A Bistro at Once Cool and Unpretentious

(D.C. Bread & Brew exterior. Even the ampersand seems ingenuous. Image from dcbeer.)

The monoliths of Foggy Bottom start to give way to the smaller, more charming dwellings of Dupont Circle somewhere between M and N streets NW. It is amid this abrupt shift in architectural tone that a mesa-colored, one-story café called D.C. Bread & Brew appropriately cuts off the huge glass federal building preceding it on 20th Street, welcoming passersby going north to an altogether new neighborhood. Here, a government worker on lunch break can sit on the front deck or inside on leather chairs and sip coffee, eat sandwiches and temporally feel like a human being again. Or, Dupont Circle denizens can rendezvous and enjoy the cozy, conscientious atmosphere befitting to any good cosmopolitan.

Around noon on warmer days the few tables out front fill up quickly, but sitting inside when the fans run remains pleasant enough. Order at the counter choosing from a narrow selection of pizzas, paninis, quiche, salads, and a daily special or two priced around $12, the most expensive meal on the menu. A wider breadth of drink offerings boasts organic coffees, teas and wine along with some beers of varying obscurity. Depending on the order, a polite and obsequious server, who always addresses the customer using formal titles (my name was, a bit goofily, Mr. Matt) will carry out the dish anywhere from 5-10 minutes later. Some orders will take a while even with crowds absent.

The quiche, whether of meat or vegetables, is at least two-and-a-half inches thick with a firm crust and rich taste. Order sandwiches on crispy ciabatta bread and prepare to taste one of the better paninis in the District. A reasonable lunch special consists of half a sandwich and a salad with dressing temperately applied. Dishes come and go at a moderate pace, but rarely does one feel rushed by the staff. I’ve sat and read for hours at a small circular table in the dim corner without anyone trying to hurry me along, even after the plate before me had long since disappeared.

It’s not daunting task to find a cool, comfortable coffee shop in the area (see The District Java Roundup Parts I, II and III). Nor are locals hard-pressed for an organic eatery conducive to urbane time-wasting. But with superior food and a natural, welcoming aura, D.C. Bread & Brew rises to a higher level. It doesn’t seem to try in achieving sophistication. It simply achieves it, transcending expectations for an establishment of its sort in a neighborhood like its own. Anyone wandering up on the right street from the city’s financial district must get a fine impression.

The Entire World Stuffed Into a Truck

(The "Saucamobile," parked and ready to dish out the globe. Image from Sâuçá's website.)

A new addition to the fleet of mobile food vendors prowling the District for customers started its engines two months ago. Sâuçá, a yellowish truck with a rotating and ever-expanding menu pasted on its side, serves its sizable title dish – a flatbread wrap encircling world food from any of all six inhabitable continents – for less than $10 each. On a single day, Sâuçá can conceivably cook up pork banh mi from Vietnam, croque-monsieurs from France, fish tacos from Baja, and some old-time American BBQ beef, depending on which global region the customer craves a taste of.

The truck appeared with little flare on campus one day last week. Passers-by stopped to look, but this vendor has not yet amassed a following like the multitudes that flock whenever the purple tidings of Fojol Bros turn the corner. I placed my order after the state of propane availability became ambiguous (growing pains – we understand) and waited around for a short five minutes before carrying away a heavy container holding my beef shawarma, a Middle Eastern dish treated with Chimichurri and Tahini sauce.

An appropriate mélange of vegetables accompanied the tender meat. The seasoning gave character without immersing everything to unreasonable levels. Sâuçá claims that its food is exceptionally healthy – a singular quality that, if given the right attention while dining, one can usually taste. As a meat-eater who buys organic, grass-fed beef every chance he gets, I attest that the multicultural wraps from this vendor taste the way they’re marketed.

Finger foods can get messy, and the staff did not provide a biodegradable spork to fish up all the fallen bits from my order as the pita unraveled. (I didn’t see if any utensils were available at the window). But, after unashamedly using my hands, I devoured everything in the container, and it left me content. A partnering drink would have been nice, but the choices were few and prices somewhat steep ($2 for water, $1.75- $2.50 for tea or coffee). But a brand new urban food vendor can have its minute drawbacks so long as it delivers on what it promises – cheap, unique and appetizing delicacies, without which the city it serves would be a little blander.

Sâuçá delivers. I foresee it conquering this town, one avenue at a time.

