2008 Official GLBT Travelers Guide - Pride in DC - (Page 8) Nightlife dC’s By Doug Rule ay sway If you prefer a smaller crowd for dancing, the city has a number of options. Mainstay Apex (formerly named Badlands), west of Dupont, just celebrated its 25th consecutive year in business. Cobalt on 17th Street, meanwhile, is open and gay every night, though Tuesdays, for the Flashback retro party, and Thursdays, for the Battle of the Bulge amateur underwear contest, are its most consistently popular nights. You can also get your groove on at the nearly two-year-old Be Bar, near the convention center on 9th Street. Courtesy of the owner’s love of alliteration, basically any night of the week you can expect Britney, boys and big bar tabs at the bedecked bar. You can’t really dance at halo, in the bustling Logan Circle neighborhood, but that upscale lounge plays hip, high-energy club music that’ll make you wiggle anyway. If you’d rather two-step in a cowboy hat and tight, light blue jeans, then sally over to Remington’s in Southeast. This country-pop venue draws a friendly mixed crowd, and not everyone’s there to dance – some just want to play pool or sing karaoke upstairs, others aim to wrangle a wannabe cowhand or even a real-life soldier. (The Marine barracks are just around the corner.) If salsa and merengue are more your speed of dance, get caliente at 17th Street’s Chaos on Thursdays or Fuego at Northeast’s aqua on Fridays. 8 y you’ve lobbied your congresswoman, done the museums and the monuments--now it’s time for the fancy clothes and the dancing shoes. DC’s GlBT-flavored nightlife has been in a serious state of flux for the past few years, as downtown has come roaring back to life and gentrification all over the city has altered the landscape, particularly in southeast DC, home of the DC’s brandspanking new baseball stadium. Whether this is your first or fifth visit, you’ll likely be surprised by the diversity of diversions you’ll find. you’ll also find it increasingly spread out, and to the east of the old “fruit loop,” Dupont Circle. After baseball, the biggest new game in town is Town, the chic and spacious two-floor “danceboutique” that opened November 2007 from the same people behind the city’s former dance party Velvet Nation (another strike-out due to the baseball stadium). Located in the emerging Shaw neighborhood south of Howard University, Town features drag and video shows downstairs; upstairs alternates between youngsters getting drunk on DJ Wess’ “electropoprock” on Downtown Fridays and shirtless professionals partying to some of the gay circuit’s most celebrated DJs (David Knapp, Manny Lehman) on Uptown Saturdays.
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