Entertainment in Washington, DC
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Kennedy Center
Washington’s main cultural jewel is given credit for transforming DC from a cultural backwater to an artistic contender in the late 20th century. The stately white-marble building overlooking the Potomac River opened to the public in 1971. It holds two big theaters, a theater lab (where new or experimental theater is staged), cinema, opera house and concert hall (and the fine Roof Terrace Restaurant to boot). It is home to the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington Chamber Symphony, both directed by Leonard Slatkin, the Washington Opera (www.dc-opera.org), directed by Placido Domingo, and the Washington Ballet. Film festivals and cultural events are frequent hig…
reviewed
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B
Cafe Citron
So here’s the thing, ladies: when guys want to go out dancing, that’s usually because they’re trying to pick up girls. So here’s the thing guys: when girls go out dancing and dress up really hot, they’re usually just interested in dancing (or ‘letting off steam, ’ ‘chilling with my chicas’ etc). Sociology lesson finished, nothing personifies this dichotomy of affairs more than Cafe Citron, one of DC’s most popular Latin music bars (in fairness, it plays everything, but the focus is salsa, samba et al). Girls dance; guys watch; night goes on. Then guys come in who actually can dance, local guys grumble, girls get happy, realize their dancing partner is …
reviewed
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C
Blue Gin
When it opened a few years back it attracted the likes of Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn (in town to shoot the popular movie The Wedding Crashers), instantly putting this trendy cocktail lounge at the top of Washington's hot list. Its residential location, however, means pretty strict conditions liquor-wise and no one under 25 is allowed. As a result the crowd here is more mellow, less worried about the scene than at some of DC's other hip spots.
This doesn't mean Blue Gin isn't a good place for singles; it is. There are two levels. We like upstairs best - it has lots of good-for-sinking couches, plenty of funky sculptures and two bars. If it's crowded, however, getting pa…
reviewed
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Little Miss Whiskey’s Golden Dollar
If Alice got back from Wonderland so traumatized by a near-beheading that she needed to start engaging in heavy drinking, we’d imagine she’d often pop down to Little Miss Whiskey’s. She’d love the decor: somewhere between Wonderland’s most whimsical moments of surrealism and the dark nightmares of a lost drug addict, all mixed with a heavy dose of Cure video Goth-Glam. And she’d probably go ape-poo for the excellent beer and whiskey menu, served by savvy bartenders who are hand-picked veterans of the DC nightlife scene. These guys have specifically been selected to run this spot, and as such Little Miss Whiskey’s feels like a bartender’s bar, although to be fair…
reviewed
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E
Verizon Center
When the sparkling $200 million, 20,000ft-high MCI Center opened in 1997 (the name change occurred in 2006 after Verizon bought MCI), the streets surrounding it were, to put it lightly, a bit gritty. Families definitely didn’t wander out this way. All that changed within a few months of the stadium opening – sports bars, shops and restaurants bloomed like neon flowers, luxury condominiums replaced old tenements and all of a sudden, the most dangerous thing on the block was bad traffic and rude teenagers. Basketball teams the NBA's Washington Wizards (www.nba.com/wizards), the WNBA's Washington Mystics (www.wnba.com/mystics), the Georgetown Hoyas (www.guhoyas.com) and the …
reviewed
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Fedex Field
The Redskins play September through January at FedEx Field, but rare is the opportunity to actually see them play here. There is a miles-long waiting list to buy season tickets, so there are never tickets left for individual games. The only exception is when some are returned to the box office by the opposing team, which you can find out about by calling the stadium two or three days before the game. If you have your heart set on seeing the ’Skins in person, online agents will be pleased to sell you tickets with a hefty markup. To get here, drive to FedEx Field by taking the Central Ave exit from I-495, or walk to the field from Morgan Blvd Metro station (1 mile). …
reviewed
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F
Rose’s Dream Bar & Lounge
Go-go, the DC style of local music that’s a cross between funk and an improvised drum line, occasionally dusted with a bit of hip-hop, has been a fading genre in the District. But Rose’s keeps the beat alive. It’s one of the few go-go clubs left where a white out-of-towner won’t feel like they’re interloping in someone else’s territory; the clientele is primarily black, but this is a mixed crowd as these things go. Coming here is a DC cultural experience – go-go really is the city’s own brand of music, resented in cities as close as Baltimore – but beyond that Rose’s is plenty fun, with good bartenders working the line and karaoke, dance nights and live shows blowing up t…
reviewed
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Madam’s Organ
Madam’s Organ ‘Where the beautiful people go to get ugly, ’ according to the T-shirt. It’s not far off the mark – this is the kind of perfect dive where you’ll see a beautiful girl shaking her ass on the bar one minute and puking in the bathroom the next. An enigmatic ramshackle place that’s been around forever, Madam’s Organ was once named one of Playboy magazine’s favorite bars in America. The live jazz, blues and bluegrass can be downright riot-inducing. There is a roving magician, a raunchy bar-dancing scene, and funky decor with stuffed animals and bizarre paintings on the 1st floor. God bless you, you weird and wonderful Organ – keep DC strange.
