Post: #1

I live 20 minutes from DC but I've never experienced its nightlife. What are the best bars/clubs?

Post: #2

There aren't any.

Post: #3

Yeah what ben said, but hopefully you'll find places that are tolerable. For starters you can hit bars like front page and local 16, then branch out from there.

Post: #4

Bump for 2011.

Some of my favorite hangouts around NoVA/DC:

Georgetown:

Third Edition - Club atmosphere with two floors (dancing upstairs and downstairs) a decent tiki bar outside. Sausage-fest is hit or miss here. Typical cover is $10-20 after 10pm.

Sequoia - Waterfront Lounge/Bar, great summertime spot with for the upper 20s/lower 30s crowd. No cover.

Dupont:

Bar Dupont - Great for dates. Low-key bar with an upscale feel. Tends to attract a lot of gay men on the weekends, but the long glass window overlooking Dupont Circle makes it a decent spot to people watch with your date. In the warmer months there is outdoor seating and service. Plus, they offer endless free peanuts/wasabi peas/corn nuts on trays, can't beat that. No cover, but drinks can be a bit pricey.

Cafe Citron - Latin-themed bar/club. Weak (but cheap) bar scene during the week. Great happy hour specials and a good latin vibe -- good for salsa dancing with women and pickups.

18th Street Lounge - 50s Retro-Euro scene with old fashioned furniture and a cool, swanky house party vibe. Wednesday are Reggae night. Cover is $10 after 10pm. Great for dates. Drinks are unusually expensive here.

Public Bar - Feels like one of those frat sports bars you went to in college. Tons of televisions and group cliques but a club-like atmosphere on the small top floor (open air). Not a bad pick up spot for young women. Drinks are pretty reasonable.

Current - Sushi Lounge and Club. Having only been here once I don't feel like I got the complete vibe of the place. It got pretty packed after 11 but I had a good time. It was the polar opposite of a sausage-fest on a Saturday night. Drinks are fairly expensive and cover varies.

Old Town Alexandria:

Union Street Pub - Fairly small neighborhood Irish bar with two ends. The back side is usually dominated by parties and groups, but it's typically a younger (mid 20s) crowd. The front ranged from 25-40+ during the week and 25-35 on the weekends. Great for cougar chasing. Drinks are reasonable. No cover.

O'Connell's - Larger, more irish-feeling bar that is also home to many cougars. They have a small patio upstairs and outside that is a good venue change or date spot. Drinks are pretty reasonable. No cover.

Murphy's - Irish bar with real live Irish bands. I love this place, but its layout is terrible for picking up women. Better for groups, venue changes, or a date than going out alone. Reasonable drink prices. No cover.

White Horse - This place can really be hit or miss but occasionally they have good live bands. It's small and the ratio usually does not favor men. Decent date spot, moderately priced drinks. No cover.

Rocket Grill - If bad karaoke and white trash are your thing, Rocket Grill is your bar. Besides the cheap beer and measly entertainment, the loose red neck women here are the only thing worth noting. No cover.

Chinatown:

Ultra Bar - The notorious sausage-fest picture from Roosh's blog showcases this place. It really can be hit or miss with 4 floors and a different vibe on each. Get on the VIP list online and you skip the cover ($20 usually) and drink for free for an hour (9-10). This place gets extremely crowded after midnight though but there are usually a lot of hot women here. Drinks are pricey.

Fado's - Irish-themed bar that draws a larger European and out of town crowd than most of the others in the area. You can catch live rugby or soccer (football) games here for a price, but the female selection is usually pretty dismal. Drinks are moderately priced. No cover, usually.

Rocket Bar - Having only been here once I can't say too much. However, I had a good time and it was the chillest scene out of all of Chinatown (which I typically loathe because of all the sports fans crowding the bars). Reasonable drink prices. No cover.

SW Waterfront:

Cantina Marina - Only open in the warmer months. Great margarita and beer specials. Nice waterfront bar for dates or picking up during the summer. No cover.

