Certainly, Theodore Roosevelt was known for his turn of phrase (“muckraker, “speak softly and carry a big stick”, “like nailing jelly to a wall”!), but “bully” was one of his favorites – grand, excellent and its most known use, “bully pulpit”.  So, as we tuck into Teddy & the Bully Bar, 1200 19^th Street, NW (south Dupont), we know we are in for some sort of extra special experience.  Re-worked TR memorabilia and quotes abound, in a nice wood-enhanced setting.  No fear of bumping into taxidermied animals heads here, as the artful play of wood and paper maché make for a much more humane experience. Happy Hour space has nice lighting, and is generous, with multiple high tops and a long rail bar.

Our drink sleuthing started with pleasant and attentive service from our bartender, Luke.  He deftly explained why we wanted to try some of the specialty cocktails, barrel aged and deceptively satisfying pours at $9. (A big ice cube will take most of the real estate in your glass.)

The Trust Buster and TR Manhattan are spot on – but we found the Strawberry Mint Julep to be overly sweet.  The HH wine pours of red, white ($8) and sparkling ($9) were very satisfying, and Stella Artois and Brooklyn Pilsner were available for the beer drinkers at $6.  The $7 HH rail drinks were well appointed,  above average brands of Jim Beam bourbon, Sauza Silver tequila, Beefeater gin, etc.

The regular bar bites menu is extensive and it is supplemented by a HH food menu that contains more than enough of the favorites to sate your appetite.

The HH food pricing tempers the little more expensive than usual HH drink pricing.  Good value for price for stalwarts like tomato flatbread (pizza), nachos, a burger and the short rib poutine was exceptional. The lobster deviled eggs (from the bar bites menu) were a little weak, with only a small fleck of lobster meat on a middling, under flavored yolk mixture.

short rib poutine

sky-high burger

flatbread

And, if you get bored of the HH menu, you can easily shift to the bar bites menu without significant price difference.

Keep an eye on the bar black board, as you may see some “extra-special” (and ever changing) happy hour offerings.

All and all, a “bully” visit!

The nitty gritty:

Happy Hours:  Drinks: Mon – Sunday, 3 – 7 p.m.; HH food menu, Monday – Friday, 3 – 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 5 – 7 p.m.  A rare seven-day Happy Hour!

Bathrooms:  Clean and accessible, a “thumbs up”, and the decoration continues the theme of TR quotes and photos….Eleanor Roosevelt sneaks into the women’s room!

Transportation:  Metro rail (Red), Dupont South exit, just a short stroll down 19th Street, street level of building at 19th and M Streets, NW.

Accessibility:  No impediments for easy access of wheeled personal vehicles from this sidewalk-level establishment.  Management is more than willing to shift around some regular dining tables to bring you into the bar/high top area for all the Happy Hour action.

The Balkans…you do know where they are, right?  Does the name conjure something up from an old history class, conflicts of the 1990’s or a sleepy-eyed geography lesson?  Bring yourself up to date and stop into Ambar, 528 8th Street, SE, (Barracks Row) to sample some of the very best of Balkan cuisine and beverage. A bargain-priced Happy Hour menu of well-made drink and food choices (all at $5 each) is a good starting point and, as always, the HH Sleuths were very willing to spend another lovely Washington late afternoon doing the hard work of exploration for you.

We checked in at 4:00 p.m., took hostess Rosa’s advice, and went right to the second floor, to a weather-protected back terrace of bright colors, twinkle lights and decoration.  Bartender Sean got us set up quickly with drinks.  The HH liquor selection available was quite good for mixed rail drinks, and several specialty cocktails were offered.

We really enjoyed the Mojito Classic, Sarajevo Old Fashion, Pomegranate Collins and Berry Daisy.  The HH wine selection included a good red, white and sparkling.  Available beers on the HH menu were Yuengling and Miller Lite.

We steered clear of the fire-water Rakia, but were intrigued by flavored options.

