Tel: 202-466-3922
On the wall outside the front door is the smallest of bronze
plaques indicating that, yes, this is the Eighteenth Street Lounge. If you don't know the club is there, maybe
you don't need to know. And if you do,
you're probably familiar with the world of modern dance music and 24324w2210y techno, where
the names Thievery Corporation and ESL Music carry lots of weight. If you don't recognize those names, you might
find it hard to understand this: Since the Eighteenth Street Lounge opened in
April 1995, people have traveled from around the globe --
They've heard it's the home base of Eric Hilton and Rob Garz, the globally hot DJ duo Thievery Corporation. Maybe Thievery will be spinning the night they visit, but if not, there's a chance one of the two will be hanging out or working while one of their friends -- Thunderball, DJ Farid, DJ Mike B -- spins records.
"We had two goals when we started the lounge," says Hilton, one of the owners. "First, we'd do it for ourselves and friends, and if anyone else liked it, that's cool. Second, we really wanted to hold ourselves to some type of standard, to create a place that was better than just good enough for D.C. One that could exist anywhere on the planet and be special."
Hilton and his partners (including Farid Ali, a k a DJ Farid) have clearly accomplished those goals. On any given night there's a crush of people on the sidewalk waiting to get in, hoping to withstand the scrutiny at the door (no khakis, no ball caps, no attitude), pay the cover ($10, $15, $20 or free, depending on many things, including the time of night, the number of people in your party and the doorman's mood) and be let into the club.
Once in, you walk up a long flight of stairs and into a long room. On one end, there's a small dance floor ringed with couches. Keep going and there's a wooden terrace. Back the other way, you pass the DJ booth and the bar and find yourself in the main lounge. There's a fireplace, lots of couches and a nice view of the streets below. The lights are low, candles here and there. Hardwood floors creak beneath your feet, and framed retro-hip album covers (Latin jazz, cool jazz, swing, mambo, Hawaiian) dot the walls.
A turn to the right and down three steps takes you out of this lounge and into the Gold Room, filled with couches with gold upholstery and lit by broad candelabras. It's a gorgeous room, and the swirling '50s jazz organ set to modern dance beats coming out of invisible speakers is the perfect music for it -- music that was being called "acid jazz" not too many years ago.
Music, in fact, sets the atmosphere throughout the club as much as any other single factor. "The lounge is a place that mirrors our musical sensibilities," Hilton says. "Farid and I had thrown a lot of pre-rave warehouse dance parties, and that got frustrating. We were always wanting to own our own place to do exactly what we wanted and not have to worry about an owner's agenda, a place where we could create the soundtrack, have control of every aspect of the atmosphere."
Up a second flight of steps there's another room, nearly
identical to the one below, but with bluer walls, gilded mirrors and marble
coffee tables instead of wood. There's
another bar, and instead of DJs, there's a band. It's the Originals, and they're playing
"A Night in
It was at the Eighteenth Street Lounge, one month after it opened, that a friend introduced Hilton to Garza, his soon-to-be partner in Thievery. "We started talking at the bar about music that was playing on the system, [Antonio Carlos] Jobim, I think," Hilton remembers. "He was deep into Brazilian music, and I'd been passionate about it for about 10 years, we just bonded over that."
A few days later they got together with their turntables and recording gear and laid down tracks to what would become the first Thievery Corporation single. "We knew we had good chemistry, and right after that, we moved all our gear into the lounge; and since then, that's where we've done everything."
Hilton and Rob "Kalani" Tifford began the ESL Music record label in 1995, and 50 releases later (from Thievery and others, like Thunderball, Ursula 1000 and Avatars of Dub), it's one of the most acclaimed independent dance and lounge music companies in the world. "The label is part of the lounge, and vice versa," says Hilton. "We couldn't have one without the other."
With its couches, hardwood floors, candles and fireplaces, the lounge looks like someone's unspeakably cool apartment, where there's always a party going on. "The reason it looks like a home is that it practically is," Hilton says. "Between the club and the label, we're there day and night, so of course we want it to be comfortable. You'll find us hanging out in front of the fireplace pretty often."
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