Dining in Southwest

(Top-tier eating: City Zen's interior. Image from https://www.ewatravel.com/)

As I've indiscreetly mentioned (read: shamelessly prostituted) in the past, I intern as a copy editor for The Southwester, a monthly, all-volunteer community newspaper serving the District's smallest quadrant. This week, our belated February issue hits the stands, and therein one may find a comprehensive dining guide to eateries within the boundaries of Southwest and Capitol Riverfont (hitherto known as Near Southeast).

Since many of the entries profile establishments unique to the city and neighborhood - including the renowned City Zen and its newer, more casual counterpart, The Sou'Wester, both helmed by James Beard award-winner Eric Ziebold - I'd like to link to our latest issue here. It's in PDF format, so scroll down to pages 7-9 to read our short takes on all the area's fine restaurants:

The Southwester Dining Guide 2009

Happy browsing, and happy dining.

The District Java Roundup, Part III

(There's a new café in town. Image from the Washington City Paper.)

It felt good hiking down to the southern quadrants after the snow trapped me in my Foggy Bottom dorm for a week, fomenting cabin fever like I’ve never experienced before. Both Southeast and Southwest appear in this final post wrapping up the series (for now). The tea has been excellent, and the locales interesting. Hope I can repeat something of this sort in other cities after the semester ends.

Big Chair Coffee n’ Grill – 2122 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE – With good reason, District press paid much attention to this café’s opening a month ago. Previously there had been no coffee shop anywhere east of the river, and on a main street dotted primarily with barber shops and bodegas, the community lacked an adequate space to gather, eat and socialize.
Big Chair assumed that role, and both neighbors and neighborhood leaders seem grateful for it. As I sat down to my tea and French fries (a better combination than you might believe), I saw the garrulous barista look towards the door and suddenly cry out:
“Mr. Mayor!”
Making his way to the counter was not our current triathlete, but a solemn, slow-moving Marion Barry. I never thought I’d sit less than five feet from the Ward 8 councilmember infamous former mayor, especially in such a modest room.
The storefront lacks any affectation whatsoever, save a few political posters, and the orange interior barely holds what’s more than necessary – two tables seating four each, a counter with several stools, and a television switched to CNN.
Food stays simple, too – American breakfast and lunch options, conventional coffee variations and about five or six teas. Beverages are quickly served in generously-sized mugs. Food takes some time, an apparent symptom of the new establishment’s growing pains. Many items listed on the menu were unavailable. I eventually settled on the aforementioned French fries, which turned out to be a crisp, greasy and completely inadvertent treat. At times, the vibe seemed to fluctuate between café and luncheonette.
Not bad for a newcomer, and already popular with the locals. Big Chair seems to have success cornered. All it needs to do is pounce.

Hogate's Café – 800 Water St. SW – Long before a bar named H2O impeded its quadrant’s continual development, or its owner was arrested for tax evasion, Hogate’s Restaurant stood as a classic staple on the Southwest Waterfront. Years later, it reopened with the same name in a larger space across the street, encompassing not just several dining areas but also a café on the southernmost side. This is the first location in many years where area residents can fetch a cup of coffee without trekking to another quadrant.
Many tables and narrow booths fill the dim interior and don’t fill up except on the busiest of occasions. A bar with sparse stools serves hard drinks, and numerous televisions are usually switched to sporting events (lots of Redskins). Overall a very relaxing aura. I could see it as a venue for pre-party cocktails.
The wait staff is friendly enough, but moves too leisurely too often. This is fine when a weekend needs to be killed, or mountains of work need to be completed. But distracting cravings usually return faster than a server. It would help if the food was exceptional, but it really isn’t – basic American cuisine, very typical, and slightly above par at best. I’m sure one would find higher-quality courses in the formal dining room, but for a quick bite Hogate’s has very little to offer.
Coffee, I’m told, is good. Tea selection isn’t bad – waitpersons will present the standard box with 6-8 choices. Wireless works well, and I’ve spend whole afternoons working with my editor. (Oh, be sure to pick up a copy of The Southwester off the stands outside. It’s free, and features my reportage.) The café is a decent place that would not have risen above mediocrity had the surrounding neighborhood not been screaming for such a coffee shop for ages. That alone demands my wishes for the best.