Serbia is the country of origin of Ambar’s inspiration for the array of culinary offerings.  The restaurant is popular with the neighborhood and professional locals of Barracks Row neighborhood for its long-standing night-time deal of “all-you-can-eat” small plates, with various attractive bottomless drink options.  Much of the best of the main menu finds its way into the HH offerings.  The country’s cuisine has generally leaned toward heavy meat dishes/kabobs, with accompanying chopped vegetable salads, stews, breads, yogurt-based sauces, dips, etc.,  so translating the flavors to a more tapas/small plate format means you can get a full meal experience by ordering an array of smaller bites.   Shopska salad, a variation of which is found throughout the Balkans and other countries and cultures of the Black Sea, is a cultural comfort food – you won’t find lettuce, but only freshest of chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, some feta cheese and light, vinegar/oil dressing.  The salad’s crisp and clean flavor profile is the perfect foil and complement to the kabobs and other meats and sliders.  The Balkan fries are fresh (and addictive), the kebabs tender and flavorful, and the drunken mussels and almond crusted chicken are different, but delicious.  Oh, and bread?  Do yourself a favor and tie your hands behind your back to prevent your base, carbo-loving instincts from overtaking valuable stomach real estate with the copious refills of fried sourdough bread balls and other baked bread gifts that make perfect utensils for scooping up dips and sauces.

Almond crusted chicken

Pork sliders

Kabobs (beef/veal)

Balkan (Shopska) salad

Ambar fries

Drunken mussels

cheese dip and bread

Overall, a delightful find and good maiden voyage for anyone’s exploration of the cornucopia of eateries and bars on Barracks Row.

The nitty gritty:

Happy Hours:  Monday – Friday, 4 – 7 p.m.  Fills in quickly.

Bathrooms:  Oooo..a little mystery!  Part some heavy, Oz-like velvet curtains around the corner from the roof top terrace to very acceptable restrooms.

Transportation:  Metro rail (Orange, Blue and Silver Lines), Eastern Market stop; about a 10 minutes walk, east, along 8th Street, SE.  Some metered parking along 8 Street, SE.  Public parking lot two blocks to the south at 8th and I Streets, SE (under I-695 overpass).  Parking in neighborhood, but be cautious of limits and restrictions.  Taxis and car services abundant.

Accessibility:  Unfortunately, as with so many places, wheeled personal vehicle accommodation is relegated to a perfectly accessible and pleasant first floor bar area, where you and your party would be enjoying a very good HH menu, but a floor removed from other Happy Hour celebrants.

We all know it (you may pass it on your commute)…that stretch of Connecticut Avenue in Woodley Park with multiple well-priced fast casual, chains and just-this-side of respectable (and ever changing) restaurants catering mostly to the 2,000 plus hotel rooms in the near-by Marriott and Omni Shoreham hotels.  But allow yourself to do a double take because there is a stand-out: The now nearly 30 year-old outlet of the Lebanese Taverna group at 2641 Connecticut Avenue, NW.  This cavernous spot, still glowing from a successful renovation in the last decade, is a popular and value-laden respite.

Attentive service, authentic eastern Mediterranean fare, and good value have always marked Lebanese Taverna as the place for a celebratory meal or a catch up with colleagues and comrades. The Happy Hour Sleuths grabbed the couch and low tables at the bar for an exploratory adventure with visiting friends with deep Lebanese roots and G&J, our honorary HH sleuths.

Kadi, our bartender, wasted no time in getting us set up with our beverages.

Playful takes on some classic cocktails find their way onto the happy hour special list.  Anise-flavored liquors are to be found all around the rim of the Mediterranean, but the Lebanese Arak is a potent clear spirit on the opposite end of its Italian cousin, Sambucca, in sweetness and viscosity. It’s inclusion in the Beirut Mule makes for a refreshing summer drink, served in a frosty Collins glass.

Good rail liquors ($6 for standard mixed drinks) and $5, wines and beer will keep you hydrated.

