Public Bar (during the World Cup)

We made our way to Public Bar for the first Saturday of World Cup action a couple weeks ago. Arriving just after 10AM, we figured we were way ahead of the crowd, and would be able to settle in to a comfortable table to watch hours of soccer. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The first indicator should have been the multiple people walking down Connecticut Ave with soccer jerseys on. I had to pause and ask myself if I was in America or had somehow woken up in a European capital. We arrived at the hostess stand to be greeted with the question “Do you have a reservation?” A reservation? At a sports bar? Guess we should have planned ahead. We were directed to find a place to stand at the bar, which was already three to four people deep. Normally this would be Jamie’s worst nightmare, and we would be leaving immediately, but he was very excited to be with fans during the USA game, so we stayed. Turned out to be a great decision.

After the 10AM game, some fans thinned out, heading to other bars. Our group of six was able to push our way up to the bar and stake a claim. A rude move, but whatever. This clearly wasn’t the place to be polite. And there we stayed for the couple hour break between games and the entire US game. Our bartender, Kruz, was amazing. At some point, we stopped ordering beers, but there was always a full one in front of me when mine got close to empty. He even sent a bar back to the stock room to find us some Sam Adams (we wanted to be patriotic and drink American beer). The food deal worked out well for us too - $5 burgers & fries. Can’t really beat that, and these were exceptionally yummy. One negative. Apparently they didn’t expect the crowd that showed up, because at one point they stopped taking orders  to allow the kitchen to catch up. That lasted more than an hour, and one could argue it’s a bit unsafe given the amount of alcohol being consumed.

Once the game ended and the bar emptied, we stayed around for a couple more beers to get a feel for the place. The cozy couches on the second floor are a great place to talk with friends and watch a game. And the rooftop, while hot this day, would be the perfect place to catch an early fall football game. We really liked this spot, and will definitely make the trip down to Dupont for big sporting events. Great job with a fun new bar!