Kelly's Irish Times Dive Bar / Irish Pub

Capitol Hill, Washington, DC –

With beer and cheer o’er flowin’, Kelly’s Irish Times has been a DC staple that’s survived and thrived – and no doubt put up with loads of bad Irish puns – for longer than even the oldest of the old-fart regulars can remember.

Pub purists from across the pond might decry the all-American bric-a-brac that dresses the walls or the fact that Miller far outpours Murphy’s Irish Stout, but if that keeps them away it just clears up more room for the rowdy college kids and post-work Hill staffers that make the Times their home away from home.

Walls are plastered with photos of past presidents (Reagan reportedly loved the joint), District police badges, bumper stickers, antique ice buckets, faded Super Bowl tickets, and local university logos, often to such an extent that the wood isn’t even visible.

Though typically the epitome of a chill dive during the work week as older locals drop in to nosh on a mix of Irish classics, bacon tater tots, and Frito chili, the onset of the weekend finds the joint overrun with the barely-twenty-one set.

Festive live Irish music fills the ground floor Thursdays and Fridays, while the packed scene at the second bar downstairs gives way to lots of flip-cup, dudes head-butting the punching machine, and DJs driving the disco ball-bedazzled dance floor with loud rock and pop.

Young or old, in school or retired, patrons at Kelly’s Irish Times find plenty of reasons to take an alcoholiday.