On Saturday night (1/4/20), journalist/fan-of-all-things-DC/map extraordinaire Chelsea Cirruzzo posted a great question to her thousands of Twitter followers: “if you had to choose ONE dc bar to frequent for the rest of your days what would it be!!!!” Responses came in fast and in droves; as of 24 hours later, the tweet had received over 180 replies.

This is a brilliant question, as it’s always tough to pin down people on wishy-washy it-depends DC on their favorite bars. Then again, the question can easily be interpreted different ways: favorite bar (my response), your go-to neighborhood bar, the most comfortable bar, the most versatile spot, the spot that can feed and sustain you, etc.

Here’s a compilation of the responses which named 105 (I’ve been to 100 of them) different existing DC spots (quote tweets not included) as of 10p Sunday (1/5/20), all of which are essential DC bars; 20 bars received at least 3 responses which are highlighted here:

9 responses

• Red Derby (Columbia Heights)

7 responses 

• Service Bar (U Street)

6 responses

• Tunnicliff’s Tavern (Capitol Hill/Eastern Market)
• Boundary Stone (Bloomingdale)

5 responses

• McClellan’s Retreat (Dupont Circle)
• Looking Glass Lounge (Park View)
• Lyman’s Tavern (Columbia Heights)

4 responses

• The Pug (H Street)
• Showtime Lounge (Bloomingdale)
• Beuchert’s Saloon (Capitol Hill/Eastern Market)
• Tune Inn (Capitol Hill)
• Dan’s Cafe (Adams Morgan)
• DC Reynolds (Park View)
• All Souls (Shaw) (Barred in DC’s response)

3 responses

• Jackpot (PQ/Chinatown)
• Ivy and Coney (Shaw)
• Reliable Tavern (Petworth)
• The Big Hunt (Dupont Circle)
• Astoria (Dupont Circle)
• The Blaguard (Adams Morgan)

2 responses

Tryst, Madam’s Organ, Clyde’s, Old Ebbit Grill, The Saloon, Barrel, Rocket Bar, Martin’s Tavern, Jack Rose, The Passenger, The Big Board, The Raven, The Green Zone, Jackie Lee’s, The Tombs, The Wonderland Ballroom, Churchkey, Pub and the People, Bar Charley, Lost & Found, Archipelago

1 response

Moreland’s Tavern, St. Arnold’s Dupont, Residents DC, Duffy’s Irish Pub, Lucky Bar, Atlas Brew Works, Bar Elena, Kramerbooks Afterwards Cafe, Shaw’s Tavern, Rock & Roll Tavern, Kelly’s Irish Times, Crown and the Crow, Kingfisher, Post Pub, Marx Cafe, Copycat, The Airedale, Walters Sports Bar, Breadsoda, Bossa Nova, The Sovereign, Flash, Nanny O’Brien’s, The Queen Vic, The Brig, Tallboy, The Eastern, El Centro, Trusty’s, Dio Wine Bar, Mr. Henry’s, Recessions, DIK, No Kisses, Restaurant Judy, The Salt Line, Johnny Pistolas, Red Bear Brewing, A League of Her Own, Off the Record, Don Jaime upstairs bar, The Hamilton, Drink Company Pop-Up Bars, Espita, A&D, Capitol Lounge, The Royal, Cinder BBQ, Duke’s Grocery, Brookland’s Finest, Cafe Citron, Columbia Room, Dew Drop Inn, Calico, Elle, Truxton Inn, Little Miss Whiskey’s, Roofer’s Unio, Right Proper Beer, Soussi, Penn Quarter Sports Tavern, Casta’s Rum Bar, Dacha Beer Garden, TikiTNT

Compare this list to the one I posted 6 years based on comments from a PoPville post (Red Derby continues to reign supreme).