Live music and DJ venue Eighteenth Street Lounge, which closed a year ago after more than 25 years in business, has signed a lease for a new space in Shaw’s Blagden Alley.
The address is officially 1230 9th St. NW, and the new club’s main entrance will be on 9th Street, though it will open up to access Blagden Alley.
It will be a two-level club with bars on each level, and a rooftop deck. It will occupy 5,300 square feet in total, which is smaller than its previous space.
Owner Farid Nouri says the new club will be in line with the layout of his previous space, which had multiple rooms with different music options. It will include food service.
“Being in Blagden Alley means ESL neighbors complementary establishments include Michelin-starred restaurants,” Nouri said. “After a full year of searching with my retail specialist Valerie Mnayarji of Monument Retail, we were able to identify this location as the most appropriate new space for our update concept to cater to the demographic that is the base of ESL.”
Nouri provided few other details about the revamped Eighteenth Street Lounge. It is scheduled to open this fall.
The former Eighteenth Street Lounge’s eclectic Dupont Circle row house was spread across several levels that were full of velvet couches and fireplaces and was known for a wide variety of music, including jazz, funk, reggae and Latin. It hosted live bands five days a week.
It closed permanently in June 2020, mostly because of pandemic-era restrictions on live performances last year.
Nouri recently threatened legal action against the owners of a club that plans to open in the former Eighteenth Street Lounge location, claiming its name “Lounge” infringes on his trademark.
