Whenever I meet people who dance, they talk about how fun Timehri is - that they love the fact that…read moremost people are dancing here, which is surprisingly rare in the club scene. This is a club for the dancers and the DJs know that their job is to make the people dance (not as much before midnight when more people are lounging and talking). There are regulars who come here to dance. Also, unlike many of the restaurant/bars turned clubs in Adams Morgan, this venue was designed with speakers and sound travel and quality in mind. Places like Moonlight, Shanklin Hall, Jerk Pit/Oasis Upstairs do not have anywhere near this sound quality regardless of the caliber of speakers that are brought in for the event. As nice as SH could be, the music quality was horrendous and I found myself running back to Timehri. Similar to Moonlight's upstairs, architecture gets in the way when it's a space that is designed for another purpose and you're trying to force it to be a club. Turning up the volume just makes it worse and more obvious that there are sound quality problems. That is to say, part of the enjoyment of dancing is being able to focus on the music and not trying to figure out what song they're attempting to play. Timehri is below ground so it's like being in a dance cave. The reverberations of the bass alone - this is something you feel and get accustomed to the way the earth and the walls bring the music back out onto the dance floor. It is also dark. I enjoy darkness but it also heightens other senses and allows you to be more present and feel the music. This helps create an atmosphere where folks dance like no one is watching. I literally do my yoga and physical therapy stretches and exercises here (I'm grateful because I need to do them and wouldn't feel comfortable doing them in other places), then my dance class warm-ups and try out variations of routines from recent dance classes of all sorts - it's not weird and all I've gotten is encouragement.
As a seasoned woman of size, I do not feel out of place here. I like that there is a blend of ages, sizes, races, nationalities, etc. It's an unpretentious environment and many times I meet people here, they express how much they enjoy it, in spite of the potential inconvenience of parking and such. It is a bit of a smaller space, but if you come on week night, it is more relaxed and not as crowded (Fridays tend to be less hectic too) though I'd check their social media to verify if they will be open on a specific weekday. I have yet to see them close on a Fri or Sat unless it's Christmas or something but they charge a cover on weekends after 11 pm. And if you do get there before 11, understand that Caribbean people aren't really going to be there until 1 am.
There are some negatives but I will allow people to experience that for themselves. On Safety, there was a point after the DC nightlife reopening after over a year of being shut down where I experienced many unfortunate, violent encounters in Adams Morgan, but upon further investigation and talking to other women (some who moved to other countries or parts of the country after traumatic incidents going out in DC in 2021ish), it seems like that has mostly passed for the time being. That being said, be vigilant and bring a friend if you can - there are predators who frequent all the venues and while I notice them infrequently, they are still some out.
Moving on, there are enough venues in the area now that for people who enjoy Caribbean music to do a bar crawl and visit multiple venues on the same block or 2 - and don't forget to include Timehri as it is open later than most.
