The Del Ray Record Store Owner Who Said "the More the Merrier"

Within two weeks in September 2026, Del Ray went from no open record store to two. Mobius Records opened at 2016 Mount Vernon Avenue on Saturday, Sept. 12, and Crooked Beat Records reopened across the street and a block up at 2101B Mount Vernon Avenue on Friday, Sept. 25. On paper, they compete for the same customer. In practice, both sides set things up to share that customer.

The owner of the newer store called the owner of the older one before announcing anything. The older store's owner said yes. Behind both shops, a restaurant group that already holds three addresses on the 2000 block had spent more than a decade on joint projects with the record shop owner it now partners with. Look at those two blocks closely and the record shops are just the clearest case of how the block has been filling in all year.

The phone call that came first

Michael Babin, principal at Neighborhood Restaurant Group, told ALXnow in July that NRG was closing Mulberry Lane Play Café at 2016 Mount Vernon Avenue and putting in a record store. Crooked Beat had already announced its new location one block away. Babin said he contacted owner Bill Daly as soon as he saw that news.

"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."

Babin's description of the goal is broader than one shop. "It makes the whole neighborhood, and certainly those two blocks a heck of a destination for anybody who cares about music and vinyl records," he said.

The goodwill had a history. Babin and Nate Anda, NRG's culinary director, are longtime Crooked Beat customers. They helped Daly connect with WeMakeDC, an NRG partner store on Connecticut Avenue. When ALXnow covered Crooked Beat's reopening in September, it noted again that Daly had supported Mobius opening nearby.

Two shops with very different starting points

The two stores share a street but came from different places, which goes a long way toward explaining why their owners see them as complements.

Mobius is a second location, not a startup. Hamilton announced the Del Ray expansion on Instagram on Aug. 9. The Alexandria Brief reported that the partnership grew out of more than a decade of joint projects with NRG, including an annual Record Store Day beer and Mobius pop-ups at NRG's Snallygaster festival. Babin told ALXnow that he and Anda own about 5,000 records between them, and that the store would carry a mix of new and used. The co-working office upstairs and the Shorty's Deluxe sandwich counter both stayed when the play café closed on July 10.

Crooked Beat is still easing in. Daly said in a video before the reopening that full-time hours would come "in about a week or so." As of this writing, the shop's own website still labels its schedule "Soft Open Hours," so check it before a weekday visit. Mobius has not posted a regular weekly schedule in the coverage we found. Its opening weekend ran 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The flood that put Crooked Beat on the 2100 block

If not for one bad January, Crooked Beat would never have moved down the street. Its previous Del Ray shop was a basement space at 2417 Mount Vernon Avenue. Significant flooding there in January 2026 cost the store an estimated $60,000 in merchandise. A GoFundMe campaign recovered $23,500 of that. The shop reopened with limited hours at the end of February, kept going for several more months, and closed the basement location in May.

Daly kept the look of the old shop. "It's like the Twilight Zone, same colors, same atmosphere," he said of the new space.

The move put Crooked Beat at street level and only a few doors from the NRG corner, at the moment NRG was deciding what to do with the play café space. That timing set up the July conversation. A smaller operator, displaced and rebuilding, found a better-capitalized neighbor already treating it as an asset.

The rest of the block is filling in the same way

The record stores are the most obvious change on the 2000 and 2100 blocks this year. They aren't the only one. Moving up the Avenue:

• Evening Star Cafe and Hi/Fi Tex-Mex BBQ, 2000 Mount Vernon Avenue. Both are NRG restaurants. Mobius's August announcement said to expect DJ nights and live shows at Evening Star and Record Store Day festivities in the Hi/Fi courtyard.
• Crooked Run Fermentation, 2003 Mount Vernon Avenue. The Leesburg brewery, founded in 2013 by Lee Rogan and Jake Endres, announced an Aug. 28 opening in the former Dolce & Bean space. It has more than 20 seats inside and eight outside. Its Del Ray page now lists the address as 2003a, with hours of Monday through Thursday 3 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• Planet Wine, 2004 Mount Vernon Avenue. NRG's third Del Ray address.
• Mobius Records and Shorty's Deluxe, 2016 Mount Vernon Avenue.
• 2018 Mount Vernon Avenue, former Thai Peppers. Thai Peppers announced Monday, June 15 as its last day after more than 27 years, citing the owners' retirement. A Virginia ABC license application for a business called Rosie's Tavern was filed for the address on June 26. Its Instagram was reported to be targeting November 2026, and no menu or concept had been released as of the July report.
• Crooked Beat Records, 2101B Mount Vernon Avenue.

Rogan said something close to what Babin and Daly had said. Crooked Run looked for spaces under 1,000 square feet, and he told ALXnow, "We're not trying to come in and be 'the place' in Del Ray. Because that's not what Del Ray is all about. It's about little places that people can go to and shop in and enjoy, just a local neighborhood spot." He also said the taproom will be family-friendly and that he wants stroller parking in a nearby alley.

Three operators opened on this short stretch in 2026, and all three have said publicly that they want to add to the block rather than anchor it. Two of them are under 1,000 square feet.

An October Sunday built around the two blocks

The 30th annual Del Ray Halloween Parade on Sunday, Oct. 25 is a natural day to walk the full stretch. The Del Ray Business Association's parade starts at 2 p.m. at East Bellefonte Avenue on Mount Vernon Avenue. It ends with music and awards on the field at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center. This year adds a group and float contest alongside the stroller-and-wagon and pet contests. Group and stroller entries check in at Mount Vernon and Howell starting at 1 p.m., and no motorized vehicles are allowed.

A route that works around it:

1. Before 1 p.m. Start at Mobius. Sunday hours are not yet posted, so check the shop's site that morning. Shorty's Deluxe shares the space if you want lunch in the same stop.
2. Crooked Beat opens at 1 p.m. on Sundays under its current soft-open schedule. Cross the street and walk a block up to 2101B before the parade crowd builds.
3. 2 p.m. Head toward the parade route for the step-off and contests.
4. After the awards. Walk back down the Avenue to Crooked Run at 2003 or the NRG corner at 2000. Crooked Run's posted Sunday hours read "11:30pm - 7:00pm" as written, which looks like a typo, so confirm before planning a late stop.

If Halloween is the plan, Nightmare on the Avenue, a seasonal pop-up bar from HomeGrown Restaurant Group, opened Sept. 19 at 2312 Mount Vernon Avenue. It runs through Sunday, Nov. 1, with a Halloween party on Saturday, Oct. 31. Mobius has an event before then too. Its calendar lists a Mobius and Signal//Noise appearance at Snallygaster in downtown D.C. on Oct. 10.

No Record Store Day Black Friday plans for 2026 have been announced by either shop. With one store's partner group running a courtyard a few doors away and the other store's owner already on record welcoming the company, it's a date to watch on both stores' pages.

If you own on these blocks or nearby and want to know how a year like this one shows up in your home's value, The LizLuke Team follows Mount Vernon Avenue closely. We'd be glad to put together a free home valuation built around what has actually opened near your door.