The organization of the HH menu scales you through drink and food choices by dollar amount. Waste no time, get to the right side of the menu and order the Endless Hummus to go with your opening drinks. Hummus is “hot” now in the DC dining scene, with multiple establishments elevating it to composed, entreé worthy centerpieces, but you’ll be hard pressed to find anything better than this smooth-as-silk rendition. Topped with whole chickpeas, olive oil and spices, it is the perfect complement for the fresh-made, warm pillows of bread that will become your scoop of choice. Our visiting daughter of a Lebanese mother pronounced it superior and her help was invaluable as we navigated other HH food choices. The menu tilts to fried but with a Mediterranean twist: kibbe (spiced meat and bulgur mounds – yum!), “camel” wings, seasoned potato fries, etc. The cone basket of friend calamari distinguishes itself with bright counterpoints of fried bits of lemon and capers. An order of the cucumber studded Tzatziki will compete with your hummus for scooping rights, but will also serve as a sauce accompaniment for other items.  Don’t forget some sliders, in choice of lamb, beef or chicken – a super value at $5 per order. Our only disappointments with food fare were the Fatayer pies (too long in the deep-fryer) and all the accompanying tomato sauces, which could have used a bit of a kick.

Lamb sliders, calamari and fried pies

“camel” wings

Endless Hummus and bread

If you still feel hungry, post Happy Hour, the regular menu will allow you to continue on a journey through a variety of Mediterranean delights.

Overall, this is a high value-for-money, good food and drink Happy Hour stop on this busy block of Connecticut Avenue.

The nitty gritty:

Happy Hours:  Monday – Friday, 4 – 7 p.m.  Fills in quickly with a lively, diverse crowd.

Bathrooms:  Easily accessible, gender neutral and extra sinks!

Transportation:  Directly across the street from the Woodley Park Metro (Red), Connecticut Avenue bus lines, etc.  Validated self-parking is also available in the garage directly behind the restaurant.

Accessibility:  A favorite of our honorary HH sleuths, G&J, as the wheeled vehicle access is easy and the nearby garage parking a plus.  For HH, there is only one group of low tables but as the regular dining room is also next to bar area, additional low seating would be available.

After a brief summer hiatus, the DC Happy Hour Sleuths are back on the prowl, taking it local for a walkable Sunday outing.  We steer to Mintwood Place, 1813 Columbia Road NW, in that wonderful block of Columbia Road that could be described as “Adams Morgan West Restaurant Row”.  Mintwood Place is a star in this stretch, an evolved neighborhood, sepia toned haunt, with an industrial vibe and serving long lauded cuisine with a hint of Flemish Belgian flair.  The restaurant’s particular gift to the neighborhood is its happy hour – not the cheapest – but one of excellent food, some decent beverages and general ambiance that will make it worth a visit to this part of town.

First tip, get there as soon as possible to opening (5:30 p.m.) to snag seats at the bar and high tops, as even on a sleepy, August-in-Washington Sunday, it fills in fast.  The crowd is happily mixed in age range, singles, couples and groups and the not too loud buzz is energizing.  The bar area also gives a direct view into the semi-open kitchen, where the chefs do their magic on classic as well as imaginative happy hour food offerings.

We got started right away on good pours of wine (red, white and sparkling).

Each evening brings only one $8 Happy Hour cocktail special, which on our night did not intrigue, so our sleuthing mixologist took on the rail bourbon, Redemption, for a special Manhattan: perfectible serviceable, but at $9 a one-ounce pour, a little steep for the HH budget.  Sticking to wine and a good range of beer drafts, all at $5,  will keep your wallet breathing.

On any day, Mintwood Place makes an incredible burger, so taking it on at a reduced happy hour price is a must: it’s cooked to requested perfection, juicy, and vertically impressive with added cheese, bacon, pickled onions and lettuce within its brioche bun.

Splurge and add fries to this and you have a complete meal.  Another HH offering,  a luscious scoop of chicken liver mousse, topped just-right with herbs and flake salt, was accompanied with a flavor bomb of a pickled onion/cherry mix.  You’ll need to ask for the bread basket of crusty bread to make this item sing.  That perfectly baked bread is also mandatory to sop up the broth from the HH mussels (which do come with fries).  We had one comment on the mussels, taken attentively by our affable bartendress:  the garlic in the broth tasted raw and could have done with a good starting sauté.  A HH salad (for those feeling virtuous) was crisp and clean but, sorry, the saucisson sec, was a little sad and seemed lost sitting in its coupe glass, but at only$5 a serving we couldn’t really complain.

