{"id":633,"date":"2010-04-05T07:00:13","date_gmt":"2010-04-05T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=633"},"modified":"2018-10-30T17:32:54","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T21:32:54","slug":"irish-pubs-of-dc-a-rant-and-a-guide-part-three-the-irish-channel-fado-and-cleveland-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=633","title":{"rendered":"Irish Pubs of DC: A rant and a guide. Part three: The Irish Channel, Fado, and Cleveland Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

For this final part in my randomly selected tour of Irish bars in DC, I\u2019ll continue along the Red Line to Gallery Place, and finally Cleveland Park.
\n
\nThe Irish Channel<\/a> is another hotel bar that, unlike the Dubliner, manages to exude a strangely independent verve.\u00a0 It\u2019s also where I most frequently get into arguments with the Irishness zealots.\u00a0 Such arguments at The Irish Channel are ironic, though, since\u2026it\u2019s not really an Irish Pub.\u00a0 Its namesake is in New Orleans, and the pub describes itself as a blend of that New Orleans flavor and Irishness (remember to keep using your bad accent for that word).<\/p>\n

Indeed, The Irish Channel is a bizarre mock-up of an Irish-themed New Orleans pub.\u00a0 Which, somehow, feels original and unique. Or maybe I\u2019m always drunk when I\u2019m there.<\/p>\n

The menu errs on the side of southern and not Irish, and the dishes are all pretty good. The beer selection is a little wanting, mostly generic. Nothing daring there.\u00a0 But the staff are all very friendly.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the rare places where I don\u2019t mind table service, and have never found it intrusive.<\/p>\n

The issue for me, in terms of ranking it, is that it\u2019s not an Irish-American pub.\u00a0 It\u2019s not even trying to be. So it unfairly comes in with high points across the board \u2013 good service (and a good bar if you want to avoid waiters), good food, and a lovely, engaging atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The New Orleans slant disqualifies it from the \u201cIrish pubs of DC\u201d category, but it should stay on this list for two reasons.\u00a0 The first is that it\u2019s a great spot, and the second is that it\u2019s perfect for a pub crawl.\u00a0 You can access it via Judiciary Square, Gallery Place, or Metro Center.\u00a0 And if you want to careen wildly through the streets, you can walk there from Union Station.\u00a0 So get loaded at The Irish Times and The Dubliner then, after about 15 minutes of bumping into day workers and lunatic bums, you\u2019ll come up on the Irish Channel as if seeing a mirage.<\/p>\n

Then, from there, you can stick with Gallery Place and go to Fado<\/a>. We\u2019re back on track there with Irish-American pubs, and Fado is my favorite.\u00a0 It so eccentrically overreaches in its interior Irishness design that you can\u2019t help but fall in love with it.\u00a0 It\u2019s like Martha Stewart was forced, Clockwork Orange<\/em> style, to watch every episode of The Irish R.M.<\/em> 14 times and, when released, had been driven insane.\u00a0 I have visions of her chained in the basement screaming, Viddy well, my yuppies, viddy well!<\/p>\n

Beers are, again, fairly generic.\u00a0 Where Fado wins is that it has a huge bar space, thus you can avoid table service, and some of the best Irish-themed food in DC.\u00a0 Their Irish breakfast is the closest you can get in the DC area to an actual Irish breakfast. In fact, it\u2019s shockingly on the fucking mark. And inside the womb of the bar, you can almost pretend that you\u2019re no longer in the States.<\/p>\n

Fado, then, gets top points. 3 for service \u2013 it\u2019s easy to avoid waiters. Though, on weekends, and many nights, you\u2019ll have to battle bouncers and doormen. That\u2019s part of the drill in the city, so no biggie. They get a 5 for their food. Not just the breakfast, either.\u00a0 I\u2019ve yet to go wrong there.\u00a0 They get a 4 for atmosphere, though more thanks to the kitschy quality than anything else.<\/p>\n

Back to the Red Line, and a few stops down the line at posh Cleveland Park. Two Irish-American bars face each other across Connecticut Avenue. First up is the old Ireland\u2019s Four Provinces<\/a>, now Ireland\u2019s Four Fields, serving such authentic fare as \u201cIrish Nachos\u201d and hot dogs!<\/p>\n

The old Four P\u2019s (I guess now the Four F\u2019s?) was always a suckhole. The epitome of the Irishness nonsense I complain about. It\u2019s a pass, if you\u2019re looking to end the tour early.\u00a0 Ones all around \u2013 table-service oriented, bad waiters, a coldly unwelcoming interior, and bad food.<\/p>\n

Across the street, however, is Nanny O\u2019Brien\u2019s<\/a>.\u00a0 Very much in the same school as The Irish Times, Nanny\u2019s building looks like it\u2019s about to slide off a cliff and vanish into the mist. It\u2019s my favorite place for an early afternoon pint, but it gets pretty wild at night with live music and crowds of regulars.\u00a0 Again, capturing that same high street feel that the Times exudes.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing worthwhile on the menu except for the American staples\u2026but they are fine.\u00a0 You can get a great burger at Nanny\u2019s, and, I swear, their Guinness tastes better than most places.\u00a0 The frou-frou experts say it has to do with temperatures and hose lengths and I don\u2019t know what the fuck.<\/p>\n

Nanny\u2019s gets a 4 for service.\u00a0 They have a wait staff, and they can do okay during the off hours, but most evenings \u2013 especially weekends \u2013 sort of defaults to bar service if it\u2019s crowded, or unless you sit in one of the deeper dining areas, away from the front bar. The interior is set up with a shotgun shack feel.\u00a0 They get a 3 for their food. Try the burger, but there are no other stars on the menu. They get a 4 for atmosphere.<\/p>\n

So, let\u2019s tally up those rankings. Three is terrible \u2013 avoid. 15 is the max (which none of the bars received).<\/p>\n

McGinty\u2019s (Metro stop: Silver Spring) – 6<\/p>\n

Ri-Ra (Metro Stop: Bethesda): – 9 (note: Upper bar preferred)<\/p>\n

Harp & Fiddle (Metro Stop: Bethesda) – 3<\/p>\n

The Royal Mile (Metro stop: Wheaton) \u2013 5 (a good stop for scotch freaks)<\/p>\n

Irish Times (Metro stop: Union Station): – 7 (watch out for weekend and happy hour crowds)<\/p>\n

Dubliner (Metro stop: Union Station) – 5<\/p>\n

The Irish Channel (Metro stop: Gallery Place) \u2013 Special inclusion\/not ranked.<\/p>\n

Fado (Metro stop: Gallery Place) \u2013 12 (try the Irish breakfast, and excellent for early afternoon drinking)<\/p>\n

Four Fields (Metro stop: Cleveland Park) \u2013 3<\/p>\n

Nanny O\u2019Briens (Metro stop: Cleveland Park) – 11<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For this final part in my randomly selected tour of Irish bars in DC, I\u2019ll continue along the Red Line to Gallery Place, and finally Cleveland Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[78,74,75,96,95,395],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lush","category-dc","tag-bar-reviews","tag-bars","tag-drinking","tag-fado","tag-irish-channel","tag-lush"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":697,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions\/697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}