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Great Experiences on U Street Corridor | Getting Here | Planning Your Time | Quick Bites | Safety | U Street Corridor Walk | U Street Corridor with Kids
Home-style Ethiopian food, offbeat boutiques, and live music are fueling the revival of the U Street area. Just a few years back, this neighborhood was running on fumes, surviving on memories of its heyday of black culture and jazz music in the first half of the 20th century.
The neighborhood was especially vibrant from the 1920s to the 1950s, when it was home to jazz genius Duke Ellington, social activist Mary McLeod Bethune, and poets Langston Hughes and Georgia Douglas Johnson. The area’s nightclubs hosted Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Sarah Vaughn. In the 1950s Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, then still a lawyer, organized the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case at the 12th Street YMCA. Now the crowds are back, and this diverse neighborhood faces the threat of yuppification.
Great Experiences on U Street Corridor
African-American Civil War Memorial and Museum: Learn about the lives of slaves and freedmen, and discover whether your ancestors fought in black regiments during the Civil War.
Ben’s Chili Bowl: If you can top it with chili, it’s on the menu. This D.C. institution has perfected its recipe over the last 50 years and satisfies meat eaters and vegetarians alike.
Boutiques: Whether you’re after funky footwear or flashy housewares, hit the shops on U and 14th streets for trendy finds.
Ethiopian food: Nothing brings you closer to your meal than eating with your hands. Use the spongy injera bread to scoop up delectable dishes from East Africa.
Jazz and live music: Music greats like Duke Ellington made this neighborhood famous back in the 1920s. Relive the glory years at a jazz performance at Bohemian Caverns or HR 57, or rock out to today’s music at the 9:30 Club or Black Cat.
Getting Here
The Green Line Metro stops at 13th and U, in the middle of the main business district. To get to the African-American Civil War Memorial, get out at the 10th Street exit. Parking can be found on the residential streets north and south of U Street, but as the area gets more popular, spots are getting harder to find on weekend nights.
The area is within walking distance from Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan, but at night you’re better off on the bus or in a cab, especially if you’re alone. The 90, 92, and 93 buses travel from Woodley Park through Adams Morgan to 14th and U, while the 52 and 54 buses travel north from several Downtown Metro stops up 14th Street (check | www.wmata.com for information).
Planning Your Time
You’ll need half a day at most to see U Street’s attractions and visit its boutiques. You can also fill an evening with dinner on U Street, a show at the 9:30 Club or Bohemian Caverns, and drinks afterward. If you’re not driving, allow plenty of time for public transportation.
Quick Bites
Ben’s Chili Bowl.
The quintessential meal here is the chili half-smoke, a spicy grilled hot dog covered with mustard, onions, and, of course, chili. | 1213 U St. NW,
U St. Corridor | 20009 | 202/667–0909 | www.benschilibowl.com | Station: U Street (Green Line).
Busboys and Poets.
This bookstore–cum–restaurant–cum–coffee lounge serves up a menu of sandwiches, pizzas, and burgers. Events that liven up your meal include literary readings, open-mike nights, and musical performances. | 2021 14th Street, NW,
U St. Corridor | 20009 | 202/387–7638 | www.busboysandpoets.com | Station: U Street Cardozo (Green Line).
Safety
The commercial district here borders a much less gentrified area. The blocks between 10th and 16th streets are well lighted and busy, but the neighborhood gets grittier to the north and east. Use your street sense, especially at night. It’s wise to splurge on a cab late at night.
U Street Corridor Walk
You’ll need a couple of hours to explore U Street fully, especially if you want to stop in the African-American Civil War Museum. You’re likely to spend most of your time along U Street itself, detouring here and there to see the sights just a couple of blocks away. Don’t stray too far off the main drag, especially at night.
Beginning at the 10th Street exit of the U Street/Cardozo Metro station, you emerge right at the African-American Civil War Memorial, honoring the black soldiers who fought in the Union Army. For more on that story, walk two blocks west to the African-American Civil War Museum, which tells the tale of Africans in America from the slave trade through the civil rights movement with numerous photos and documents. Don’t miss the Duke Ellington Mural on the western side of the building.
Once the hub of black cultural life, with first-run movies and live performances, the Lincoln Theater now functions as a theater and event venue. The 12th Street YMCA has been made over to the Thurgood Marshall Center, which houses a museum on the history of African-Americans in the U Street/Shaw neighborhood. Duke Ellington fans can find his former homes at 1805 and 1813 13th Street.
Although the neighborhood was nearly destroyed in the rioting that followed the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., U Street has recently reclaimed some of its former pulse. Bohemian Caverns combines an elegant restaurant with an underground music venue and upstairs club. It’s been hosting jazz greats since 1926. On V Street, the 9:30 Club attracts big-name rock bands and lesser-known indie artists alike to one of the East Coast’s coolest concert halls. South on 14th Street, the Black Cat rocks out with independent and alternative bands from the city and around the world. DC9 hosts an eclectic mix of local and national bands and DJs. Find it on the corner of 9th and U.
A longtime center for African-American life in the District, U Street is now home to many of the city’s East African immigrants, who’ve brought their culinary traditions to the neighborhood restaurants. Clubs have expanded beyond jazz to include all kinds of rock music, and new shops have popped up to bring in even more business. Standout restaurants in D.C.’s unofficial Little Ethiopia such as Etete tempt diners with spongy injera bread and hearty meat and vegetarian dishes. Multiculti dining is in abundance here, but the city’s humble roots are not yet forgotten; the granddaddy of Washington diners, Ben’s Chili Bowl, has been serving chili, chili dogs, chili burgers, and half-smokes (spicy sausages served in a hot-dog bun) since 1958. A sign inside used to let you know that only Bill Cosby eats at Ben’s for free, until November 2008, when the Obama family was added to the list. Ben’s even has its own neighborhood visitor center and a second bar and restaurant in the next building.
U Street’s shopping scene has garnered attention in recent years as well. Most of the boutiques are clustered on U Street between 14th and 16th streets. Pop in and out of the little shops to find cutting-edge footwear, Asian furnishings, playful housewares, and eclectic or vintage clothing. Fourteenth Street has some rich pickings as well and you could happily detour all the way south to Logan Circle, past the Source Theater and Black Cat music venue. East of the commercial district, the historically black Howard University has been educating African-American men and women since 1867. Notable graduates include authors Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison, opera singer Jessye Norman, and Nobel Peace Prize–winner Ralph Bunche.
U Street Corridor with Kids
U Street really comes into its own at night, but tweens and teens can have a good time here during the day. Kids of any age can have a great lunch at Ben’s Chili Bowl, and they’re warmly welcomed in Etete as well. Teens might like browsing the eclectic shops on U Street and down 14th Street. For a sweet treat, check out the ACKC Cocoa Gallery, a bright and welcoming chocolate café on 14th Street.
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