Bourbon Coffee – 2101 L St. NW – Dwarfed by federal buildings in one of the remotest, most anonymous areas just south of Dupont Circle, Bourbon’s storefront is easy to miss. Only a miniscule sign distinguishes it from the architectural monotony and less-than-stellar chains up 21st Street. Inattentive eyes wouldn’t penetrate the windows to make out the cozy décor within. An unknowing pedestrian might be inclined to just gravitate towards the familiar green Starbuck’s sign several blocks down.
But entering Bourbon is like stepping from the arctic into the tropics. Its windows look larger from the inside and let in enough sun to make it one of the most well-lit coffee shops I’ve ever frequented. Furniture consists principally of couches and padded chairs, assuring comfort. Rugs add a degree of homeliness, and coffee-themed paintings grace the walls. Jazz plays from a (somewhat out-of-place) flat-screen television switched to a music-only channel.
Bourbon serves Rwandan coffee, which means little to me but sure made the room smell rich. I believe it’s organic, and supports independent African farmers. I found the tea list impressive – a good mix of conventional blacks and herbals, as well as all sorts from eastern nations and three specially-listed organic flavors. I couldn’t imagine ordering anything larger than a 12-ounce cup, but the store offers 16-ounce servings and larger. The menu also lists cider, Mexican hot chocolate and horchata. Sandwiches and fruit salads seem pre-packaged and run-of-the-mill, but the baked goods are far superior. The croissant was the best I’ve had in the District so far.

Side note: A peculiar instance nearly soiled my exchange with the barista at Bourbon. I heard him say that my order came to about $2.60, so I handed him three singles. He looked at me dubiously, and asked for an additional 60 cents. He must be aching for exact change, I thought, but I didn’t have it, and told him so. “If you find 60 cents, let us know,” he said, and put my payment in the register and closed it up. Now I’m the passive type who wouldn’t raise a fuss over such a paltry amount, but thought it unprofessional – criminal, even – to deny me my change. Maybe five minutes later I realized that he must’ve said $3.60 , not $2.60. I apologized and made amends, but miscommunication really ruins server/patron encounters more than it should.

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Here the District Java Roundup series concludes temporarily. I’ll no longer seek out coffee shops to profile and review, since after these posts I have almost more options for hot drinks in this city than my mind can process. But I know I didn’t hit them all. If an assiduous reader wishes to alert me to a favorite shop I may have overlooked, forgotten or otherwise disregarded for any reason, leave a comment and I’ll seek it out. In the future I’ll make a post of reader suggestions that can grow gradually and continuously so long as I keep getting suggestions. Look for it in the future.

The District Java Roundup, Part II

(Sidamo's outdoor patio. Image, and frame, from http://www.sidamocoffeeandtea.com. One of these days I'll start taking my own pictures.)

Second installment in a series. I’ll probably tackle three more after this post, and temporarily wrap it up next time. But I certainly haven’t frequented every coffee shop in the District – I may have missed some well-renowned establishments – so I’m open to further suggestions, and can always resume Java Roundup whenever the opportunity arises. No reason why this can’t be a living document.

Everything mentioned in my introduction to Part I still rings true.

Sidamo Coffee and Tea – 417 H St. NE – Not far from the bridge, and before where the revitalized H Street Corridor really picks up, Sidamo beckons with a modest and fittingly slim façade. Inside looks like any other hip urban daytime joint, but something distinguishes this one from the rest. The fact that it is, to my knowledge, the only Ethiopian-style coffee shop in the District says something. (About Sidamo or the city? I’m not sure.) Coffee drinkers tell me that Ethiopian coffee is tasty coffee, Sidamo is number one on Yelp, and correlation does not imply causation, but we can probably make some connections here.
I last visited on a sweltering summer day (been awhile…) and bought a smoothie, which presumably makes me ill-equipped to provide an adequate review. But after I consume one of the most gratifying smoothies in recent memory, I feel compelled to throw in my two cents. There seemed to be very little seating inside, but I found a spot in the front without a problem. I later found out about a pleasant outdoor area. Décor was modest inside and out, but never lacking.
I need to frequent this shop, and much of H Street in general, far more often than I do. Though I may be late to the game, Sidamo and the neighborhood that houses it appear promising. Hope I haven’t missed much.

