A new retro-chic bar paying homage to the early 2020s is scheduled to open in Luxembourg City, and to give it a genuine feel, the owners have decided to require all customers to insert a long swab into their noses before they may take a seat.
“It wasn’t too long ago that 80s stuff was cool again, and then for about a month it was the 90s, but we’re already into the 2000s,” said Twenties co-owner Sam Wenkle, himself in his twenties. “Before we know it, early 2020s nostalgia will be here, and we’ll be ahead of the game.”
The walls of the bar will be decorated with era-appropriate memorabilia including posted reminders to cough into your sleeve, and all servers will be required to wear skinny jeans and light-blue face masks which Wenkle says seemed to have been all the rage back then – along with the now iconic public nasal swab.
“I remember going with my dad to have a steak in the early 2020s, and his phone battery had died so he couldn’t show a QR code that was needed for something – yeah, maybe we should do QR codes, too – so anyway, the manager took him aside and made him jam a swab in his nose.”
“The way he tilted his head back, inserted the swab into a nostril, pushed it all the way in till it tickled his brain, and then pulled it out, all covered with mucus while everyone in the restaurant watched, is so quintessentially early 2020s,” he added enthusiastically.
Co-owner Jackie Neinerbaumer, 22, who is also a big fan of the early 2020s, says that the fun won’t stop there.
“We’ll have Charli D’Amelio TikToks looping on TV screens, and we’re going to have a playlist of early 2020s Post Malone, Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, and stuff like that,” she said. “Oh, and after people do the nose swab thing, we’re going to make them transfer what they retrieved from their nasal cavity to a little plastic container, and then, well, I don’t know,” she said.
“I distinctly remember people shaking them up, but after that, no idea,” she said. “I guess that people in the early 2020s would then keep their snot samples as good luck? Would they wear them as amulets around their necks? Give them to their partners as a gift? We’ll let the customers decide.”
“It’s going to be so cool and authentic,” she added.
