If you are a man who doesn’t need top 40 hip hop, I have five places that are worth your time. This list is a result of six years of drinking and banging.

Busboys & Poets map

An artsy/yuppie cafe that has food, drink, and coffee. Prices aren’t cheap but there is free wireless internet if you like nerding it up in public. This is more of a date spot than a pick-up place, but there are usually sets of cute girls hanging out by the bar after 8PM. Several of the waitresses are also cute. If you are looking to meet someone educated and well-read in their mid-20’s to early-30’s, this would be a good option. Start a conversation about something existential.

Dragonfly map

This is a house club with an international crowd. The white girls here are more open to dating hairy men than the white girls at, say, an Irish pub or NASCAR race. You’ll also run into a lot of Russian and South American girls. Downstairs is a little more quiet while upstairs is crowded with uptempo music. The people here can be pretentious (you will see girls dancing on tables), but it’s nowhere near as bad at places like Spank, Indebleu, Fly, Blue Gin, K-Street Lounge, and Play. Come here if you want to meet someone who has used their passport. Their sushi is decent (get the Dragon roll). Update: Dragonfly has closed. Go to Grand Central in Adams Morgan instead, which has less international girls but a better girl to guy ratio before midnight.

Front Page map

Out of all the lame white-people bars I’ve been to, this one has the highest amount of cute American girls. While they are harder to pick up for me than at a place like Dragonfly, their sheer numbers means I’ll have opportunities throughout the night. This is a good place if you are broke and on a budget (their Thursday night happy hour is very competitive). Come here if you want to meet stupid, easy American sluts under the age of 30.

Rouge map

Rouge is a pretty bar in the Rouge hotel. This has been my date bar for several years running becuase it is deadly effective at panty wetting, making the outrageous drink prices worth it during a time when I cared about getting laid. If you are a man who has a job and doesn’t buy the bullshit idea of dinner dates, take your date here and thank me later. Some nights are crowded and suitable for picking up older women or business travelers, but it can be hit or miss. Similar to Rouge is Topaz, which has a blue design instead of red.

Science Club map

This is like a more expensive Front Page for people who think they are too cool for Front Page. It’s a cross between Busboys & Poets and Dragonfly, with house music but little dancing. Don’t immediately leave if you show up and it sucks: since this venue is more of a launching point than a final destination, you will find that the crowd can change in your favor if you stick around. Science Club also makes a good date bar.

You can run your first 3 or 4 dates from these venues. For example, you meet a girl at Science Club and take her to Rouge for a first date, where you make-out with her and do some groping. Then you do a Dragonfly date two on a weekend night where you seal the deal. Then do a chill date three at Busboys & Poets. The possibilities are infinite!—especially since you can meet girls at any one of these venues.

You’ll notice that these venues are not too mainstream. There is no Dream, Fur, Ultrabar, Tony & Joes, Local 16, Tom Toms, and Platinum. I believe that if you go to a mainstream bar, you will meet a mainstream girl, and if you are not mainstream and cookie-cutter yourself then it’s going to be a waste of your time.

Honorable Mentions

18th Street Lounge - If it wasn’t for their $10 cover charge, I would go here more often. It’s like a more chill Dragonfly. (map)
Lima - A more Middle Eastern Dragonfly. Very good house music on Saturday nights. Drinks are weak though and you need to be with a girl to get in. (map)
Gazuza - Has a lot of potential, but most of the girls are sitting down. Similar vibe to Science Club. (map)
Reef - Similar to Front Page. Wide selection of beers. (map)

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• Dragonfly Is Closing
• Smith Point
• Dragonfly Review
• Play Lounge Review

crap here comes the mad rush.

pretty good list. i don’t think esl charges a cover before 9pm mon-thurs? tabbing up my numbers, i’ve picked up more girls at chi cha than anywhere else, closed more on day2s at esl and gazuza, and closed the ones who made me wait for day3s and 4s at bedrock billiards and bar pilar. that’s night game. day game includes date places like teaism or the botanical gardens.

these choices are good for keeping CPN low.

Busboys & Poets: Went there once. Too crowded and overpriced.
The Reef: I paid 7 dollars for a beer. Enough said.

The Science Club is cool, though. I went there for the first time after the Rehab HH.

That is a good list- but I think Front Page is up there w/ McFadden’s in terms of being a mainstream bar. If you are looking to meet an easy intern though, this is the place for you.

thanks for ruining these spots…… i will now have to find a new place…….

PS. lately science club seems to be dying out, not sure what to make of the sudden emptiness.

Lima has the worst drinks, bartenders, bar……by far. We all know that whatever you get there will be 90% juice….and dont even think of complaining about it.

i miss DC..

never thought i would

I prefer dive bars. The divier, the better.

I’m with GN. I love the dive but I can appreciate the list.

Make friends with any restaurant person in DC and you will drink at the Reef for pennies (and the roof top is one of my favorite places). I like beer in a plastic cup, with a view, with decent people. Then again, I love Big Hunt and Common Share - so what do I know?!

[…] Rooshv: 5 Washington DC Bars for Men. […]

Okay, I have few to add to the list. These are for when you men want to mingle in a non-clubby, unpretentious setting… 1) The basement bar of Saint Ex. There are only tables around the edges so the empty middle area gets packed to the point you can’t help but chat with your neighbors. And the interesting beers are a great convo topic. 2) Poste, the bar in Hotel Monaco, has big round tables to stand around with people you don’t know, but it’s up to you from there 3&4) Biddy’s is where girls go to pick up that quiet guy sipping his pint at the bar and Cafe Citron is where they go when they want a guy who will buy them a drink … or so I hear.

Poste is okay for dates but the clientele is usually much older and uppity. For the same vibe i’d recommend rouge, topaz or helix.

Saint ex seems to be a place for wannabe hipsters or borderline preps.

I agree that mcfaddens is very similar to front page, but front page seems to attract less fake blondes and the pomade gel man set that follows them.

[…] has it that Dragonfly, my favorite lounge/club/whatever, is closing on Sunday or Wednesday. My 5 Washington DC Bars For Men post is already […]