About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Kuro. 3632 Georgia Ave., NW.
Vinyl bars have been very on trend lately with new-ish spots such as Press Club, La Betty, and Oasis: The Listening Bar. The latest to join the club is Kuro in Park View, serving Japanese-inspired food and drinks with a vinyl playlist that will span from Beyoncé to Miles Davis—plus opportunities for people to bring in their favorite records too.
“Authentic listening bars [in Japan], you’re really not speaking that much. You’re enjoying a cocktail, and you’re just in the moment of the music. And people, they take it serious,” says owner Loyd Griggs, an Army National Guard veteran and former government contractor who also previously owned a cafe/bar in his native Chicago. He didn’t want something quite so strict at his own vinyl bar, but he does want to keep the focus on the music: “We’d rather you not be on your phone. There’s no TVs… The sound system is the centerpiece of the bar itself.”
Griggs sourced his vintage JBL 4435 speakers from a collector in New Jersey. “I was able to convince him to sell them to me. It took a while,” he says. The collector wanted to make sure they’d be appreciated by a true audiophile, and Griggs assured him he’d keep the speakers safe behind the bar where no one would touch them.
The bar is open Thursdays through Sundays, and each day is dedicated to a different genre of music, with albums played from start to finish. To start, Thursdays will be devoted to jazz, soul, and blues. Fridays will feature old-school R&B and a bit of hip-hop. Saturdays are for pop, alternative, and light rock. And Sundays are a catch-all with whatever’s by request. Griggs is also encouraging people to bring in their own records during select times: “If you want to hear it on a very good quality sound system, you can bring it in, and we’re happy to play it.”
The food menu features Japanese-inspired small plates, starting with complimentary steamed edamame. Simple dishes include yakitori chicken skewers, pork or vegetable gyoza, miso mushroom noodles, and charred octopus with miso-lemon glaze.
Cocktails also have a Japanese twist—from a wasabi margarita to a smoked-plum Manhattan to a lychee martini. (A handful of cocktails can be made non-alcoholic.) The bar also stocks Japanese whiskies and other other Japanese spirits.
Griggs says the low-lit 100-seat bar is first come, first served with no takeout, because he wants people to sit and enjoy the music. The name Kuro means “black” in Japanese. Griggs says the word refers not just to the color black, “but also darkness and sophistication, elegance and things like that. When you come and see the place, you’ll see that.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind DC’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
