Comments (0) Best New Club - 2002

Walter's on Washington

The jewel in Pam Robinson's Washington Avenue crown -- and the nerve center in the three-club cluster she calls Pamland Central -- Walter's is less a nightclub than a neighborhood bar with a stage. On that stage, the music comes from both near and far, the musicians both semifamous and downright illustrious. Everyone from rookie bandleader Hilary Sloan to Grammy-winners Augie Meyers and Flaco Jimenez to living legends W.C. Clark and Tony Joe White have performed in the medium-sized room, which offers some of the most intimate surroundings in town. The bartenders -- one of whom is the cousin of Walter's regular guest Mike Barfield -- know just as much about music as they do about mixology. And thanks to the nearby railroad yard, you can listen to the lonesome whistle echoing back the blues, rockabilly and honky-tonk sounds billowing out of Walter's.