U Street:

Napoleon - Only been here a few times but the downstairs dance room is hit or miss. Drinks are moderately priced and I don't recall a cover. Upstairs bar has more of a wine bar feel. Female selection was pretty weak.

St. Ex - The upstairs bar here is usually a waste of time and downstairs is often crowded (yet another reason DC's bars usually blow). They have a decent beer selection and there are usually plenty of groups of girls downstairs, but I feel like it's a bit too dark for my taste. No cover, moderately priced drinks.

Busboys and Poets - Chill artsy/hippie bar that I prefer to take dates to during the day. Doubles as a bookstore, restaurant, and reading/jam lounge. There's also one in Arlington and North Chinatown now, but from what I hear the night life at those is lackluster at best.

Adam's Morgan:

District - The only reason to go here is Friday nights. You can get in free courtesy of hot 99.5 and there are usually a lot of attractive chicks. Any other nights you'll pay the $20 cover for hit or miss. Drinks are pricey and the line outside can get kind of long.

Post: #5

What about U St. ?

Post: #6

(05-03-2011 02:43 PM)Menace Wrote:  What about U St. ?

Updated.

Post: #7

If you're in U Street check out U Street Music Hall during the week for great electronic music, DJ's like A-Trak (Kanye's DJ) rolled through just last week. Though I recommend that place more for taking a date too after drinks in a smaller bar, because the club has an insanely loud but good sound system. At these kind of places you can dance by yourself as well and work your way to dancing with girls or they'll dance with you, seems like an eclectic mix of people here and I feel like a lot of euros go here. Also if you are just interested in listening to great music by all means check out this place.. but If you're over the age of 28, I don't know if this place is really for you because it's a generally younger crowd on weekdays (18+) and weekends are early 20s.

Thanks you for your breakdowns Gmac, basically been to all of them and agree with you, though i'm not too found of Clarendon... it's basically douchebag central.. also clarendon ballroom for some reason always feels like i'm back in middle school and going to a school sponsored dance on the first floor.. the rooftop is the only redeeming quality for me.

I'd like to go ahead and share a couple of places for you guys as well for fun and inexpensive nights when you don't feel like going to a club in DC but still want that quasi club feel:

Capitol Hill:

Hawk and Dove - 5$ cover, best nights are on Friday and Saturday, first floor is mainly just a chill bar area, the real kicker is going upstairs where it's sweaty, hot, and people dancing the night away, it's like your frat basement magically moved up two floors. I believe Eastern Market is the nearest metro, Crowd in early 20s mainly white.

My Brothers Place - Go on saturday night, 15$ gets you entry and all you can drink rail and drafts, nearest metro is Union Station. It can get really packed here some nights but theres always dancing going on and generally a fun time. This is also a very military bar and you'll see alot of military dudes here as well as local university students. Crowd is a little diverse, mainly 20s.

Both these places are 10-15mins walking from metro or have street parking available.. and plz if you're going to drive be safe about it.

Okay if you're clubbing..

K-Street / Mcphereson Sq metro 10-15 min walk away

Lima Lounge - AKA club persia, very diverse crowd in here, mainly euros and middle easterns, 20$ cover for guys... (huge turn off) and girls free before 12 I believe, mid 20s. Outside patio is easy to chill on couches, bottom floor is for house/techno (great music but impossible to have a conversation), they open the top floor after like 12 or something on the weekends and that's where you'll hear the top 40. People usually come here with their own social circles and gaming can be difficult... plus the place is very hit or miss, definitely a place to rather bring a date.

Also there is Josephine, Lotus and K Street lounge in the close vicinity.. I use to go to K-Street Lounge then switched to Lima.. and now I don't even bother with these places anymore lol.

Adams Morgan

Roosh mentioned somewhere in one of his page posts, but just start off the night @ Dan's Cafe, it's grimey but in an appealing way.. and it'll get you buzzed prior to your night out for cheap. Crowd is mainly early 20s college students on weekends.. get there at 8 to pregame early without getting into a crowd or showup at 10 to get in the crowd.

