Solutions).

The DC location of Swingers is the company’s first outside of London, and a NYC location is scheduled to open early next year.

JGA_1524a - Washingtonian — The Clubhouse Bar at Swingers.

DSC_8572a - Washingtonian — Jennifer Hawkins and ABC7 anchor Michelle Marsh.

“We’d been looking at the East Coast [because of its] proximity to London, ” said Grech-Smith. “And we came to DC; didn’t know a lot about it at first. But fell in love with it. It’s got a great food scene, a real going-out culture, a very sophisticated locale. And we just knew that a Swingers would work really well here.”