"He said the more the merrier, and it'll only make it more of a destination, which is exactly what we thought."
Michael Babin, principal at Neighborhood Restaurant Group, told ALXnow he reached out to Crooked Beat Records owner Bill Daly "immediately" about opening a second record store in Del Ray, a block from where Daly's shop was about to reopen. Daly was supportive, and both shops opened in September. Mobius Records opened Saturday, Sept. 12, at 2016 Mount Vernon Avenue. Crooked Beat reopened at 2101B Mount Vernon Avenue on Friday, Sept. 25.
The two record stores tell you how the avenue is changing this fall. The newest arrivals are clustering in a short stretch of Mount Vernon Avenue, on the theory that similar shops close together draw more people than one shop alone. Every opening, move and closing on the corridor this season fits that pattern. Starting this month, the avenue's Halloween season brings out the biggest crowds of the year.
A block and a half, by street number
Most of the fall's changes sit between 2000 and 2101 Mount Vernon Avenue. Here is that stretch, plus the farther addresses that matter this month, in street-number order:
- 2000 Mount Vernon Avenue. Hi/Fi Tex-Mex BBQ, one of several Neighborhood Restaurant Group businesses on the corridor. The group also runs Evening Star Cafe.
- 2003a Mount Vernon Avenue. Crooked Run Fermentation's new taproom, in the space Dolce & Bean left in spring 2025.
- 2004 Mount Vernon Avenue. Planet Wine, another Neighborhood Restaurant Group shop.
- 2016 Mount Vernon Avenue. Mobius Records, which shares its space with the Shorty's Deluxe sandwich shop. This was Mulberry Lane Play Café until July.
- 2101B Mount Vernon Avenue. Crooked Beat Records, in a two-story townhouse that neighbors told ALXnow had been empty for more than a decade.
- 2301 Mount Vernon Avenue. The Dog Store, open on a lease extension through Jan. 6, 2027.
- 2312 Mount Vernon Avenue. The Del Ray Pop-Up Bar, running as Nightmare on the Avenue through Nov. 1.
- 2423B Mount Vernon Avenue. A second Hypergoat Coffee Roasters location, still being built out.
- 2700 Mount Vernon Avenue. The Colasanto Interactive Fountain at the Del Ray Gateway, open only until mid-October.
Neighborhood Restaurant Group now has businesses at 2000, 2004 and 2016, with Crooked Run sitting between them at 2003a. Crooked Beat is just past that cluster at 2101B. A single short walk now takes in a record store, a wine shop, a taproom, a sandwich counter and a second record store.
Why Crooked Beat ended up at 2101B
Crooked Beat didn't choose its new spot because Mobius was opening nearby. A flood forced the move. In January, heavy flooding hit the shop's old basement space at 2417 Mount Vernon Avenue. The store reopened with limited hours at the end of February, then closed the basement location in May and started looking for a new home.
The new space is a 950-square-foot townhouse down the street from the old basement at 2417. "It's like the Twilight Zone, same colors, same atmosphere," Daly said in a video before the reopening.
Crooked Beat's history goes back further than Del Ray. The store opened in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1997. It spent seven years in Old Town North before moving to Del Ray in 2023.
The reopening weekend had short hours: 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, 2 to 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday. Daly said the store would be "open for full time in about a week or so" and called it a work in progress. Check the shop's own channels for current hours before making a special trip.
At 2016, Mobius sells records, CDs and merch, and it shares a room with Shorty's Deluxe. That pairing makes it easy to combine a sandwich and a browse in one stop. The weekend hours ALXnow published applied to opening weekend, so check current hours before you go.
The taproom fills a different gap
Crooked Run Fermentation brings something the rest of the 2000 block doesn't have. ALXnow described more than 20 indoor seats and eight outside. The menu has beer, wine and cocktails, plus bar food such as chicken tenders, pita and hummus, and mozzarella sticks. Crooked Run calls the space a small, lounge-like bar with shaded outdoor seating, and dogs are welcome.
