Press Club is a basement record bar in Dupont Circle, styled somewhere between a 1970s cocktail lounge and a 1990s record shop. The room is small, warm and seated, with the drinks programme borrowing its language from A-sides, B-sides and track lists.
Records play from beginning to end. The collection moves through soul, hip-hop, new wave and other genres, which gives the evening the pace of full albums rather than a sequence of isolated crowd-pleasers. A high-end system keeps the music present without pushing the room into club volume.
This is the relaxed end of the record-bar spectrum. Cocktails carry as much ambition as the shelves, and conversation remains part of the room. Press Club suits anyone who wants to follow an album while still having a proper drink and an unhurried night out.