Finding Salsa spots in Washington DC

November 30, 2005 (updated December 8, 2005)

Trying to find up-to-date information on good places to go dancing is a challenge. Internet has made searching easier but popularity of various venues can be highly fluid. Even the venerable Jimmy Anton's Social in New York has been going strong only for about 12 years, and it would have been possible to find out that Jimmy's is the place to be for last 5 years or so via internet. London's SOS cannot have been existence for more than a decade or so (a pure guess on my part), and hint of its reputation could have been garnered using Salsa chat forums like one operated by Salsa Mafia for last couple of years and starting this year via general club listing and review site londonsalsa.co.uk. In Cambridge, Club Salsa (now the center of LA style Salsa in Cambridge) has been around for about 2 years, and JC's latindance website offers well-updated listing of Salsa venues and dates although no explicit review of Cambridge venues exists (of course, it may be possible to get an idea from my blog). For Washington DC, Clarendon Grill apparently is the premier weekly spot and has been for couple of years at least; it's possible to guess that this is the case after extensive internet research. However, this was quite difficult in part because there is not a single website devoted to listing all venues let alone review various venues and also because of existence of many outdated information floating about.

During my research into DC Salsa, I found two cool websites called greatdance.com and stuckonsalsa.com. I liked these website mainly because they were comprehensive and allowed me to get a good picture of Salsa scene in Washington DC area as whole, rather than simply advertise their own events (not that there's anything wrong with such an approach).

As its name suggests, greatdance.com covers many types of dances, not just Salsa. The forum operated by greatdance.com may be of interest to DC and visiting dancers. Avid readers of Salsa Mafia might be amused by this thread, which lists places to go for Salsa dancing as of a month ago (and therefore already outdated) - hint: the list itself is not the source of amusement by the way. The calendar operated by greatdance.com (in a format similar to that of salsanewyork.com) looked great and pretty when I first started my research about Salsa in DC back in September, but it content seems to be getting increasingly out-of-date.

Within a short period of time, stuckonsalsa.com seemingly has become the liveliest of the DC Salsa websites. The website itself is sprawling with Salsa-related material and is updated very frequently. Although the website is a little messy, I really liked the content - I think the enthusiasm and energy of Earl Rush (the founder of stuckonsalsa.com) is evident throughout the website. Like greatdance.com, stuckonsalsa.com has list of DC weekly Salsa events (this list is currently up-to-date). It has a forum, which only got started in the beginning of December 2005. One of the more incredible part of the website included profiles of large number of regular DC Salseros/Salseras apparently posted with permission.

List of weekly Salsa venues in DC seems to get outdated very quickly and it takes fair amount of effort for anyone to keep track. It seems to me that venues (usually restaurants, taverns, lounges, etc) where Salsa dancing is held does a good job of keeping up-to-date information on what's going on. So in the list I'm making below, I give links to both the venues and promoters when possible. Short commentaries are attached (along with links leading to my personal impression of the venue).

Clarendon Grill - Mondays - Seemingly the best weekly spot DC has to offer currently as implicitly suggested by the amusing thread mentioned above, by another older post I read in a private forum, and also confirmed by Sergio, who has done some research of his own. Read my post for my impression of the venue. It is located in Arlington, and the closest Metro station is Clarendon about 1 min walk away.

Barking Dog - Tuesdays - This is the apparent leader of Tueday battle royale in Bethesda. Also refer to my post for more details. The closest Metro station is Bethesda about 2-3 min walk away.

South Beach Restaurant - Tuesdays and Thursdays - Thursdays might be better bet - also located in Bethesda about 5 min walk from Metro station.

Divino's Lounge - Fridays - Apparently they also operate on Mondays but no longer Tuesdays. It gets very crowded with non-dancers on Fridays until much later. I stopped by for about two hours. Divino's is also located in Bethesda about 1 min walk from the Metro station.

In the aforementioned amusing thread, DC spots like Yuca on Saturdays and H2O (map) or another nearby DC venue on Fridays hosted by Eileen Torres (also see this profile and updates) were also recommended. It would seem that the information regarding Yuca was already one month outdated before the post was made while H2O may have become a mostly non-Salsa venue (merengue, reggaeton, etc) within a month after the post and one week prior to my arrival - I'm not sure about this.

Other recently recommended spots include Zanzibar on the waterfront on Wednesdays in DC and Cecilia's on Thursdays and Fridays in Arlington.

Other potential DC Salsa spots include Cafe Citron and venerable Habana Village.

Finally, a new venture from stuckonsalsa.com is a monthly Salsa social starting in December. It seems promising but who knows how long it will last if at all considering the volatile up-and-down nature of Salsa in Washington DC. Based upon what I have seen and heard, special events hosted by stuckonsalsa.com is more likely to bring out large number of good dancers compared to weekly club nights.