M. E. Swing Coffee Roasters – 1702 G St. NW – I’m sure countless State Department officials send their interns here on caffeine errands. This longtime community relic occupies a tight space beneath the Office of Thrift Supervision, on a corner directly opposite the White House portion of Pennsylvania Avenue, making it a prime destination for tourists and government workers alike. A rare nonagenarian business, Swing’s served the Penn Quarter beginning in 1916, bounced around the neighborhood in the latter part of last century, and appropriately wound up as close to the city’s symbolic heart as possible.
Most customers, I would wager, carry their beverages out, but one may sit down on antique-looking stools at the mahogany counter. The setup, along with the vintage photos on the walls, allow for an archaic air to emanate throughout, recalling a time when such family businesses dominated our cityscape (ah, nostalgia).
The coffee, I’m told, is some of the District’s best. The teas are standard middle-high-end brands, decent enough to spend money on if I were passing by. For all the sentimental rusticity, I couldn’t imagine getting too comfortable and working long hours inside, and only luck will assure a seat. You could settle on the metal chairs outside, amid the less-than-marvelous setting.
But the products should taste good. Not a hangout, surely, but a superior option to Starbuck’s for coffee on lunch break or during the commute.

Soho Tea & Coffee – 2150 P St. NW – A ways west from Dupont Circle on P Street, Soho boasts the roomiest shop, with the most seating, that I’ve visited so far. Interesting art and old Charlie Chaplin movie posters decorate the walls. There used to be couches in the corner, but more ordinary seating supplanted those, to accommodate more people – a bittersweet addendum, since the chairs are none too comfortable, but the place can crowd up on weekends.
To my knowledge, the best selection of teas, and by far the most multicultural in the city. Here I first tasted Assam and Zimbabwe, both excellent. Prices seem steep, but I couldn’t ask for more voluminous mugs. I haven’t yet tasted the sandwiches. The pastries and sweets are decent – once when I ordered two (cherry and lemon something-or-others), I found them difficult to finish. According to a sign at the counter, they demand a $5 minimum charge to use their wireless service. Understandable notion, but it seems pretty draconian. Yelp commentators are certainly unhappy about it.
Despite these minute shortcomings, Soho has become my regular haunt. Proximity helps, and as an unemployed college student I can settle there at times when it’s nearly empty. The staff stays warm and unobtrusive, and the music, ranging from jazz to 90s pop, never gets distracting. I’ve read, worked and met people here, and my taste buds have been satisfied. A fine environment all around.

Soon I’ll venture out of the northern quadrants, and hopefully across the river, to investigate two of three more coffee shops to wind up this series. Check back for write-ups two very new establishments in two promising neighborhoods.

Up next: Hogate’s Café, Big Chair and Bourbon

The District Java Roundup, Part I

(Tryst's interior, unusually empty. Image from purpleplaylist.wordpress.com)

The snowfall that indiscriminately blanketed the District these past few days got me to thinking about hot drinks. I’m not a coffee drinker, but I love tea and cocoa – beverages easy enough to prepare on my own, but nice to occasionally order in a cozy enclave surrounded by people my age.
Even though right now I’d have to traverse what looks like some post-apocalyptic landscape from Cormack McCarthy’s psyche to get to one, this city houses some top-rate coffee shops. After all, a metropolis saturated with youngsters demands environments where they may gather, loiter and lose themselves in their laptops. The following list comprises some popular District java cafés and their finest attributes.

It bears repeating that I am not a coffee drinker. I’ve never finished a full cup in my life, so for this list I judged more on price, comfort and ambiance – factors nearly as important, for these establishments, as the coffee itself. Though I suspect the selection and quality of teas and other hot drinks might reflect the selection and quality of the eponymous product.

Big Bear Café – 1700 First St. NW – Eckington, the neighborhood next up for gentrification and currently stuck in the checkerboard phase, saw its first visibly lucrative business open in 2006. Big Bear attracts young professionals and graduate students who’ve flocked to the area, and in its three-and-a-half years in operation grew from obscure hideout to neighborhood staple.
Inside, distorted Velvet Underground guitar riffs often ooze from the PA over abstract expressionist paintings, beneath which patrons sip Counter Culture Coffee, courtesy of a Nicaraguan-based company that stresses fair trade and sustainability. The staff serves drinks quickly and organic sandwiches slowly. If the tightly-packed tables crowd up, as they’ve been doing more and more frequently, one can sit outside where a housing development across Florida Avenue reminds anyone who cares to notice of the area’s quite recent indigent past.
Sometimes the staff will set up a project to play a film on the wall (camp horror on my Halloween visit). Servers are friendly but not garrulous. Generally customers will keep to themselves, either to spend hours talking within their own groups or working on their Macbooks. Five dollars can buy a sizeable pot of Chinese tea – very tasty tea that previously I had only bought in upscale Chinese restaurants – and all the time in the world to sit around doing whatever.
When no traffic impedes the view one may look across the street at locals sitting on benches before their federal housing. They’ll look right back at the young, more elegantly-dressed people relaxing in the coffee shop. The two parties will be spending the rest of their respective afternoons in vastly different ways.