Post: #8

Great list. I've found so many DC places are sit at the table kind of places, which are tough to approach. Are more of these places where people are standing? I can definitely vouch for Public Bar.

Post: #9

I can't agree with Gmac's ratings as they are too optimistic. Most of the places he described (with the exception of 18th street lounge, Cafe Citron & Sequia) have terrible ratios and attract an unusually young crowd, mostly college kids and young professionals in their 20s.

Shoot, I remember the days when the best pickup club in all of DC was Polly Esther's (shows how old I am) near ChinaTown constantly packed with women and bachelorette parties. The only place where rocking an 80s Miami Vice style suite was considered cool and where an average guy needed no game to be approached by women. Alas, it closed down about 6 years ago.

Honestly DC is not a good place for picking up SINGLE women (sure you see many women around BUT how many of them are single and local to this place and not here temporarily for work with a boyfriend waiting back home in some forsaken redneck state?).

I think one place that needs to be mentioned in Mid-Town would be:

Rumors (19th & M) - touristy but decent ratio, cheap, big dance floor and multiple bars with an outdoor deck. Great location next to two metro's and great range of the crowd from 23-40.

Post: #10

Polly Esthers!! I used to go there every Saturday about 10 years ago. If you struck out on one floor you could just go to the next

Post: #11

(05-04-2011 12:13 AM)Hokie30 Wrote:  I can't agree with Gmac's ratings as they are too optimistic. Most of the places he described (with the exception of 18th street lounge, Cafe Citron & Sequia) have terrible ratios and attract an unusually young crowd, mostly college kids and young professionals in their 20s.

Shoot, I remember the days when the best pickup club in all of DC was Polly Esther's (shows how old I am) near ChinaTown constantly packed with women and bachelorette parties. The only place where rocking an 80s Miami Vice style suite was considered cool and where an average guy needed no game to be approached by women. Alas, it closed down about 6 years ago.

Honestly DC is not a good place for picking up SINGLE women (sure you see many women around BUT how many of them are single and local to this place and not here temporarily for work with a boyfriend waiting back home in some forsaken redneck state?).

I think one place that needs to be mentioned in Mid-Town would be:

Rumors (19th & M) - touristy but decent ratio, cheap, big dance floor and multiple bars with an outdoor deck. Great location next to two metro's and great range of the crowd from 23-40.

Eh I think you're too much of a pessimist. It's no blacksburg, you just gotta make it work.

Post: #12

Fucking bookmarked, great rundown Gmac. I'm hopefully going to be moving much closer to DC soon and gonna need to find some new spots.

Chef In Jeans
A culinary website for men

Post: #13

(05-04-2011 09:05 PM)Chad Daring Wrote:  Fucking bookmarked, great rundown Gmac. I'm hopefully going to be moving much closer to DC soon and gonna need to find some new spots.

Chad, you'll be doing yourself a disservice. Perhaps you might wanna see this multi post thread about how bad DC is:

http://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-4039.html

Post: #14

(05-05-2011 06:51 PM)Hokie30 Wrote:  

(05-04-2011 09:05 PM)Chad Daring Wrote:  Fucking bookmarked, great rundown Gmac. I'm hopefully going to be moving much closer to DC soon and gonna need to find some new spots.

Chad, you'll be doing yourself a disservice. Perhaps you might wanna see this multi post thread about how bad DC is:

http://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-4039.html

DC is worse than most of the top US cities but it's a far cry from the level 9 hell hole you guys are describing.

Post: #15

A brief summary of clubs in DC, and why they are all unsatisfactory right now.