reviewed
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Wonderland
She’s gotten almost too popular over the years, but Wonderland is still one of our favorite bars in DC. A sawdust-and-sweat mix of punk and hip-hop, this bar embodies the Columbia Heights vibe – kinda edgy, always eccentric and up for a good time. The interior is clapped out in vintage signs and found objects to the point it could be a folk-art museum, the outdoor patio is a good spot for meeting strangers and the upstairs dance floor is a good place to take said strangers for a bit of bump and grind. Trivia: this used to be Nob Hill, which was the longest-operating gay bar in the country (from 1953 to 2004), a major stop on the African American drag-queen circuit, and (o…
reviewed
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I
H Street Country Club
The Country Club is two levels of fantastic-ness: the bottom floor is packed with pool tables, skeeball and shuffleboard, while the top contains (seriously) its own minigolf course ($7 to play), done up to resemble a tour of the city on a small scale. You putt-putt past a trio of Lego lobbyists, through Beltway traffic snarls and past a King Kong–clad Washington monument. The whole vibe of the place just facilitates a relaxed atmosphere where it’s very easy to strike up conversations with strangers – if you’re shy and new to town, we’d highly recommend joining the Country Club, as it’s hard to leave here without hitting up some random in conversation (‘Nice chip, dude’).…
reviewed
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Aroma
If you’re a fan of the TV show Mad Men, you’ll love this spot. There’s a pronounced fascination with the 1950s: it’s filled with those kidney-shaped coffee tables and old sofas; the tiled bar serves up the scotch and ciggies; and in general, whenever we come here we want to smooth out our suits and sexually harass our secretaries (that’s a Mad Men reference – we’d never actually do that). That said, this is a politically incorrect bar in one important way: because Aroma does so much business in the cigar-selling trade, it’s exempt from the smoking ban, so if you’ve got a thing against secondhand, you may want to steer clear.
reviewed
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Room 11
Room 11 is a little too accurately named: this place really isn’t much bigger than an ambitious living room, and as such it can get pretty crowded. On the plus side, everyone here is quite friendly, the intimacy is warmly inviting on chilly winter nights and there’s a nice, spacious outdoor area for when it gets too hot inside. The crowd here is hip sans pretension, munching tapas off an evolving menu, sipping some excellent wines hand-selected by the management and enjoying some frankly kick-ass cocktails. There’s beer too, of course, but we really recommend you order something that was once a grape, or order off the mixed-drink menu – that’s where these cats excel.…
reviewed
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Saki
At first Saki’s basement lounge gives the impression of being a little like a psychiatric institution: low white ceilings, white walls, white floor and tables. But after a while your eyes adjust and you realize that creatively placed rectangular panels are bouncing constantly changing rainbows of light around the room, bathing the trendy couples sipping cocktails at the corner table in a wash of fire-engine red and dusty orange. Light shows aside, Saki is best known for its DJs. The space is small, but locals recommend it for the music, especially on Fridays when you get a mix of old-school funk and electro house. On other nights the DJ music ranges from acid rock to brok…
reviewed
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Red and Black
The Red and Black claims to be a New Orleans–style bar, and we’ll accept that assessment. There are no brass bands rolling through, but if there were they wouldn’t feel out of place in this wooden shack, which has all the dilapidated charm of the best parts of the Big Easy. This is first and foremost a live-music venue, where sets are played so up-close and personal you feel like you could kiss the singers (that’s probably a bad idea, as they tend to be tatted graduates of the rock-and-roll school of hard knocks). Bartenders are friendly, and when the R&B isn’t hosting a ripping show, it feels like a friendly-as-hell neighborhood joint.
reviewed
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Firefly
Firefly is a restaurant first, but we haven’t eaten here yet and can’t judge it by those merits (other reviews seem to indicate it’s quite good on the culinary front). We can say it’s one of the coolest bars in Dupont, decked out with its surreal, magically happy ‘firefly trees, ’ all candle-lit and reminiscent of childhood summer evenings, and romantic as hell to boot. The cocktail menu is a glorious thing; knock back an Opal (rum, chai spices and cream) and see if the world doesn’t just glow a little more…wait, that’s the firefly trees. Whatever – still happy!