Tryst – 2459 18th St. NW – The lounge that Big Bear usurped. Dim interior, bluish rectangles glowing on the cushioned seats haphazardly arranged around low tables. Loud jazz or indie music plays from the speakers. Or, on rare occasions, from a live group of musicians. It is difficult to find an empty seat – one must get close to one’s neighbors, even if they interact not once due to the loud music, stifling crowds, or work/studies to attend to.
Which is everything one seeks in their cool coffee shops, no? Up to the beholder, I presume. From behind the counter come moderately-priced drinks and pastries. A full bar goes into operation during the evenings (I believe that, after a certain hour on weekends, the staff begins carding at the door). It fits in marvelously into the Adams Morgan environment – busy into the morning hours, attracting its share of studious loners, rowdy carousers, and with-it scenesters. An ideal place to either begin or end an eventful evening.

Mid City Caffé – 1626 14th St. NW – I couldn’t begin to speculate as to what accounts for the two f’s. Marketing tactic suggesting distinction? Anyhow, this small space tucked above a modern furniture store filled a serious void in Logan Circle – Busboys and Poets would be the only comparable business close by, and I always considered that more a restaurant than a coffee shop.
Easy to miss, Mid City lies up a flight of bare steps, inside a bare room. It always elicited a somewhat incomplete aura for me – maybe it’s the white paint, white tiled floors or unadorned seating. It appears as if the contractors just left. Anyhow, it isn’t very bothersome. If you can find a seat in the two tiny rooms that quickly fill up, things are never all that uncomfortable.
I had only a small selection of teas to choose from, and when I ordered an additional cookie my bill got out of hand. But everything tasted delicious, and I could read undistracted on a seemingly foreboding, but actually rather pleasant, wooden bench. Indie folk music on the speakers never plays hard on the ears.
Not material for a regular haunt, but a place to go when in the neighborhood and seeking coffee, especially to spend time alone.

Well, I'm dead tired. Time to get away frrom the keyboard tonight. I still have many more coffeshops to profile, however, so check back soon.

Up next: Sidamo, Soho and M.E. Swings.

Book Browsing in Dupont Circle

(Kramerbooks and Afterwords Café façade at right. Image from http://www.kramers.com/about.cfm)

It's a rare thing to see three* independent bookstores operate within a short walking distance of one another. Even before the internet threw the publishing industry into an uncertain abyss, corporate behemoths like Borders and Barnes & Noble endangered smaller establishments, and the meeker storefronts generally remained few and far between.
But the neighborhood where Sinclair Lewis wrote Main Street boasts a handful of local bookshops all surviving even in the presence of a Books-A-Million (the area’s one chain, stocking the lousiest selection). Here is the lowdown on my favorite literary emporiums in Dupont Circle:

*I know that Lambda Rising counts as a Dupont bookstore, but since it comes from a GLBT angle, I plan to profile it in a future post on District GLBT places of interest.