1) Ultrabar - not a bad large club, Top40 music, but it's cliquey as hell (group-oriented) and there are no single girls. I have never seen a phone number exchange at Ultrabar between anybody in all of my time going there. Ever. Not once in like 5 years. I've also very rarely seen pairs of girls, it's usually large groups and mixed boy-girl groups. People generally have a good time at Ultrabar. They smile, laugh, scream, and put their hands in the air, which is good for them but terrible for a single guy who's trying to find somebody. Why? Because none of those girls is looking at anyone--other than their own social clique, with whom they're having such a great time. In fact, that is why "girls' nights out", such as those at Ultrabar, are a really bad idea for a single guy.

A couple other things about Ultrabar:
- For some reason it attracts a weird, "hippy" crowd, i.e. not normal (strangely dressed, fatties, ghetto trash with tattoos, lesbians, etc.)
- The ratio is never below 1 (It ranges between 1.5-2 guys per girl) -> almost always a sausage fest
- Very Latino-heavy

Ultrabar is essentially Latinos and rednecks/fat country bumpkins from VA... none of whom is looking.

2) Fur - This place has gone down the fucking drain.

Let me start with the sex ratio, the ratio is the most horrendous of any club in DC (around 3:1). Fur is the absolute worst sausage fest in the city right now.

It's now ALL ghetto. Primarily Latino now. The amount of trashiness can't be overstated. When you stand in line, there's actually not a single person around who doesn't have a trashy tattoo. LOL. No dress code anymore, they were having such a hard time attracting people that now they're letting everybody in, even ppl with hoodies and shorts. Having said that, if you're dark-skinned (black or Hispanic or Indian), Fur is worth a shot every once in a blue moon. But the extreme sex ratio always spells trouble.

2a) Ibiza next to Fur - doesn't merit serious discussion, the people who are in that area will go to Fur. (You can compare the lines yourself.)

Let's walk over to the K St. corridor, a slightly more upscale area.

3) Lima - it's upscale and European, but the problem is, they play underground obscure House shit there, and girls hate that. There's no Pop music. As a result, don't be surprised to find a (once again) skewed sex ratio, maybe 2:1. More guys than girls dig Techno music, and also it's an older crowd. No Top40 = no girls, particularly no American girls. That simple.

4) Park, Josephine, & K Street - these three Bottle-Service clubs serve Asian and Black clienteles. People come in groups to celebrate special occasions. Since it's Asian and Black, it's glamorous, and also very cliquish (large mixed boy-girl groups of 10 or more). If you came by yourself or with a buddy to look over some girls, good luck, you will feel EXTREMELY out of place. Needless to say, if you're not Asian and not Black, don't come here at all. If you're not doing bottle service, you'll be out of a place at a Bottle Service club.

5) Lotus - also a Bottle Service club - now this place is interesting, if you come on Friday, there are actually cute college chicks here, believe it or not. Unfortunately, those are closed GW cliques who are socializing strictly with each other. There is no eye contact between strangers, just like at Ultrabar. So this place is useless.

All right, finally let's consider Dupont.

6) FrontPage - American dive bar, used to be OK, totally useless for singles now. There are no eligible women. No one is looking at anyone other their own social clique whom they already know. Impossible to meet strangers. According to my observation, every single group is mixed guy/girl.

7) Public Bar - it's also a dive bar, and the ratio here is not good, maybe 2:1.

7a) grouped under the same category: Rumors -> nothing special, a dive, although it does have some girls. If you're an all-American dude, baseball and apple pie, you might want to give it a shot. But for anyone who's international, steer clear.

8) Midtown - used to be an upscale bottle service club, and now it's an American dive bar! Unbelievable! LOL. Lots of crazy college kids on Sat. guzzling beers and going wild. Unfortunately, no singles. People having fun on a "night out" in their own groups. You are extremely out of place if you try to approach someone.

9) Current - the only half-decent place left. It has some nice normal girls, the ratio isn't bad, and yes, some singles here and there! This is the only place that I like at the moment. It seems to be much better than everything else.

Post: #16

How about Tattoo? Has that gone down the drain too? I had some success there back in the day. One thing I liked is that everyone got so hammered there.