In summary, good food, beverage and ambiance – a little on the higher end of the happy hour value scale – but well worth it.

moules frites

saucisson sec

chicken mousse

happy hour menu

The nitty gritty:

Happy Hours:  Tuesday – Friday,  5:30 – 7 p.m.; Sunday, 5:30 – close.   This place fills up quickly with locals, so plan accordingly.

Bathrooms:  The women’s room a little sloppy for so early in the shift; men’s clean and functional.

Transportation:  Near the corner of 18th Street & Columbia Road NW; no direct Metro rail access, but plenty of nearby buses.  Parking in this neighborhood is tight and often restricted.  Taxis or car service may be your most direct route.

Accessibility:  Easy accessibility to restaurant in general, no threshold impediment.  There is one low table/window seat in the bar area (call ahead to reserve if you need it for access and want to be in heart of happy hour action).

Gallery Place…what takes you there? This is an area of DC with something for everybody: museums (jewels of the Smithsonian group – American Art Museum, Portrait Gallery), fee-pay commercial favorites such as The Spy Museum and Madame Tussaud’s, Ford’s and Landsburgh Theaters, sports and other Capital One Arena fare, or, the cornucopia of two movie theater complexes – E Street and Regal Gallery Place. Time enjoying any of these may make you feel like you need some refreshment around about Happy Hour time. On another hot summer day, the Happy Hour Sleuths did the hard work for you and scoped out three establishments in pursuit of cool, refreshing drinks and enough snacks to stave off the the hunger that intensive cultural (high-brow or low-) exploration brings. Thankfully, the Happy Hour (HH) offerings at Gallery Place are many and we’ll be back to fill in the stable.

Penn Commons

If you want to get your sporty on, get you to Penn Commons, 700 6th Street NW.  With multiple television screens, this is the go-to for fans of the action around the corner at Capital One Arena or a easy place to cheer your favorite sport, on cable,  in the cavernous, convivial space.   The full evening extension of happy hour (plus all day Sunday) really makes this a good, basic pre- or post-visit to anything you may be catching in the area. Beers, beers and more beers, on tap, with $5 and $8 happy hour pulls, $5 sports-bar wines, lower end rail liquors and occasional interesting speciality cocktails ($6) certainly make this the place to stock up before getting to the pricier Capital One Arena bars.

No real HH food menu, but grab the bar menu to order shareable “towers” of fried food ($30) and some decent small plate type offerings (we tried the onion rings), but not the spot for HH bargain food. (There is also a late night bar menu, which is outside our regular HH window, so no chance to sample.)

The place fills up quickly – all those pre-Arena crowds and tourist families with parents looking to get a respite buzz before packing into the hotel for the night with the kiddies- but it can clear out quickly as patrons look to maximize their seat time across the way or get to a quieter zone before melt down.

The nitty gritty:

Happy Hours:  Monday – Saturday, 4 p.m. – close. Sunday, all day

Bathrooms:  It was beginning of shift and they could use a goood scrub – not sure what later in night would be like.

Transport:  Gallery Place Metro (red) and multiple bus stops near by.

Accessibility:  Easy roll in with enough low seating near the bar to feel part of the action.

Denson Liquor Bar

Bogey’s Sam Spade would be very happy at our next stop, Denson Liquor Bar, 600 F Street NW.  It’s rich in classy 1930’s vibe and with its subterranean, down-the-stairs entry, you leave the tourists behind and embark on a speakeasy adventure.  As the name promises, this is a place for some good drinks:  HH drinks are made with good, mid-level liquor ($9), with some interesting specialty cocktails using variously gin, mezcal, Aperol, cava and Swedish punsch (like a Nordic rum!).  Bartender Mike will get you though the choices in good humor.

Good $6 wines (including cava), but beer drinkers will be staring at the sole Carlsberg Pilsner ($6) on HH.  Similarly, the happy hour food choices are limited (we tried the very good six raw oysters,$10), but the regular menu does have some appropriately priced small plates.

The nitty gritty:

Happy Hours:  Monday – Saturday, 4:30 – 7 p.m.  This small space fills up very quickly with HH revelers, so plan accordingly.

Bathrooms:  After a trek down a creepy corridor you will not be disappointed.

Transportation:  Gallery Place Metro (red) and multiple bus stops near by.

