For fun with a different kind of flavor, look no further than King Street for live flamenco dances and music.
At 607 King Street, La Tasca is a Spanish restaurant and tapas bar with flamenco dance and guitar performances throughout the restaurant Thursdays at 7:30 and 9 p.m.
La Tasca also has flamenco guitar performances Fridays at 10 p.m. and Latin rock band performances Saturdays at 9 p.m. Managing Partner Shana McKillop said the performances draw crowds of people from their 30s to their 60s, and that the “bar area becomes a really big attraction.”
McKillop also said that sometimes the restaurant opens it windows “to offer a more authentic atmosphere, like they do in Spain, for open-air dining.”
La Tasca’s various tapas are roughly $7 to $12, and it also offers paella dishes for two to three people for $38, and tasting menus for their tapas intended as dinners for two or more for $50 to $65.
Las Tapas is at 710 King Street and has a stage for flamenco performances Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m. and Thursdays at 8 and 9 p.m.
It also has two separate bands play Spanish guitar music in the style of the Gipsy Kings Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. General Manager Dawn Braga said the restaurant draws an “eclectic crowd,” with people from various parts of Europe and from Russia, and that the age range is from 25-65.
The performances at Las Tapas are done in 45-minute sets.
Entrees at Las Tapas range from $18.95 to $24.95 while tapas are about $5 to $8
Both restaurants hire dancers from dcflamenco, such as Sara Jerez, who was a dancer for the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center from 1998 to 2008, and has been performing weekly shows at Las Tapas since 1999 and at La Tasca since 2004.