Inside Singing Tiger, Union Market's new noodle den with a mic drop
Hotel Nell's lower level just became the most fun you can have on New York Avenue, pan-Asian small plates, sake flights, and three private karaoke rooms themed snake, dragon, and tiger.
In brief
Inside Singing Tiger, Union Market's new noodle den with a mic drop
The entrance is easy to miss. A narrow alleyway off New York Avenue, a discreet door with a tiger on it, and then an elevator ride down to something that has no real equivalent in this city right now. Singing Tiger, which opened October 1 on the lower level of Hotel Nell, is a pan-Asian restaurant and private karaoke lounge folded into one underground space. The combination sounds like a gimmick until you actually show up.
The team behind the concept drew an unlikely line of inspiration. When conceptualizing the restaurant and karaoke bar, they turned to a pop star for inspiration on the vibe: Dua Lipa. The questions they asked were deliberately high-level: "Is it wild, fierce, and bold? Does it enhance the rhythm of the night?" says Michael Vasquez, Corporate Food and Beverage Manager for Charlestowne Hotels, which operates Hotel Nell. The answer, at least based on what's come out of the kitchen, is yes on both counts.
The room, and the building behind it
The Bolgiano Seed Company established its New York Avenue location in 1931 to coincide with the opening of the Union Terminal Market. The family-run company sold seeds that produced beautiful flowers, high-quality produce, and, most famously, lawn seeds for the White House and National Mall. It was Nell Bolgiano who oversaw operations as president and took the helm through decades of prosperity. She broke barriers by proving that women can excel in positions of authority while simultaneously raising a close-knit family. The hotel that now carries her name remembers all of this: the rooftop garden grows Virginia sweetspires and American yellowwoods, and the lobby café is still called Bolgiano's Pantry.
Singing Tiger occupies the building's opposite pole. Where Bolgiano's is bright, farm-table, and morning-friendly, Singing Tiger is subterranean and deliberately seductive. It is designed as an immersive late-night experience that combines elevated dining with karaoke. The room turns dark fast once you step past the velvet curtain.
What chef Bernard Sales is cooking
The kitchen belongs to chef Bernard Sales, whose point of view spans the continent without ever feeling scattered. A reviewer noted the mix of "L.A. creativity and authentic Asian roots" that comes through in every dish. That tracks. This is not the pan-Asian catch-all of a hotel bar trying to please everyone.
The food menu opens with cold bites like Kokoda, a fish ceviche, and warm apps like chicken karaage, Korean fried chicken wings, and lemongrass chicken gyoza. Skewers come with a flourish. Grilled shrimp with panang curry or wagyu short rib arrive hanging over a vinyl record. It's theatrical without being embarrassing. Noodle dishes, rice bowls, and bao buns round out the menu, with desserts including halo-halo and a warm ube ice cream bun.
The standouts, based on early visitor reports, are the Taiwanese sesame noodles and the smoked duck shoyu ramen. The spicy cucumber dish arrived sharp, refreshing, and balanced in a way that drew comparisons to Rose's Luxury's version. High praise on a list like that.
One order for the table: the marinated melon nigiri. It sounds eccentric. Order it anyway.
The drink program has some ego
The drink menu covers cold and hot sake options including a sake flight, soju, and a variety of cocktails with zero-proof choices included. The cocktails are built to be photographed. The "Smoke on the Watermelon" combines Japanese vodka, apple soju, watermelon puree, and lemon, served in a fish-shaped vessel with watermelon-infused boba pearls, and topped with a smoke bubble. The "Mango Inferno" is set aflame after mixing Casamigos Reposado Tequila with ancho reyes verde, Thai chili, mango miyazaki puree, pineapple, lime juice, and agave. There is also a kimchi-martini and a boozy "Long Thailand" iced tea.
Is some of this maximalist? Sure. But the sake flight is where the beverage program earns real credibility. Guests say it is curated thoughtfully rather than just stacked for volume.
The karaoke rooms: snake, dragon, tiger
The three private karaoke rooms are themed snake, dragon, and tiger, and are designed for groups of up to six or eight people. The full menu is available for karaoke crowds, and a dedicated server walks each party through the equipment. That server may even sing a song to kick off the evening, Vasquez told Washingtonian.
The rooms can be reserved via OpenTable or by phone for $80 on weeknights and $100 on weekends per party, with up to eight people. Walk-ins can also try their luck if space is available.
Eric Lawson, director of food and beverage, put it plainly: "You can come, and you can eat dinner, you can have cocktails, or you can just sing karaoke, or you can do all three." There is no mandatory karaoke-room minimum if you want to just eat. That is a real distinction worth knowing before you show up with colleagues who are not yet warmed up.
A neighborhood becoming DC's karaoke district
Singing Tiger does not arrive in a vacuum. Union Market is becoming the city's new karaoke district, with Sid Gold's Request Room and country karaoke at Desert 5 Spot already in the neighborhood. Three spots in roughly the same stretch of Northeast DC is enough to anchor a crawl.
But Singing Tiger is the only one with a full-service restaurant built in. The others skew more toward bar-with-a-mic. Here, you can reasonably eat a proper dinner before you slide into a themed room to perform in front of six of your closest frenemies. The hotel's Treehouse Rooftop is one floor up if you need a nightcap in open air afterward.
Getting there is part of the fun. The venue sits on the lower level of Hotel Nell, accessed through a discreet alleyway speakeasy entrance or through the hotel lobby. First-timers: take the lobby elevator. Figure out the alley on the way out.
Singing Tiger is at 411 New York Ave NE, inside Hotel Nell, Washington DC. Reservations via OpenTable or by calling 202-998-1484.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