Accessibility:  Unfortunately, not obviously or easily accessible – entry is down a narrow staircase to the lower level of 600 F Street.  Further confusion is this entrance is actually on 6th Street, across from the fire station.  Denson takes its secretive speakeasy vibe very seriously!

Ella’s Wood Fired Pizza

Feeling hungry and in need of some substantial HH food fare, we steered to Ella’s Wood Fired Pizza, 610 9th Street NW. Value for money, this was the best of our day’s HH trifecta:  good rail liquor, wines, and beers and a spot-on $9 HH Maker’s Mark Manhattan.  A much more extensive HH food menu, but we went with the 7” pizzas, bargains at $7.  Service was good and attentive and the place was appropriately lively for our 6 p.m. visit.

The ahhh…

The nitty gritty:

Happy Hours:  Everyday, 4 – 7 p.m.

Bathrooms:  Clean and functional.

Transport:  GalleryPlace Metro (red) and multiple bus stops near by.

Accessibility:  Easy accommodation.

Another hot DC summer afternoon and we check into the bar seating at Tico, 1926 14^th Street NW.  (The long communal high top table was reserved for a private happy hour – good to know!)   The cool interior, edgy wall art, polished concrete floors, and expansive sidewalk-side windows, set the stage for this primarily Mexican treat.  We would not have been surprised to see a 21^st century Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera huddled in the corner….it seemed like their kind of place.

Are you are impressed with 16 linear feet of tequila and mezcal behind the bar and a knowledgeable master to guide you through that territory?  (Thank you, Mitchell!) The eponymous happy hour cocktails will start you well on the journey.

The margaritas were just right and the Cava sparkling (and mostly cold, if bottle kept in frig).  No beer drinkers among us this day, but they could have only been happy with the three Mexican choices. There were no regular rail liquors – bourbon, whiskey, vodka, gin, rum – on the happy hour menu and we didn’t try the Sangria, made with a Peruvian Pisco…we kept to a Mexican vibe!

Bartender Stephanie made sure our food choices kept rolling out.  Selections were tasty, some spicy and all well-proportioned.  The Queso Fresco fritters were particularly good and as light as air.  Tacos were well-stuffed and messy, with good flavor and heat.  The Proper Nachos were not of the usual gooey cheese Tex-Mex variety, but crispy and piquant.  The pricing of these nachos ($11) seemed a little steep for happy hour grub, but you didn’t see us complaining.  And what is there not to love about Mac & Cheese?  This one, flavors by way of Spain (Serrano ham and manchego) was yummy and creamy and hit all the notes of delicious.

Fried Chicken Tacos!

Queso Fresco fritters

Mac & Cheese

Beet Salad

Proper Nachos

HH Menu

Pork Tacos

The nitty gritty:

Happy Hours:  Tuesday – Friday, 3 – 7 p.m. (Monday, all night).   The available happy hour seating fills in quickly, so don’t dawdle.

Bathrooms:  Clean, functional – seat covers would be nice

Transport:  This in the 14^th Street/U Street corridor, closer to U Street.  Closest Metro stop is U Street/African American Civil War Museum/Cardozo (Green/Yellow).  Multiple buses up and down 14^th and U Streets.

Accessibility:  Barrier free entry for wheeled vehicles and very accommodating to placement at a regular dining table, for those who need alternatives to the bar and high top seating. The restaurant is all on one level.

You hear “K Street” in DC and you think of lobbying and law firms.  The area around 16th & K has always had a geo-defined history:  high end hotels, long gone mansions of rich and powerful, masculine buildings housing once-mighty labor unions – all looking to court favor with the big white executive mansion at the lower end of 16th Street.   But bars, eateries and the now mostly gone gentlemen clubs have always found a way to accommodate the thirsty and hungry minions of the storied firms and working stiffs.  We settled into Catch 15 Italian Kitchen & Oyster Bar (1518 K Street NW) to watch the parade of the rush hour crowd on K Street, across from the Capital Hilton and just down the street from the St. Regis Hotel and a newer, mid-level Hyatt.  Thankfully, this Washington July summer afternoon was bearable (and beautiful) at our seating on the outdoor sidewalk terrace and not even the eau de diesel from a departing construction vehicle could dampen our spirits as we settled in for what turned out to be a quite pleasant surprise.

