Mobius Records ALX Opens in Del Ray Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Del Ray is getting a new soundtrack, and behind it is a friendship more than a decade in the making.

Mobius Records ALX opens Saturday, Sept. 12, at 2016 Mount Vernon Avenue. The independent shop will bring some 5,000-plus titles, music merchandise and a decidedly old-school record-store experience to Alexandria.

Customers will find new and used vinyl across genres, along with CDs, cassettes, posters, T-shirts and other merchandise. But the four partners behind Mobius ALX also want to sell something less tangible: the experience of discovering and sharing music.

A Partnership 12 Years in the Making

Dempsey Hamilton founded Mobius Records in Fairfax in 2014. The independent store soon developed a following among Northern Virginia music fans and collectors.

Now Hamilton is expanding to Alexandria with three longtime friends from Neighborhood Restaurant Group: founder Michael Babin, chef Nathan Anda, and beverage director Greg Engert.

The partnership did not happen overnight.

Their paths first crossed around the time Hamilton opened Mobius in Fairfax. Over the years, friendship grew through a shared obsession with music. So did their professional collaborations.

They teamed up on Record Store Day beers with Bluejacket, pop-up events, and DJ appearances at Snallygaster. Eventually, creating something permanent made sense.

“I think we’ve had a shared interest since the beginning,” Hamilton said. “We’ve always talked about the potential of a collaboration down the road.”

After 12 years, Hamilton said, those pieces finally came together.

Selling Records — and a Sense of Belonging

For Babin, the partnership works because the four partners approach Mobius first as music fans.

“I think this all starts from us being fans,” Babin said. “We’re fans of what we’re doing here, the music. We’re into it.”

That enthusiasm shapes what they want customers to experience.

“Really what we’re selling is a kind of membership in a group of people who all care about music and who feel like music is a part of their lives,” Babin said.

The goal is a welcoming store for everyone. A serious collector might arrive hunting for a rare release. Meanwhile, someone else might walk through the door to buy a first record — perhaps without even owning a turntable yet.

Either customer should feel at home.

For Anda, the appeal is also intensely personal.

“I like owning things. I like collecting,” Anda said. “The search, that’s the funnest part about records. You don’t stop once you find one.”

That thrill of discovery is something streaming cannot quite duplicate.

Vinyl Finds a New Generation

Hamilton has watched the record business change dramatically since opening his Fairfax store.

In recent years, he said, consumers have shown renewed interest in physical media. Vinyl never completely disappeared among serious collectors. However, records have returned to the mainstream. CDs and cassettes are also attracting new attention.

Perhaps most surprising is the age range of the customers.

At the Fairfax store on Saturdays, Hamilton said, shoppers can range from 12 to 65 years old.

“It’s wild to see, generationally, a child, parent and grandparent all coming in together and going shopping,” Hamilton said.

He never imagined that scene when he opened the original Mobius 12 years ago.

Now younger customers are helping drive interest not only in vinyl but in CDs and tapes. For Hamilton, that suggests physical music is not simply surviving on nostalgia.

It is evolving.

Records, Restaurants and Live Music

The Del Ray location also gives Mobius opportunities beyond retail.

The shop joins NRG businesses clustered around Mount Vernon and Howell avenues. Nearby are Evening Star Cafe, Hi/Fi Tex-Mex BBQ, The No. 9, Planet Wine and other NRG concepts.

The No. 9, the lounge upstairs from Evening Star, will be particularly important. Plans include live performances, record-release listening parties and special vinyl nights built around artists or themes.

Engert sees that programming as one way he can contribute to the partnership.

“I like to think that I’m here to kind of add some of the extra wrinkles to what we’re doing,” Engert said. “We have a lot of cool programming coming up.”

The partners also want to give emerging musicians a place to perform. New bands could play live, build an audience, and potentially celebrate record releases there.

For Mobius ALX, that brings the four men back to where the idea began: music, friendship and collaboration.

What started with a Fairfax record store and a group of music-obsessed friends has become a new Alexandria business.

For Del Ray, it means nearly 5,000 records and another place to gather.

And beginning Saturday, the bins are open.

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