reviewed
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Raven
The best jukebox in Washington, a dark interior crammed with locals and lovers, that neon lighting that casts you under a glow Edward Hopper should rightly paint and a tough but friendly bar staff are the ingredients in this shot, which, when slammed, hits you as DC’s best dive by a mile. One of the greatest nightlife events that occurred over the course of this book’s research happened here: a friend gave another friend a $20 bill, then told him, ‘Make this alcohol.’ Ten minutes later, second friend came back with roughly a case of Schlitz from the bar. That’s quality, people. Quality.
reviewed
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Café Saint-Ex
Reminiscent of the Parisian Latin Quarter crossed with a U St lounge, Saint-Ex is always good for a night of sweaty flirting and heavy imbibing. Different DJs spin tunes every night and there’s never a cover charge, although there’s often a crowd. A bar salvaged from a 1930s Philadelphia pub, seats from an old movie theater and classic movies running on the TVs all lend a nostalgic air, but the folks inside are anything but: this is young, hip, popped-collar country. The downstairs lounge plays up the aeronautic theme with a wooden propeller from the owner’s grandfather’s WWI fighter plane.
reviewed
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Palace of Wonders
The Palace was one of the leaders of the charge that turned H St NE into one of the coolest parts of the capital. It is, frankly, what DC has always needed: a semipermanent freak show. Upstairs is a circus of oddities, local genius James Taylor’s museum of the odd, twisted and awesome. Downstairs is a kickin’ bar that attracts a pretty punk-ish crowd; on weekends, a cover charge (usually around $20) gets you in for all-night performances of sword-swallowing, flea circuses, fire eating and magic tricks. It’s extremely fun, and what DC needed to offset its admittedly large preppie population.
reviewed
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Love
Where does Beyoncé play when she’s in DC? Yo, where is the Love? If you’re going to go to a multifloor megaclub in DC, make it this gorgeous spot, where you’re basically the star of your own Usher video. Dress to impress (the code is strict, no sneakers or baggy jeans allowed) as this club attracts thousands and lines form out the door. Friday nights see a predominantly hip-hop-heavy menu and African American crowd. Saturdays are more diverse, with international electronica pumped through the speakers and a mixed crowd. You need to drive or taxi out here.
reviewed
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Round Robin
The bar at the Willard Inter-Continental Hotel is likely the most famous drinking institution in the city. The word ‘lobbyist’ was invented here during the Grant administration, and too many politicians, heads of state, journalists and other bigwigs have passed through for this book to list. The small, circular drinking space is done up in Gilded Age accents, all dark wood and 19th-century flourishes, and while it’s a bit tourist-y, you’ll still see folks here likely determining your latest tax hike over a single-malt Scotch.
reviewed
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9:30 Club
The 9:30, which can pack 1200 people into a surprisingly intimate venue, is the granddaddy of the live-music scene in DC. Pretty much every big name that comes through town ends up on this stage, and a concert here is the first-gig memory of many a DC-area teenager. The calendar is packed with a random assortment of big names – Justin Timberlake, The Violent Femmes, George Clinton, Wolfmother and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, to name a few. Concerts usually include around three acts, with the headlining band taking the stage between 10:30pm and 11:30pm.
reviewed
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Looking Glass Lounge
Petworth's best nightspot is an artfully designed neighborhood dive with a great jukebox, DJs on weekends and a fine outdoor patio.
reviewed
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Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse
Ice-cold beers and second-run films at bargain-basement prices? Who could resist that? Not many people. You need to be 21 to enter (or with a parent), but once inside you will find comfy chairs for flick-viewing, a menu of sandwiches, pizzas and, of course, popcorn, as well as a selection of alcoholic drinks (this is one of the few places in DC where you can drink and catch a movie at the same time). Some nights the theater skips the movies and hosts stand-up comedy instead. Check the website. There are also family-oriented programs some weekends.
reviewed
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Le Bar
Ah, Le Bar, elle est si belle. This is the kind of spot you should rightly enter in a trench coat in the midst of occupied Paris whilst delivering secret documents to a very attractive member of the Resistance…er, we’re getting carried away again, aren’t we? But seriously, that’s kind of the vibe: all chandelier-like European glitz mixed with a bit of Washington power-player muscle, a heady combination that’s as strong as the bourbon. The outdoor patio is wonderful on spring and humid summer nights.
reviewed
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Granville Moore’s
Walking into Granville’s is like walking into a medieval pub where the hobbits have tattoos and a bit of attitude. It’s sweetly dark, redolent with the pure smells of beer and slow-cooking meat (oh yeah). The whole place screams cozy, and the food is fantastic: big meaty burgers, sandwiches, smoky bacon, runny cheese and bowls of shellfish, all accompanied by mountains of perfectly prepared frites. The fireside setting is perfect on a winter’s eve, and locals have been known to fall on their faces over the bison cheesesteak.
reviewed