Post: #17

Tattoo is a 100% Black place now. And it's tiny.

I was there for all of 5 minutes before I realized I was the only non-AfrAm person there, and left immediately.

Post: #18

what night did you go there? lots of clubs have a Fri/Sat setup where one night is Black (ie urban, hip hop, or whatever the code word is) and the other night is International (aka not black)

Post: #19

(05-17-2011 12:35 PM)Brian Wrote:  what night did you go there? lots of clubs have a Fri/Sat setup where one night is Black (ie urban, hip hop, or whatever the code word is) and the other night is International (aka not black)

He probably went on a weekday. As I have said before DC is very segregated city. Blacks party from sunday to thursday. The other races party mostly on the weekends.

Post: #20

w/o sounding like a racist this is what is killing dc nightlife for me - i'm a white dude and i like white girls w/a few exceptions here and there and the demographics of this area have shifted dramatically where there are so many asians, middle easterns, blacks, and hispanics that 1/5 of the girls out that night are actually white (and that doesnt mean they are slim or attractive or single). because so many people work for the gov't someway or another and make decent money there is no income segregation and all the races party at the same places. there is a shortage of white girls and girls from latin american countries like brazil or argentina

Post: #21

(05-17-2011 05:19 PM)Brian Wrote:  w/o sounding like a racist this is what is killing dc nightlife for me - i'm a white dude and i like white girls w/a few exceptions here and there and the demographics of this area have shifted dramatically where there are so many asians, middle easterns, blacks, and hispanics that 1/5 of the girls out that night are actually white (and that doesnt mean they are slim or attractive or single). because so many people work for the gov't someway or another and make decent money there is no income segregation and all the races party at the same places. there is a shortage of white girls and girls from latin american countries like brazil or argentina

White girls and latin-american women?....Hmmm, you may have to try the Virginia side for that. Better yet, you may have to make more NYC visits for the latin-american females.

For white girls?....Northern VA and then Philly (if into making a drive).

Post: #22

(05-17-2011 05:19 PM)Brian Wrote:  w/o sounding like a racist this is what is killing dc nightlife for me - i'm a white dude and i like white girls w/a few exceptions here and there and the demographics of this area have shifted dramatically where there are so many asians, middle easterns, blacks, and hispanics that 1/5 of the girls out that night are actually white (and that doesnt mean they are slim or attractive or single). because so many people work for the gov't someway or another and make decent money there is no income segregation and all the races party at the same places. there is a shortage of white girls and girls from latin american countries like brazil or argentina

That's correct. I'm facing exactly the same problem.

You've touched on an important point that's rarely discussed, and that is that this is a bad geographic area for whites, because there isn't a large selection of white people here, demographically speaking.

Keep in mind that white men have two problems. In addition to having a small pool of white girls to choose from, they also face competition from men of other races for the same white girls. The reverse is not true. Latino or Black men, for example, are doubly advantaged because they have a large supply of their own women in this area, while also targeting white women who will sometimes give them a chance (but their women will never give white men a chance because they are conservative).

Post: #23

Georgetown, Arlington and bethesda is basically all white. There is no shortage of white women in the DMV. There is a shortage of attractive white women in the DMV.

Post: #24

I've actually never been out in Bethesda. I tend to like Arlington but it gets old after awhile. Georgetown is only white in the college bars, the other places tended to be more middle eastern and asian. I think last time I was at Modern I felt like I was in Asia.

There are very few Latin women in this are - when I saw Latin I mean Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Venezuela, basically the countries on the eastern side of Latin America. There is a huge number of the indigenous type of Latins/Central Americans like Bolivians, Peruvians, El Salvadorian, etc but that is not a good looking group of women.

Post: #25

I dont know about DC, but Im finding in Maryland the weekend scene is going down hill fast, but the weekday nights, when a lot of bars/lounges do drink specials with live entertainment the places are absolutely packed

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A culinary website for men