Record Room is a vinyl listening lounge in Long Island City that opened in May 2023 and has quickly become one of the city’s must-visit bars. The Queens lounge hides behind a vinyl-themed cafe that serves coffee, pastries and soft-serve ice cream. You can enter the lounge through a secret door and upon entering you are greeted by a hallway featuring different vinyl records from Nas to Led Zepplin. Once past the hallway, you see the lounge which is certainly one of the higher-end places on this list. The space straddles the line of being modern and retro at the same time.
Its sleek design is capped off by the lounge’s impressive music setup which includes a wooden table top where DJs spin their records and a neon sign of the bar’s name. On each side of the DJ are large speakers wrapped in wood paneling. DJs play their own sets only using vinyl records and often feature a mix of music from different eras. Some common music genres include salsa, hip-hop, and R&B.
Record Room’s vibe is matched by its unique drinks like its Summer Brown Derby which is mixed with Old Forester Bourbon, strawberry, salted honey, and spices. My favorite is its espresso martini which comes with a salted cashew foam.