Del Ray Now Has Two Record Stores Facing Each Other on Mount Vernon Avenue
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
The 2000 and 2100 blocks of Mount Vernon Avenue now hold two record stores. One is the former Mulberry Lane Play Café space at 2016 Mount Vernon Avenue, where Mobius Records opened on Saturday, Sept. 12. The other is across the street and about a block away, at 2101B Mount Vernon Avenue. Crooked Beat Records reopened there on Friday, Sept. 25, with weekend-only hours to start.
The Crooked Beat building is a two-story townhouse of about 950 square feet. According to ALXnow, neighbors say it had been empty for more than a decade. In a video on Facebook that ALXnow quoted, owner Bill Daly said the new shop feels "like the Twilight Zone, same colors, same atmosphere."
The owners of the two shops say they want each other there, and the fall calendars of both stores back that up.
Mobius Records belongs to Neighborhood Restaurant Group, the company behind several of the places that already anchor that end of the Avenue. Crooked Beat closed its basement shop up the street at 2417 Mount Vernon Avenue in May before moving to its new address.
NRG principal Michael Babin told ALXnow how his conversation with Daly about the new shop went. "I reached out to him immediately," Babin said. "He said the more the merrier, and it'll only make it more of a destination, which is exactly what we thought."
Both men are betting on the same thing. A single record store is an errand. Two record stores a block apart are a reason to spend an afternoon on Mount Vernon Avenue, and a reason for collectors from elsewhere in the region to make the trip. Crooked Beat has been in Alexandria long enough to know that crowd. The shop opened in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1997, spent seven years in Old Town North, and moved to Del Ray in 2023.
What makes the pairing work is that the shops aren't trying to be the same store. Their own websites show it.
| Crooked Beat Records | Mobius Records | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 2101B Mount Vernon Ave. | 2016 Mount Vernon Ave. |
| Opened at this address | Sept. 25, 2026 | Sept. 12, 2026 |
| What the shop leads with | New vinyl from independent labels, thousands of used records, DC and regional artists | New releases, a used bin, best sellers, CDs and tapes |
| Programming | RSD Black Friday request list, buy/sell/trade policies | Free listening parties and ticketed release shows |
Crooked Beat is a deep-catalog store. It claims the largest selection of new vinyl in the DC area and lists the independent labels it specializes in, among them Dischord, Merge, Sub Pop, Numero and Light in the Attic. It also keeps a dedicated section for DC and regional artists, covering go-go, punk, jazz, R&B and bluegrass. Its used stock runs to thousands of records across classic rock, soul, punk, reggae, soundtracks and jazz, and the shop says new albums go into the bins every day.
Mobius Records leans toward what's current and what's happening. Its home page leads with new releases, best sellers, and a "cds and tapes" section, then an events calendar it calls "Side B / What's on." Mobius hosts listening parties, most of them free and all ages, and runs release shows at No. 9 Lounge. Crooked Beat's current focus is getting customers the Record Store Day exclusives they ask for.
Hours differ too, which matters if you plan to hit both. Crooked Beat is posting soft-opening hours that may change:
Mobius hasn't posted regular weekly hours on its website yet. On its opening weekend it ran 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Check the Mobius site before planning a two-shop afternoon.
Mobius didn't land on an empty corner. It shares space with Shorty's Deluxe sandwich shop, and NRG also runs Evening Star Cafe and Hi/Fi Tex-Mex BBQ at 2000 Mount Vernon Avenue, plus Planet Wine next door at 2004. So the people who opened the new record store also control the places where a record-shopping afternoon tends to end up: lunch, a drink, a bottle to take home.
The schedules line up with that kind of day. Hi/Fi describes itself as the beer garden behind Evening Star. It opens at 4:30 p.m. on weeknights and 10 a.m. on weekends, weather permitting, so as fall turns colder, check before you count on sitting outside. Evening Star serves dinner and weekend brunch. Planet Wine stays open until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, opens at 10 a.m. on Saturdays, and closes at 5 p.m. on Sundays.
A Saturday loop could look like this. Start at Crooked Beat when it opens at 11:30 a.m. and work through the used bins. Cross to Mobius for new releases. Eat at Shorty's Deluxe in the same room. Finish at Planet Wine or the Hi/Fi beer garden. Except for Hi/Fi tucked behind Evening Star, the whole route is a short stretch of Mount Vernon Avenue.
The pairing gets its first real test between now and mid-December. Each shop has its own dated events, and the Del Ray Business Association calendar puts neighborhood-wide events on the same weekends.
The farmers' market also runs on the Saturdays of Dec. 5, 12, 19 and 26. That gives every December weekend a reason to be on the Avenue, and any of them can include a stop at both shops.
Put together, the calendar matches what Babin and Daly described. Mobius brings people in for events and new releases. Crooked Beat gives them a deep catalog to browse once they're there. Both shops sit on the stretch of Mount Vernon Avenue where the Del Ray Business Association already holds its biggest holiday events. If you want more on how the Avenue has been changing, our summer 2026 look at everyday Alexandria and the Alexandria neighborhood page cover the rest of the city.
A storefront that sat empty for more than a decade now holds a record store that first opened in 1997, across Mount Vernon Avenue from one that opened this September. If you're curious how new businesses like these change the way a Del Ray block feels to live on, WebCo Realty is glad to talk it through with you. Schedule a consultation with Leah Webster.
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