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Friday, March 29, 2024
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Songbyrd

Record an album and sip coffee at Songbyrd Record Cafe

Songbyrd Record Cafe, a new restaurant in Adams Morgan, offers its customers the opportunity to record their own vinyl records, all while consuming delicious cafe food. Created by Alisha Edmonson and Joe Lapan, the cafe is a gem for foodies and music lovers alike.

Edmonson and Lapan named the cafe after Charlie Byrd, the famous 60s jazz and Bossa Nova mixer. The restaurant sits in the same location where Byrd supposedly conjured up the inspiration for one of his albums, according to the Washington Post.

Visitors can record an album of their own for a fee of $15. Guests can record three minutes and ten seconds of anything on a 7 inch vinyl record. Those who are musically inclined can bring instruments into Songbyrd’s 1947 Voice-O-Graph, as long as the instrument fits into the room. If a visitor lacks an instrument, the cafe will provide the aspiring recording artist with a guitar.

Before guests record their masterpieces, they should take a look at the restaurant’s menu. Every food item on Songbyrd’s menu is named after a band or song, like “Love Me Do,” a beef on a baguette sandwich, and “Little Richard,” a veggie muffaletta. The cook serves the decent portioned options in a colorful way that can only be described as “hip.”

While the sandwiches at Songbyrd will satisfy most customers, the open-faced focaccia pizza are the cafe’s most notable dish. If you can’t decide what to order, try the Mumbo Slice pizza, which is topped with pork, pineapple and other goodies. Or, if you’re in the mood for something big and heavy, try the Jumbo Slice pizza, a pizza topped with provolone and pepperoni. Songbyrd also offers delectable coffee and espresso. The restaurant’s organic free-trade coffee and espresso live up to high expectations of even the snobbiest of coffee experts.

Songbyrd’s Mumbo Slice pizza (Danielle Bourn/The Eagle).

While waiting to be served, guests can browse Songbyrd’s assortment of records for sale and test them out at listening stations before making a purchase. Jazz and Brazilian vinyl records line the shelves of the cafe, accompanied by plenty of blues, indie, classic rock, soul and funk records.

Songbyrd has a plethora of vinyl record items for purchase (Danielle Bourn/The Eagle).


Songbyrd Record Cafe might be the perfect hipster date spot of Adams Morgan, much like Kramerbooks of Dupont Circle and Chinatown Coffee in Gallery Place. The cafe blends the love for the old with the inevitability of the new, giving the cafe an aura of nostalgic modernism. So, take a trip to Songbyrd Record Cafe, eat some pizza and give all those indie bands some competition with an album of your own.

How to get there:

Where: 2477 18th St., NW

Metro: Woodley Park/Adams Morgan, Red Line

dbourn@theeagleonline.com


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