Subterranean nightlife blues
Young singles go underground for fun after the sun sets

by Kristina Peterson

Silver Spring now boasts a selection of dining options so impressive that a recent Washington Post
Magazine restaurant review listed Silver Spring and DC's Penn Quarter in the same sentence as concentrated areas of culinary pleasure.   But restaurants do not a nightlife make.   When the napkin has been folded and the check paid, must a Silver Spring night on the town come to a premature end, without even a wrist stamp, lost credit card, or broken heel with which to remember it?  

Takoma Park has long had at least some form of a nightlife scene, with live music at festivals, restaurants and cafés--though the Savory Café's "Takoma Zone," where one can apparently "hang out all night long," ends at the less-than-wee hour of 10:30 p.m.  

With the demise of Champion Billiards, the more upscale Galaxy Billiards has become the local place to shoot some pool or down a few shooters.

In search of an establishment open until at least an a.m. hour, my team of irresponsible pleasure-seekers and I turned to Silver Spring, where the nightlife does in fact exist, albeit underground in more ways than one.   What the town's nighttime establishments lack in natural light, it turns out, they compensate for in quirky entertainment of a strange and pleasing variety.

At 10 p.m. on a Thursday, the sound system at Fenton and Ellsworth pipes Haydn's "Water Music" to the crowds mingling outside Silver Spring's myriad of ice cream stores and generic eateries.   We descend the three flights of stairs to enter Galaxy Billiards, where posters advertise a pay-per-view boxing match to be shown on the upcoming weekend.   Inside the bar, an extensive dress code list hangs next to a "United We Stand" sign, already somewhat of an anomaly in this part of the state.   The restrictions include no wearing of sleeveless shirts, trousers with rips or holes, excessively dirty or baggy clothing, brimless hats (though the bartender wasn't quite sure what this category included), and no shirtless vests.  

All this seemed like evidence of a rowdy, rough and tumble kind of place, but Wilma Chi, the hostess in charge of organizing the players on the 27 billiards tables, testifies to Galaxy's relaxed and peaceful atmosphere, where "people come to hang out and have fun" and boxing must share time with wedding receptions, which Galaxy also hosts.  

At the bar counter, the patrons chat together amiably.   John Stauffer, who has moved to Silver Spring from P.G. County only days ago, already wonders at Silver Spring's relative lack of violence. Next to him, Drew Cohen is studying for another kind of bar, but taking a break by laying out cocktail straws in a grid on the counter.   "Pick up three straws to create five squares that are all touching each other," he challenges, and my companion, who is busy singing along to George Michael's "Careless Whisper" playing on the digital jukebox and comparing the bar's layout to the Blair cafeteria, quickly succeeds.  

The bartender, Ed Nilsen, having already won us over with the complimentary chips and salsa available upon request, lists the impressive happy hour bargains, most notably $7 pitchers of domestic beer.   Formerly employed at Sequoia in Georgetown, Nilsen left the DC waterfront and its $14 parking for Silver Spring and its friendly atmosphere.   By my calculations, that's two pitchers of happy hour beer that he's saving every day by working here.   His signature drink is called the O Positive, because, as he says, "it's good for everyone."

Descend another flight of stairs on Georgia Avenue, and you find not evidence of the Great Silver Spring Awakening, but an artifact of the neighborhood it has always been.  

The Quarry House Tavern has been in its location since 1937, and the original menu, discovered during renovations, hangs on the wall and advertises draft beer for ten cents and, for twenty cents, "Our Special Hamburg...As You Like It."   Today the tavern's menu still retains the Grotto Grill, but has added eclectic specialties ranging from the fried oyster platter, hot corned beef, and the taco salad, as well as stating "dessert available from time to time."

Quarry House is an underground   late night spot in Silver Spring.

The tavern sells no hard liquor, but they offer 30 kinds of bottled beer, a range of brews on tap, and even beer to go.   A large, hot-pink machine in the corner turns out to be a KENO lottery machine, the bane of the otherwise very easygoing bartender's existence, since it is he who has to punch in the numbers in between serving drinks.  

In contrast to Galaxy's 36 TVs, Quarry House has one, located unobtrusively in the corner. Framed photographs hang on the wall, including one of the Quarry House dirigible circling the Washington Monument.   At the bar, the crowd, largely neighborhood regulars, laughs at each other's stories and the waitress makes Harry Potter jokes. The jukebox plays mostly country classics, like Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, and Patsy Cline.  

There's a sense of local history infusing the atmosphere, from its loyal, long-time customers to the quotations on the menu, including one from Alexander Hamilton in 1827: "The moralizing tendency and salubrious nature of fermented liquors - beer, ale, porter and cider - recommend them to a serious consideration and particularly in our country."  

In a county notorious for its stringent liquor laws, perhaps a bar does well to focus on the ability of certain drinks to enhance judgment.   But patron Steve Gold sums up the tavern's appeal more succinctly. "It's got the friendly feeling," he says. You can no longer get liverwurst for 20 cents at the Quarry House, but in a town where everything else seems new, it's nice to still be able to find a bit of tradition.

Further along George Avenue, barbeque and live music can be found at Half Moon Barbeque, and New American cuisine and drinks with fruit-flavored foam are served in the garage-turned-swanky swingin' 60s restaurant, Jackie's. Even on a Tuesday night, the bar is packed with a diverse crowd sipping cocktails and wine, and eating one of the fun favorite appetizers, mini hamburgers.  

There is probably a limit to the amount of trouble you can get into with the Silver Spring nightlife.   Last call is considerably earlier here than in downtown DC, and you'd have to misbehave fairly impressively to get even a parking ticket, since the lots are free on nights and weekends.   As long as you're OK listening to Haydn and not Lil Kim's remix of Trick Daddy, why argue with cheap drinks ($3 Coronas on Thursdays at Galaxy), no lines, and jukeboxes that know what's good for us.   After all, even if the night does end a bit early, you'll never miss the last Metro, and there's always beer to go.

Open late in Silver Spring and Takoma Park

Go back to top and read Kristina Peterson's review of nightlife in Silver Spring and Takoma Park.