Visiting Washington DC first weekend in March, need recommendations

The best beer bar is Churchkey, whis is aboit a 20-30 min walk from you, though there are several other beer bars. Anything part of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group (which owns Churchkey) will have a good selection. The Partisan (also owned by the same group and in Chinatown) is probably the closest walking distance. Other places reasonably close that are good are Meridian Pint , which is 3 or 4 stops away (Shaw metro station, which is on the green line; the Convention Center is on the greenline), Right Proper Brewing (brewpub), and District Chophouse and Brewery . Maybe the best bottle shop within a 30 min walk is Whole Foods P St.? I picked up two 4-packs of the SMS this morning (from a place in VA) and they had two cases left; I have a feeling the DC metro area got a good amount but could be wrong.

 

The best local big stout is Mexican Radio from Bluejacket in my opinion (specifically the BA variant if you like whisky barrel aged stuff). Sort of a poor man's Abraxas.

 

Convention Center is a pretty central location and easy metro access to quite a bit (I work 2 blocks away). The above recommendations are spot on, I'll add the following. . You can also metro to Navy Yard and hit up Blue Jacket. Beer has mixed review but the place itself is pretty amazing. They are owned by the ChurchKey group. Meridian Pint should have some sort of Ocelot on tap, their web site is pretty accurate. Also a inexpensive Uber or Cab to Adams Morgan you can hit Smoke and Barrel (owned by Meridian Pint) Black Squirrel and Jack Rose (amazing whisky selection, but also a pretty solid draft list). City Tap House is very close to the convention center and worth a look. Tons of great restaurants in that area too. You will have plenty to do.

 

I'd second Right Proper as a great spot, particularly if you like saisons/farmhouse beers.

If you're in town on weekdays DC has some excellent craft beer happy hours, especially if you head west from the Convention Center area to Dupont. In particular I'd recommend:

• Pizzeria Paradiso (Dupont and Georgetown) - $4 drafts Tuesday-Wednesday in Dupont, Monday-Thurs in Georgetown, very good pizza as well
• Scion (Dupont) - Half-price drafts every weekday, often some great choices, typically uncrowded at the bar
• GBD (Dupont) - Every weekday they have one beer each at $3/$4/$5 - some crazy good deals sometimes (plus donuts and fried chicken). Owned by NRG (same as Churchkey/Bluejacket/Sovereign)
• Smoke and Barrel - Half-priced drafts Wednesdays
• Glen's Garden Market (Dupont and Shaw) - not a "happy hour", but each has 6-8 drafts of all-local beer at $4 per glass all day, often some good choices
• Whole Foods (Foggy Bottom and P St) - P St has better draft happy hour deals, Foggy bottom has $2 off their growler prices

 

hey Stoutman please come on over to Little Miss Whiskey's Golden Dollar for big dark malt tastes, it's only 5-10 minutes cab ride from your hotel (straight down H Street). We've got 130+ beers (including some cellar'd items), here's a link to our beer list http://littlemisswhiskeys.com/#beer
I'm the owner, hope I'm not getting in trouble by plugging my place and hopefully we've got some of what you're looking for.
enjoy!
mark

 

If you like stouts you should also keep an eye out for Hardywood GB, BBGB, and CM. There still seems to be kegs floating around DC, for example Smoke & Barrel has BBGB on now. Your best bet would be to check beermenus and untappd while you're here.