You know, it comes down to business -- some bars charge a big $10 cover charge to recoup the losses to the bar when salseros don't drink. Others will play a generic latin mix to draw in the drinking clientele. I used to be pretty much a non-alcoholic salsera, but I always bought my water at the bar. I know we had some salsa places shut down because they discovered too many bottles of water obviously brought in from the outside. For some reason, the dance studio socials have not been nearly as successful in DC as in NY. If I think of my favorite places in NY to dance, most of them are dance studios, with the two exceptions of the Link Lounge on Tuesdays and Cache on Thursdays.
But at the end of the day, clubs don't want salsa dancers because its a bad business case to do so. We drink water or many sneak in their own. We don't buy alcohol which is the biggest source of their revenue. When there is a high cover, we don't come or we come early enough to get around it. One of the reasons why Clarendon Grill has been such a mainstay is because there is a mixed drinking and non-drinking crowd. The bar and the dancefloor stay full.
I would rather pay $3, $4, $5 for a bottle of water or Gaterade than lose a good salsa spot. Just my two cents
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