Kramerbooks & Afterwords Café – 1517 Connecticut Ave. NW – Open until 1 a.m. every day and 24 hours on Fridays and Saturdays, this bookshop/eatery transcends the lowly standing usually reserved for businesses focused on literature and assumes a loftier, glossier position – that of a nightlife staple. Though most of its profit presumably comes from food and drink, its retail space, outfitted with one of the widest fiction selections in the District, usually bustles well into the night.
New releases, encompassing literature, essays and memoirs, lie to the left upon entering. In front of the distant wall dedicated entirely to fiction, several shelves carry major titles in philosophy and theology, many of which would appeal to the city’s liberal population, but enough that would challenge its groupthink propensities as well.
Closer to the café entrance are the larger history, specialty and self-help sections. Through another corridor one finds the bar (in a bookstore? No reason to ever leave…) and, understandably separate, a decent children/teens section.
Poetry is lacking in Kramerbooks, however, occupying only one part of a slim shelf back near the literature and philosophy. This weak point is common to many booksellers, but after such a strong showing in fiction it comes off a tad disappointing. It makes the place seem incomplete, though only barely.
Prices are average – as a broke college student I wouldn’t make more than two purchases at a time. Service is helpful, but because the place attracts throngs, not as intimate as other independent shops.
The crowd does allow the shopper to flip through pages as long as he or she likes without arousing impatience, but don’t expect to get any appreciable reading done in the store itself – nowhere to sit outside the dining area, and a din of voices and music fills the space constantly. But it’s not an unbearable din, by any means, and the playlists are usually decent and diverse – I’ve heard Fleet Foxes switched to Van Halen in one sitting.

Books for America – 1417 22nd St. NW – Farther away from the traffic circle, tucked in an unusually schizophrenic spot between Soho Café and Club Apex, lies this gem of used bookseller. Books for America relies on donations and volunteers to achieve its endearingly basic mission – encouraging reading and literacy in the District – by offering the cheapest deals on books anywhere beyond a yard sale.
For instance, on my first visit I arrived with $3.50 in my wallet, intending only to browse. I came away with Waiting for Godot, A View from the Bridge and Inherit the Wind. Not an everyday occurrence, especially for frequenting an establishment that looks like part of a shopping center.
The problem with a donations-only bookstore, however, is that the selection can range from extravagant on one day to paltry the next. It depends on how many gracious philanthropists are donating, and gracious philanthropists are scarce these days (I don’t blame them, though). When I bought three of the most eminent titles in drama that day, I essentially cleared out all the relevant titles in Books for America’s drama section. I’m sure it has been replenished since then, but there’s no real way of knowing what you will or won’t find while shopping.
That said, this store stocks plenty. (The bookmark they give away with purchases encourages the buyer to donate their books back upon finishing. I fully endorse this policy, even if I don’t flawlessly live up to it.) With a plain, hectic arrangement, the lo-fi aura within lets the shopper feel as if he or she were sifting through a literary dumping ground, searching for glistening titles both renowned and obscure.
They may be hard to find quickly – if they are there at all – but when time permits the digging can be as rewarding as the discoveries.

Second Story Books – 2000 P St. NW – This is a collector’s bookstore, which means no cheap purchases here. But that doesn’t mean it’s unworthy of a browse, either. Both Second Story’s Dupont and Rockville, Md. locations specialize in rare items, mostly hardcover, that ordinarily only an internet search could produce.
The store’s interior looks more like a library than a local shop, with tall wooden shelves eliciting an administrative vibe. But their contents are far from mundane – in the literary criticism section I came across books so old that their jackets had World War II propaganda written on the inside cover. Though fiction is sparse, I found an edition of Tropic of Capricorn from the first year it legally printed in the United States.
Of course, jewels like these are expensive. Only the tables outside offer any cheap deals, and I found much of their contents sub-par. But taking down an original Mencken, sitting down on the partially obscured chair in the far left corner, and reading a few pages while Billie Holiday played on the loudspeakers made the visit worthwhile. Even though I could never in my dreams afford the book I held, I felt distinguished just having the opportunity to flip through it.
And collectors – this is your local diamond mine. Come prepared to strike it rich.

The Record, the Biz and the District

(Som Records' interior. Image from somrecordsdc.com)

