Hailey McDermid is widely known as the heart and soul of Uptown’s The Pump Bar, but she sees it quite differently. As we sat in the darkened pub on a dreary afternoon at the very end of the year, she explained the small bar is her heart and soul.
“It’s more than a bar, more than a small business, more than a job and an income,” McDermid said. “It’s deeply personal, a treasure trove of memories, the one constant as life changed.”
It was her dream, and sadly, it may be a dream that has come to an end.
The post
On Dec. 21, McDermid hit publish on a Facebook post that laid bare the sad truth: The beloved bar at NW 24th Street and Walker Avenue would likely not make it to 2025. To some, it might have appeared to be a knee-jerk move, a snap decision after a particularly tough week; it was anything but. She prepared the post and sent it to The Pump Bar’s general manager, Ijada Travis, to get her approval. She then sent it to every member of her staff.
“I wanted to give them time to absorb the news they had known was probably coming,” McDermid said. “I also knew they needed a moment to prepare themselves for both an influx of concerned patrons as well as the outpouring of love and disbelief on social media.”
Seven hours later, each member of the tight-knit team had given their blessing and the post went live.
“I have tried to be really transparent with our staff throughout this difficult time,” McDermid said, “and I’ve encouraged them to seek other opportunities in case we did have to close.”
Hailey and her husband Ian McDermid opened the bar 10 years ago, and it was immediately one of the busiest bars in the metro. The large patio became a popular spot for the colorful neighborhood and the surrounding community; it was often packed from happy hour to late night. The bar quickly made a name for itself as an alternative to some of the more upscale ones cropping up around the metro. There was intentionality in its bar program.
“We worked hard to deliver craft cocktails without the elitism that was common in that scene at the time and tried to make them accessible and affordable,” McDermid said.
There was method in the madness, as the pair had high hopes of attracting a diverse crowd and establishing the bar as a place for everyone.
“We love that here, burlesque dancers rub shoulders with insurance executives, nonbinary OCU students mingle with local artists, writers and other creatives,” McDermid said, “the old hippies and corporate yuppies chit chat over a Moscow mule and a boat of tater tots.”
As the bar grew in popularity, Hailey’s staff also became more confident. With her guidance, and by working closely with her distributors to provide education and training, the small crew learned more about the spirits they were slinging and became true professionals. She put her top talent center stage at events and cocktail competitions, and the team thrived. Meghanne Hensley and Rainier Crespo frequently represented the team at competitions. The team won Allied Arts’ ARTini twice, and Hensley won Best Bartender in Oklahoma Gazette’s Best of OKC in 2017; they were no strangers to success at Oklahoma Restaurant Association’s Cocktail Shakedown as well as other industry events.
The cocktail competitions proved what a growing chorus of regulars already knew: These were some of the best mixologists in town. The little watering-hole-that-could hit its stride in the summer of 2019, as the patio bustled with business from open to close.
Alex Larrea, general manager of the trifecta that is Tower Theatre, Ponyboy and Beer City Music Hall, sums up the sentiment heard from everyone Oklahoma Gazette spoke to for this article: “The Pump has been really important to me, from the beginning of my time here in OKC. It opened while I was working my first bar job in the city, and of all the amazing locally owned businesses, Hailey and her crew always stood out to me. I’m so fortunate to currently work with several humans I wouldn’t have met if it weren’t for The Pump being The Pump. That bar has been a pillar for many communities, but I can really speak to what it’s meant to bar people like me. They were always willing to host nonprofits, industry events and support anything progressive without batting an eye. If I ever asked Hailey for an inch, she’d give back a mile and then some.”
Sea change
As we’re all aware, even some of the most successful businesses circa 2019 didn’t make it past the devastation 2020 brought. The pandemic disproportionately affected bars, as the entire concept is predicated on people hanging out, elbow to elbow, deciding to stay for one more. While many local restaurants were able to quickly put together successful curbside pickup programs or dedicate more resources to delivery platforms, bars just couldn’t replicate that.
To her credit, Hailey McDermid doesn’t point to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown as the undoing of her bar. She’s careful to note where cultural shifts and her own blindspots have impacted the business. She also knows exactly what she would do differently if given the chance. She pointed to a sea change when it comes to going out.
“Maybe it stems from how much time we all spent at home during the pandemic, or maybe inflation has budgets already stretched to their limits,” she said, “but whatever the cause, people have just become accustomed to fewer trips to the local bar.”
As people age out of the period in their lives where going out with friends occupies much of their free time, they’re not necessarily being replaced by the next generation. Studies show Gen Z is drinking less: a Jan. 1, 2025, article in TIME noted that while overall alcohol consumption has risen, Gen Z drinks less than generations before. Gen Z is composed of people born between 1997 and 2012, and the trend toward this age group drinking less is evident, if not well understood.
