52 L Street Northwest
Washington, DC 20001
District of Columbia County
Phone: (202) 488-1204
Fax: unknownWebsite: no website on fileEmail: no email on fileHours: unknown
by Kristina M. on Kinda spendy, what with the watered-down drinks and all. Better than the Regency, but still. Anyway, it is gorgeous here and everything sounds amazing. I'm not an audiophile or anything, but I know what bad acoustics sound like. And these are not them. The space itself is swank and comfortable with its well-kept art deco fixtures, cushy theatre seats, and intimate tables circling the dance floor. Wonderful place to watch a show, as long as you're prepared for an expensive evening. Oh, and last couple notes -- cash only, as everyone has pointed out; and find somewhere else to eat beforehand. You are surrounded by awesome restaurants in North Beach...you'd be happier spending your money there than on sub-par food at Bimbo's.
by Vicky L. on I rarely have to work on Sundays, but when I do, it's usually for some unusual event, which means going into the office at some ungodly hour. Like 8 AM. After having a bad week, I was fully intending on staying home Saturday night, watching some TV and going to bed early so I could be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at work the next morning. Upon returning home after the gym around 8:30 PM, my friend M texted and asked if I wanted to go out with him and some of his friends at DNA Lounge. I told him that I had to work early the next morning, and that I'd just gotten back from the gym. And that is how my neighbor Jul, her sis-in-law and I ended up at DNA Lounge with "LESBIAN MONEY" stamped on the insides of our left wrists. Before 10 PM, the cover is only $6, and after 10 I believe it's $12. We got there a few minutes before 10, waited just a minute or two to get inside, and walked into an almost-empty dance floor with some strange, almost mellow music. So we got a round of drinks and walked upstairs to wait for the rest of the crowd to come in and start dancing. After 10 minutes, the dance floor was still relatively empty and the music still kind of sucked. I didn't know what the place was like for a regular dance floor night, since I'd only been to DNA Lounge for industrial music shows (courtesy of the ex-boyfriend). I looked disapprovingly at my friend M. "I'm going to give this place one hour. If it doesn't get better, I'm going to the Castro." "But I already paid the cover here!" "Dude, stop being such a Jew. I'll PAY your cover in the Castro." "It's the principle!" And an hour later, it did get better. The dance floor started filling up, and so we went downstairs and danced until the house band started their performance. Their music was more rock-ish, so it was a lot of the jumping around type of dancing, but it was fun nonetheless. After their performance, we went back upstairs into their back lounge. There are tables and seats along the walls, a small dance floor and a DJ with more hiphop/trance beats, and there were maybe 6 people dancing, mostly all individuals who wanted to strut their stuff. Super chill vibe, and even when my friend and I went up there, we didn't feel like everyone was staring. Since it was BootieSF, there was a bootleg mashup DJ from the UK that night, and the music was way better than everything else I'd heard. We ended up getting on the platform stage to dance for the rest of the night, until some sleazy sleazeballs started sleazing up on us. Great mixed crowd, great music, great venue for dancing your little heart out (even sans alcohol). People were just there to have fun and not stalk out their next drunken victim, like a few other unnamed bars and clubs. A half star off for the place being cash only and the music sucking before 11 PM, but since I had such an amazing time, I'm rounding it up to 5. Parking is easy, and catching a cab is also fairly easy if you walk to 11th and Folsom.
