West End

Serving the community and the university for several years, Froggy Bottom is a good place to hang out with friends and enjoy a beer, with the food and beer fairly inexpensive. There is patio seating when the weather is warm, and some pool and foosball in the back.

Recognized by Forbes.com as one of the world’s best hotel bars, Off the Record is known as Washington’s premiere "power bar" right across the park from the White House, and a place to be seen and not heard.

This has got to be the West End's cheapest dive bar, with $3 burgers and $4.50 sandwiches. Weekday happy hours 5PM-8PM see $2.75 "King Kongs"—26oz draft beers, as well as $2 bottles and $2.50 food specials. It's filled with after-work yuppies, of course, but it's still kind of amazing that this place is next to Farragut Square!

A mainstay of the K St scene, with diverse, international clientele, pricey drinks, house and trance, and a good whiff of pretension in the air. The upstairs Latin American restaurant is worthy of a visit in its own right, and makes for a good combination with the lounge. Tu 18+.

A trendy two-floor lounge just south of Dupont Circle, with little pretense to faux-nerdiness beyond the name, aside from a couple science lab nods in the furnishings. There is significantly less pretension here than other places to the north, despite that it is fashionable—this is no doubt owing to the lack of a dress code, VIP rooms, bottle service, etc. This is just a place to chill out and get dancing. Drinks are disproportionately expensive, but it's hard to complain with no cover.

The least pretentious of the K St clubs is this rock club, with a bunch of flatscreens showing MTV videos, and loud 80s & 90s mainstream rock on the speakers and some hip hop. Drinks are overpriced, the small venue gets very crowded on weekends, and the crowd on the dance floor is anything but rock 'n roll, but it's a good time nonetheless.