Another shift that impacts The Pump: Parents of this era would rather bring their children along with them when they go out, rather than book a sitter and miss time with them. At The Pump, children are not allowed inside the bar or on the patio. It’s not a business decision; it’s the law. As per state statute, The Pump is a Type I bar, as the percentage of food sales is under 35% of the total gross sales per month.
With a kitchen no bigger than a standard parking space, selling enough food to pass the 35% threshold has been next to impossible. The same lack of capital that has been nipping at the bar’s heels for months rules out any current plans to carve out a larger kitchen. In spite of what it means for her business, McDermid totally gets it.
“I’m a mom to a 3-year-old, and I find it hard to leave her at night,” she said. Skipping dinner and bedtime routines for a night out with friends is rare, so I can absolutely identify with them.”
The no-child policy is made further complicated by the fact there are countless local breweries and restaurants where kids can tag along while parents enjoy an adult beverage.
Finally, McDermid and Travis both acknowledge the level of service and hospitality at The Pump degraded over time. Many of the longtime bar staff members left during COVID to pursue other careers or further their education. Hailey and Ian took time away from the bar to start their family. Ian also took himself out of day-to-day operations to pursue higher education. As the duo spent less time at the bar, the hyper-focus on hospitality wasn’t there.
The plan
Given all these hurdles, what hope can there be for The Pump?
McDermid and Travis have a plan.
“We are so fortunate to have an absolutely wonderful landlord willing to work with us and a plan for how to make The Pump better than ever,” McDermid said. “Now we just need investors.”
The plan begins with a renovation. There is room to add on to the building by adding a new seating area to the south of the current building, between the bar and neighboring Pizzeria Gusto. With investment in hand, they also have detailed plans to relocate the walk-in, which would effectively triple the size of the kitchen. With a new kitchen and a lot more indoor seating, The Pump Bar could expand its menu and increase food sales to be reclassified as a Type II establishment, which would solve the under-21 issue.
Additionally, famed local chef Kathryn Mathis of neighboring Pizzeria Gusto has offered to consult on the menu and best practices if McDermid is able to move forward with her plan. A new menu with more variety would attract some of the Gen Z patrons the bar is currently missing, and adding a more robust zero-proof menu would also help draw in a wider group of patrons and friends. Adding a pick-up window open for late-night bites and breakfast fare has been discussed. We can all agree there is a serious lack of grab-and-go breakfast burritos in a city this size, not to mention how well those would pair beloved Pump tots. McDermid and Travis have workshopped a dozen ways to increase income opportunities with a new kitchen.
“Hailey and I are looking forward to restoring the level of service and hospitality to its former glory through further education and training with staff,” Travis told me just after the calendar flipped to 2025. “The plans for remodel and relaunch will undoubtedly boost staff morale greatly.”
There is still a great deal of love for the little bar on Walker, as evidenced by a quick look at the aforementioned Facebook post or the user-generated Reddit post. People reminisced about perching on the patio with friends, sangria in hand, solving the world’s problems. And they did more than wax poetic about days gone by. Many felt compelled to show their support in person, coming out in droves after the post was made public.
As Larrea put it, “The McDermids are still the example I use to describe ‘owners that care’ when discussing what it takes to bring a space to life, especially post-COVID19 quarantine. They have truly created an incredibly fun and safe space to anchor our beloved Uptown District.”
“The business owners in the Uptown district are super close,” said Kristy Jennings, owner of nearby Urban Teahouse. “It’s gut-wrenching to think of not having The Pump as part of that mix. Hailey, Ijada and staff have become such an important part of our little community. I also have a lot of deeply personal experience with how hard it is to do this calculus. Our businesses are so much a part of who we are; it’s hard to separate the two.”
It’s hard not to look at McDermid as a modern-day, rock-and-roll George Bailey. As the temperatures plummet and “Auld Lang Syne” is still stuck in our heads, the outpouring of love and support from a steady stream of customers past and present evokes the final scenes of It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey stood up for the little guy and fought for what was right, even as his own life took one detour after another. In Hailey’s version, our protagonist makes a spot at the table for the misfits and the otherwise overlooked. She creates jobs, makes managers out of busboys and keeps fighting even when — especially when — the chips are down.
“It’s not who you are on your best day that really matters,” McDermid said tearfully. “It’s who you are on your worst.”
After the crazy night brought on by her post, McDermid checked on staff who had worked the rush. One staffer summed up the night, and maybe also life in general:
“It was hell. We ran out of limes. It was also really beautiful.”
Cha Cha Nova will be hosting a fundraiser for The Pump Bar on Saturday, January 25. Please follow their social media to learn more.
This article appears in Stitt’s Top Ten.