H Street Corridor, Washington, DC

Running from Union Station to the intersections of Maryland Avenue, Bladensburg Road, and Florida Avenue, H Street Corridor has seen an explosion of nightlife options since local restaurateur Joe Englert decided to make it his pet project in 2006.

Also called the Atlas District, after the Atlas Performing Arts Center that marks the neighborhood’s eastern boundary, the area’s ongoing revival has made the H Street Corridor a popular nightlife destination for urban hipsters, artistic types, and laid back young professionals looking to get rowdy.

Best known for exotic theme bars – including a burlesque/sideshow theater and faux country club with indoor mini-golf – the stretch also features a string of highly-rated restaurants and gastropubs that lend the area some serious foodie credibility.

Live dance performances, alternative theater troops, and the hottest up-and-coming independent musical acts can also be caught along the main six-block drag of H, which on weekends is usually swarming with partygoers.

Surrounding blocks, however, remain mostly undeveloped, and boarded-up storefronts are still the norm in an area that, like much of DC, was quite literally destroyed during the civil rights riots in the late 1960s.

Nonetheless, it’s perhaps the only place in Washington where one can catch a modern dance performance or an independent film, watch a bartender swallow a sword before pouring a drink, and sift through more than fifty martini options in the same night.

And by all accounts, the choices in the H Street Corridor only continue to grow.