It was lunchtime on a recent Thursday and I was stumped. A friend visiting from out of town had texted me, asking: “What’s a good place to drink on a rooftop right now?” Completely out of ideas, I instead pointed him to solid patios that I knew were open like Duke’s Grocery and DC Reynolds.
Afterwards, using RockTheRoofDC’s near-comprehensive guide to DC rooftops as a starting point, I confirmed that museum/Mall-weary tourists, conventioneer truants, and local workers with more “flexible” summer schedules had few partake on roofs or similar elevated outdoor drinking areas: out of the 60-odd bars/restaurants in DC with such outdoor spaces, only FOUR are even open before 4p on weekdays, and only two of them, both in Georgetown, are open before 3p. Of course, if one wants to drink alfresco closer to the ground, there are a number of solid patios that are open during the day on weekdays, just not that many roof decks (although the majority are open during the day during the weekend). The short, but sweet, list of places to day drink on a roof during the week:
Georgetown
- opens at 11a on weekdays
- 3139 M St. NW
- casual bbq spot
- partially-covered deck off rear of 2nd floor, overlooks parking lot & Wisconsin Ave.
- opens at 11:30a on weekdays
- 1063 31st NW (between M and C&O Canal)
- Italian restaurant
- 2nd floor patio with large table umbrellas overlooks 31st St. with view of C&O canal
Downtown
P.OV. Rooftop Lounge and Terrace (W Washington Hotel)
- opens at 3p on weekdays
- 515 15th St. NW (at F)
- fancy hotel bar
- million-dollar view of Washington Monument and White House; fully covered but open-air
Dupont Circle
- opens at 3:30p on weekdays
- 1836 18th St. NW (at T)
- new whiskey spot
- spacious 2nd floor spot (beware: not much of a cover) with own outdoor bar overlooking 18th Street
Barred in DC 
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