Upon entering the building, there is a tiny lobby housing only a shut door, a circle porthole and one mustached man in line, who gave me a cursory look after slipping his I.D. I arrived at about 7 p.m., just as the workday was closing out and bathhouse patrons were coming in. The frosted windows allow for discretion alongside real estate offices and cocktail bars.
NW, Crew Club blends in with the commerce almost too inconspicuously for all the testosterone ready to flood out of the building. and a return to the sex-positive aspects of the gay community. To older gay residents, the bathhouse may be a reminder of the life left behind in a post-AIDS crisis D.C. Instead of scrolling through faceless photos on Grindr to find a hook-up, some gays opt for a steamy night out at D.C.’s scintillating bathhouse.Ī rite of passage for GW gays, or at the very least a seedy pipe dream circulated through the gay grapevine, Crew Club is D.C.’s only gay bathhouse and sauna.
