Adams Morgan boasts a new hangout on Tuesday with the arrival of Songbyrd Music House, a three-level bar and restaurant adjoining vinyl record/coffee/sandwich shop Songbyrd Record Café. Owners and neighborhood locals Alisha Edmonsonand and Joe Lapan are behind both ventures, which mix music and food in vintage-inspired spaces.
“We want this to be like a sports bar for the music lover,” says Lapan of the Music House. “There’s enhanced sound, a variety of programming and sources—vinyl deejays, digital deejays—and also just a good atmosphere for people to eat and drink.”
A basement-level venue for live performances is still under construction, and is slated to open this summer. In the meantime guests can listen to recordings and live local deejays who’ll spin tunes on the top floor; Lapan says the vibe is meant to be laid-back during dinner hours, and skew more upbeat and nightlife-focused later in the evenings. Bars on both floors pour straightforward cocktails like Green Hat gin and tonics or “whiskey-ade (whiskey, lemonade, ginger syrup), or beers from taps outfitted with vintage microphones.
Like at the adjoining Record Café, chef Matthew Richardson (previously of 1905 and Right Proper) is behind the menu. Dishes follow the theme of retro American comfort fare—pigs in a blanket, baked brie, shrimp scampi—plus a section devoted to burgers, both beefy and house-made vegetarian. The kitchen will serve the full menu until around 11, and switches over to the Cafe’s late-night lineup of sandwiches and pizza slices after.
Currently the Music House will keep dinner/regular bar hours, with a possible brunch in the future. Songbyrd Music House. Open Sunday through Thursday, 5 to midnight; Friday and Saturday 5 to 2:30. Kitchen open until 11.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