The taproom's posted hours are Monday through Thursday, 3 to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Its Sunday listing appears to be a typo, so confirm Sunday hours directly. The Friday and Saturday opening time lines up with the record stores' weekend schedules. On a Saturday, the taproom, Mobius and Crooked Beat are all within a short walk of each other.
The rest of the corridor is still changing
The new businesses haven't filled the whole avenue yet, and some spots are still in limbo.
Hypergoat Coffee Roasters is building a second location at 2423B Mount Vernon Avenue. When ALXnow reported it in August, construction was in its early stages and there was no estimated opening date. That address is a few doors from Crooked Beat's old basement at 2417.
The Dog Store at 2301 had announced it would close. It then got a lease extension through Jan. 6, 2027. As of late July, it was still looking for a new location in Del Ray. For now, the store is open at its current address.
The record-store story also cost the avenue something. Mobius took over the space Mulberry Lane Play Café used, and the café's last day was announced as July 10.
October tests the whole avenue
The new shops have barely opened, and they're about to see the corridor's busiest weeks. Art on the Avenue already drew thousands of people to Mount Vernon Avenue on Saturday, Oct. 3, despite the rain. Here's what's left this season:
- Through mid-October: The Colasanto Interactive Fountain at 2700 Mount Vernon Avenue. It opened Sept. 10 after planning that began in 2021. It replaces the Colasanto pool, which dates to 1969 and closed in 2010. The fountain features public art by Beatrice Coron, and the Del Ray Gateway project also includes the Nancy Dunning Memorial Garden. The city hasn't given an exact closing date, so its first season will last only a few weeks. Potomac Yard Park's fountain usually runs until mid-October too.
- Through October: Carnival of Curiosities, a carnival- and circus-themed exhibit at Del Ray Artisans.
- Noon, Sunday, Oct. 18: Deadline to nominate a house for the Del Ray Business Association's best-decorated house contest. You can nominate your own house or a neighbor's.
- Sunday, Oct. 25: The 30th Annual Del Ray Halloween Parade, at 2 p.m. It starts at E. Bellefonte Avenue and ends with live music and awards at the Mount Vernon Rec Center field. The Pork Barrel BBQ Kids Zone runs from noon to 5 p.m. behind 2312 Mount Vernon Avenue.
- Saturday, Oct. 31: Nightmare on the Avenue holds a Halloween party, and Del Ray's Trail of Dreadful Delights runs at select restaurants.
- Sunday, Nov. 1: Nightmare on the Avenue's last day.
Parade entries are free, and timing matters. Stroller and wagon entrants check in at Mount Vernon and Howell Avenues starting at 1 p.m. and must register by 1:30 p.m. Strollers are judged on Howell before the parade begins. This year the business association added a group and float contest, with the same check-in times. Neither contest allows motorized vehicles of any kind. Both judge four categories: Most Creative, Most Humorous, Less is More and Best Overall.
Pet costume entries also register by 1:30 p.m. at Mount Vernon and E. Howell. Pets are judged right at the end of the route in four categories: Creative, Team, How Could You Do This To Me? and the Vola Lawson Best of Show.
For the Halloween scavenger hunt, you walk the avenue looking for Halloween items in decorated shop windows. Five winners, drawn at random from all entries, each get a $50 gift card to the Del Ray business of their choice. The business association also collects costumes for local children through the Alexandria Boys & Girls Club, Community Lodgings and the Alexandria Domestic Violence Safehouse.
This is the fifth year the pop-up bar has turned into Nightmare on the Avenue. Before closing in August to make the change, it spent four months as a dive bar full of memorabilia.
With the parade going down the full avenue, the new record stores and taproom get the corridor's biggest crowd of the season within weeks of opening. The Del Ray Farmers' Market keeps its usual schedule through the fall, every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at 302 E. Oxford Avenue, year-round.
Thinking about how changes like these on Mount Vernon Avenue might shape your plans in Del Ray, now or down the road? The TC Temple team follows Alexandria block by block and is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
