New Deal Cafe wins WTOP's Top 10 for best music venue
Tuesday - 7/24/2012, 9:48am ET
Michelle Basch,
wtop.com
WASHINGTON - There are plenty of great places to see live music around the region, but the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt, Md. received the most votes to be named the best in WTOP's Top 10.
The cafe is a small, intimate place that seats about 90 to 100 people.
It's a restaurant, a coffeehouse, a bar with microbrews on tap and it offers space for artists to display their work.
"You feel like you're at home. It's almost like a slightly funkified 'Cheers'," says Amethyst Dwyer, who is New Deal Cafe's music coordinator and bar manager.
"We have music six nights a week and it's always free. We never charge a cover. What we rely on is the generosity of the patrons to actually tip the bands," says Dwyer.
The types of music you'll hear at the cafe vary widely. In fact, you might hear something you've never heard before.
"We have anything from gypsy jazz to Piedmont blues to jam bands to Celtic music to world music to folk music. You name it, we've probably had it here at the cafe," Dwyer says.
When told the cafe was named best music venue by WTOP listeners, Dwyer says, "I was amazed, shocked and incredibly pleased."
"It goes to show that you don't need a 2,000-seat amphitheater or a multi- million-dollar complex in order to showcase high quality music," she adds.
Visit New Deal Cafe's website for more information on the venue.
Here's all of the local music venues placed on WTOP's Top 10 list:
- New Deal Cafe
- The Birchmere
- 9:30 Club
- Wolf Trap
- Strathmore
- Jammin' Java
- Ram's Head Tavern
- Merriweather Post Pavilion
- The Fillmore
- Jiffy Lube Live
Voting took place on WTOP.com and the WTOP Facebook page.
Follow Michelle Basch and WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
