Food

The Summer Drinking Quarterfinals: POV Lounge vs. Bardo Brewpub

Welcome to the next level of outdoor boozing.

Bardo Brewpub (pictured), one of the city's best and most chill beer gardens, goes up against the chic POV Lounge. Photograph by Scott Suchman

Welcome to the quarterfinals of the Summer Drinking Showdown! We started the competition with 16 of the city’s top outdoor bars, and only eight remain. The newest member: Jack Rose Dining Saloon, which sent Whitlow’s back to Wilson in the final hours.

Today’s contenders couldn’t be more different. POV Lounge at the W Hotel is the kind of place to strap on heels or button up a shirt. The fanciest accessories at Bardo are drinker’s dogs. In the one place you’ll find bottle service. A skull made of bottle caps sits outside the other. POV muddles a mean mojito. Bardo brews its own beer.

POV’s rooftop bar is a swanky place to sip martinis and look out over the monuments. Photograph courtesy of POV.


So which one is it: martinis overlooking the White House, or fresh-brewed Marion Berry Ale at a picnic table? Vote in the polls until 5.

Food Editor

Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.