The overriding theme was “value for money” and nicely attentive service.

Drinks were very reasonable: some good beers on a draft and happy hour wines served in veritable goblets.  The offered Happy Hour cocktails were narrow in scope, but we enjoyed the Pimms Cup and the Ultimat Mule and our “sparkling” drinker was very happy with the HH Cava! (Non-Happy Hour prices for a much larger range of cocktails seem very reasonable.)

The food offerings ran true to the  Italian theme and all we sampled seemed homemade.  So, instead of the usual frozen breaded mozzarella sticks thrown into a deep fryer, this cheese was a fresh cut block, lightly breaded, quick fried and served with a piquant marinara.  The flatbread pizza, made with fresh tomatoes was delicious, the meatballs are made on-site, and the bargain of the day, the slider offering of two mini burgers with onions, came with a generous order of fries.  The arancini (rice balls) were the least popular offering and we were so involved in the rest of the happy hour menu, we never even got to any oysters!  (A quick visual to the actual oyster counter showed offerings to be pretty slim.)

Fried Mozarella

Italian Flatbread

Happy Hour bites

sliders

Fried Calamari

Meatballs

Happy Hour drinks

The nitty gritty:

Happy Hours:  Monday-Saturday 4pm – 8pm. Available at the bar, high top tables, couches and outdoor patio.

Bathrooms: Clean and functional, but just a little tired, with just a whiff of mustiness.

Transport:  This is the heart of it all – steps to bus stops along I Street (17^th, 15^th or 14^th Streets, NW), Farragut North (Red) and McPherson (Blue/Orange) Metro stops and hotel taxis stands within a breath away.

Accessibility: Our sometime sleuths, J&G, were on our adventure,  so we needed easy wheel chair access.  This put us outside on the sidewalk café, as management told us all appropriate inside seating was booked by a private party.  Ummm, there seemed to be a LOT of indoor appropriate seating available the nearly two hours we were there, but, as we said, the weather was gorgeous, so we were happy to be outside.

On a hot D.C. summer afternoon, take a load off your feet and cool down in the clubby steakhouse vibes of Rare Tavern (1595 I Street NW), the downstairs/street level of Rare Steakhouse.  A WPA mural-like back bar depicting the muscle and brawn of labor and wait staff dressed in the best of mid-century chop and steakhouse garb will put you in the mood for some classic drinks and food. You’ll pick up on the Wisconsin theme as you peruse the drinks and snacks menu, but don’t waste too much time getting your first libations on the table.

No low shelf here as we were very pleasantly surprised with the mid-level Jim Beam and Absolut spirits in the rail offerings. The Wisconsin Old-Fashioned – a potent albeit sweet offering, made with brandy instead of the usual rye or whiskey – and a beer and wine list that hits most proclivities at least once will keep everyone happy.  (Although, a request for sparkling rosé seemed to short circuit the bar.)

The service was attentive, pleasant and even happy as the space began to fill up and ordered snacks came out quickly.  Even with its retro title (and associations), that chipped beef and cheese was pretty good, with some homemade potato chips on the side.  The Wiscotch egg had good flavor but was a little lean on its sausage wrap.  The broiled oysters and Ahi tuna were scrumptious, the later with just enough capers and black olives to complement the silken texture of the fish.  And $1 raw oysters?  An increasingly rare treat on happy hour menus around town.  The array of $2 bites (Garlic & Parmesan Roll, bar nuts, and pretzels) was perfectly fine but you would be legitimately perturbed if those items were any more expensive.   As for the cheese curds, well , must be a siren song for the Badgers in the house, but we took a pass.

Garlic & parmesan roll

Raw oysters

Chipped beef and cheese dip

Wiscotch fried egg

Ahi tuna

The nitty gritty:

Happy Hours:  Monday – Friday, 4 – 7 p.m. AND Saturday & Sunday, 5 – 7 p.m.

Bathrooms: Clean, well-stocked individual gender-neutral rooms.

Transport:  two major bus stops (15th & I; 14th & I) and the Blue, Orange, Silver McPherson Metro stop.

Accessibility: You can get to the main floor of the Tavern with something wheeled, but, unfortunately, the bar area is a couple of steps up.