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Boston and Philly are bar cities! They are not on DC's level when it comes to posh clubs and nightlife. They do not have more restaurants DT than DC. Especially Philly.
Logic would suggest that Boston and Philly which both have well populated downtowns would have the better nightlife scene than Washington which is dominated by the office space and museums that you mentioned.Regardless they are all great cities, Philadlephia being the biggest also has the most baggage to carry along which unfortunately tarnishes its image much moreso than DC and Boston.
I havent spent much time in DC or Boston but Travel & Leisure Magazine wrote that Center City Philadelphia has the best night life on the east coast after Midtown Manhattan and South Beach.Whether thats true or not? Who knows.
Philly + Bostons nightlife is incredibly diverse though running the gamet from cosmopolitan,dance clubs,theater,arts,small concert venues,belgian/irish/german/english pubs ,college hangouts,hipster havens,hip hop, and local dive bars.
I get the impression from this post as well as past posts that you view Philly as being overrun with corner bars filled with locals pounding down Bud Lights and listening to the juke box all night.Thats just not the case.
Im not sure where you are hanging out when you are in Philly but there is lot more to it than just being a "bar city".
Rainrock - I always do appreciate your images - nice photos
On the comparison of these cities - first to me they are all very good, amnog the top 6 in the country, secondly they are all a little different though Philly and Boston will have the most similarity, lastly I personally enjoy all of them and recommend all these places to all
Ok my only problem is that your not comparing apples to apples here thats just on the National Mall, which is not the only park in DC lets be real here. Rock Creek Park, Dupont Circle etc. are more places where you will see artists/ speed chess games going on in DC not on the mall because its so open. You all are making DC seem like its some far off city that has never seen urban culture in both the daytime and nightlife. Its not AS dense as Philly but it is still just as much vibrant.
Apples-to-apples is Downtown DC vs. Downtown Philly vs. Downtown Boston. It's not hard to understand if you quickly glance at the thread title. Is the National Mall downtown DC? Technically, yes. Is Dupont Circle? No.
Only the lamest of the lame would believe that Philly's nightlife is even on DC's level. Your clubs start throwing people out at 1:45 a.m. WTF? I'm just getting to the club at I:00 a.m. Go to Ibiza in DC on a Friday night and there is a line outside at 1:00 a.m. Go to the 9:30 Club on a Sunday and you will see a line at the door after midnight. Plus Go-Go bands in DC play every night. Go to Takoma Station in DC. The band does not come on until 11:45. There is always something going on in DC. I was in CC Philly on a Sunday night in June and it was dead.
Apples-to-apples is Downtown DC vs. Downtown Philly vs. Downtown Boston. It's not hard to understand if you quickly glance at the thread title. Is the National Mall downtown DC? Technically, yes. Is Dupont Circle? No.
Case Closed.
To be fair to DC though (and being a former resident) a lot of the better areas IMHO are outside of downtown, similar to Chicago. Philly is the most concentrated and probably excels the most on the OPs criteria, Boston is somewhere in the middle with more focus on the core.
That being said I truly believe that Philly Downtown pound for pound in the downtown probably is a little better than either Boston or DC in terms of vibrancy but DC has some great areas too, as does Boston within their cities and outside the core I would probably place Philly third and potentially even flip my personal order on these three.
On the strict OP criteria i do believe that DC would be third among these, and that doesnt mean it is bad overall
Only the lamest of the lame would believe that Philly's nightlife is even on DC's level. Your clubs close at 1:45 a.m. I'm just getting to the club at that time. Go to Ibiza in DC on a Friday night and there is a line outside at 1:00 a.m. Go-Go bands in DC play every night. There is always something going on in DC. I was in CC Philly on a Sunday night in June and it was dead.
Honestly I would disagree on many levels and June is most likely also your answer, Philly is much quieter in the summer - weekends especially (Sundays included) are the Jersey Shore - the South Jersey shore is philly in the summer
nightlife scenes may differ a bit but honestly the breatdh in Philly and this IMHO (and I have lived in both) offers a wider variety than does DC. 2AM last call is what it is, but there are many after hours clubs that go till 4 or 5, also AC is only ever an hour away and you can party 24/7 there
Only the lamest of the lame would believe that Philly's nightlife is even on DC's level. Your clubs close at 1:45 a.m. I'm just getting to the club at that time. Go to Ibiza in DC on a Friday night and there is a line outside at 1:00 a.m. Go-Go bands in DC play every night. There is always something going on in DC. I was in Philly on a Sunday and it was dead.
Only the lamest would believe that clubbing makes or breaks a city's nightlife. Who's really going to clubs these days anyway? Dream/Love, H20, Republic Gardens, Platinum, Pearl, State of the Union and Home are all extinct. The newer places like Josephine's (the old Daedulus), Recess, and Bar 7 are small venues and are not substantially different from you find in Philly. So DC clubs stay open an hour later than Philly clubs. So what? There's a simple solution to that: go to the club an hour earlier.
Besides, Philly has a much bigger spoken word scene than DC, for those who are into that kind of thing.
Clubs are clubs!! But DC's Go-Go scene is another underground community not seen by the masses. That's why I think DC's nightlife scene is better. From hip-hop to R&B and Jazz influenced Go-Go, live bands play each night throughout the city. So you are into spoken word? LLS. Dude on the right is Slim Charles from the Wire.
To be fair to DC though (and being a former resident) a lot of the better areas IMHO are outside of downtown, similar to Chicago.
There's no need "to be fair to DC" because the thread is about downtowns. As someone who has worked in Downtown DC for nearly 5 years, I can tell you that it is the most soul-less place on earth. Downtown DC was designed with all of the warmth and vitality of a Compton emergency room. If you enjoy eating Subway, Quizno's, Potbelly, or Au Bon Pain everyday, Downtown DC is the place for you. If you enjoy seeing an entire workforce dressed in black, gray, white, and khakis, even on summer days, then Downtown DC is the place for you. Going downtown is unquestionably the worst part of my day.
Clubs are clubs!! But DC's Go-Go scene is another underground community not seen by the masses. That's why I think DC's nightlife scene is better. From hip-hop to R&B and Jazz influenced Go-Go, live bands play each night throughout the city. So you are into spoken word? LLS. Dude on the right is Slim Charles from the Wire.
I know all about Go-Go. I don't need lessons. All of the good bands, like Trouble Funk, RE, the NE Groovers, etc, have all but disappeared. And those guys don't perform in Downtown DC anyway. You have to go to the old school places like the Classics, Tradewinds, or the Legend to see those guys. You don't even hear those bands during WPGC's Go-Go hour anymore because this new sound, called "Bounce Beat," is what the new generation likes. The Go-Go as Washington, DC knew it is dead. It died as soon as Lil' Bennie took his last breath.
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