Before you bemoan the oft-heralded demise of music retailers in the internet age, take a walk along the 2300 block of 18th Street NW in Adam’s Morgan until you hear gritty rock and roll playing outside a storefront.
Turn and look up. Manikin legs clad in brightly-colored stockings dangle over a ledge beside a neon sign belonging to Smash, a music and lifestyle store that’s also a wildly successful District staple.
Look down. Crooked Beat Records, specializing in vinyl, sits in a lower adjacent space and fares just as well. Down 18th street, before the incline, Red Onion Records and Books, yet another steady music distribution business, stands tucked next to a drycleaner. Further south, DJ Hut and Melody Record Shop serve Dupont Circle. Over on 14th Street, Som Records stocks only vinyl LPs and faces no serious financial trouble to speak of.
So is this city some sort of anomaly, housing a formidable number of successful music enterprises at a time when others around the country are closing in droves?
It might have something to do with what products the District stores choose to emphasize.
“It’s an accepted theory that the CD industry will not survive,” says Red Onion owner Josh Harkavy, explaining that what sets thriving independent businesses like his apart from failing chains like Virgin and Tower is the small places’ focus on vinyl. He argues that the business model embraced by mega-stores, being CD-based, precipitated their own doom. In the meantime, he adds, vinyl “isn’t going anywhere.”
Matt Goyner, a Crooked Beat cashier with noticeably highlighted hair that seems to explode in a mushroom cloud above his head, agrees. CDs, he says, are more disposable and not as “aesthetically pleasing.” While he admits that LPs will never again achieve the popularity they enjoyed in their heyday, he has noticed an increased interest in the medium that Crooked Beat relies on – though its stock includes all sorts of music products, revenue comes primarily from vinyl. (A seemingly antiquated sign in the window reads, “We sell turntables!”)
“They [LPs] are probably hipper these days,” Goyner says.
National statistics appear to back up these assertions. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, the organization behind the manufacture and distribution of 85 percent of the country’s recorded music, LPs are the only physical sources of music that saw a spike in sales last year. It was a considerable jump – 147.7 percent. Digital sales, by comparison, were up only 16.5 percent. CD sales fell 26.6 percent, and revenue from music videos and DVDs was cut down by more than half from 2007 to 2008.
Total sales for all physical music are down about as much as those of CDs, accounting for the horror stories usually associated with running a modern music business. But for longtime District establishments that never embraced the shiny round phenomena of the 90s, times aren’t so harrowing.
“We’re up and down, but we’re alright,” says Alec Budd, a part-time cashier working sometimes at Smash, sometimes at Som Records, with mutton chops that extend at least and inch and a half from his cheeks. Som deals exclusively with vinyl – large dark LPs decorate its interior like wallpaper – and Budd says that the store puts new products on the stands every week. Like Goyner, he finds the vinyl aesthetic of a higher quality than their smaller, silvery counterparts, citing the superior sound and packaging.
“CDs,” he says, “didn’t even last a generation.”
Over at Red Onion, Harkavy says that in addition to being a better product, vinyl enjoys popularity because it represents a “backlash against the digitalization of music…a return to something real” – something a music fan can hold in his or her hands, a visible piece of culture to add to a collection.
In fact, collectors are the reason independent record stores continue to survive into the twenty-first century. Goyner explains that all the stores in the area “are targeting niche markets” – vinyl collectors, almost without exception – to establish themselves as “destination shops” for the subculture.
Budd expands on this idea, saying that the availability of multiple record stores within walking distance from one another has secured the city’s Northwest quadrant as a place where collectors want to be – music enthusiasts from the suburbs can drive in and make an event out of expanding their collections.
Budd concedes that sometimes changing media can bring about a low period – claiming to have worked in District record shops since the mid-90s, he can recollect a handful popular local stores no longer in existence – Phantasmagoria, Orpheus and Vinyl, Inc. are among the many. Although they tanked, the community they served – the same one now frequenting Som, Red Onion, et al. – stuck around.
“I sure spent a lot of money there,” says Budd.
A report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the recording industry in 72 countries, shows that digital music now makes up 20 percent of the music market worldwide. The U.S. is responsible for half that market, but the most pernicious menace to retailers seems to be music downloaded illegally – 40 billion files around the world were obtained without payment in 2008 alone. For every five albums purchased, 95 are pirated.
But these startling numbers don’t phase local record shops. They are fully aware of the juggernaut that online downloading and person-to-person (P2P) file sharing has become. It bears little consequences on their intended clientele.
“No one will buy a CD for $10-$15 when they can download it [the album] for free,” says Harvaky, but “vinyl never went anywhere.” The collectors he caters to don’t want intangible albums. They want real products for their stashes at home.
The District’s music community also does what it can to keep its record stores – and in some cases, its lifeblood – open and bustling. Local bands play occasional in-store performances at Crooked Beat and Som, and the publicity they offer is rewarding in turn – all the stores mentioned here stock albums from local acts, opening the bands up to a market they need. The retailers do what they can to embrace the community, hoping to maintain their images as hallmarks.
“We’re going to keep going with what we are doing,” says Goyner as another two young, bearded customers descend the steps to enter Crooked Beat. “People aren’t going to stop listening to music, and they probably won’t stop buying it.”