Polymarket—the cryptocurrency-based prediction market where you can bet on US strikes on Iran or March Madness winners—is opening a bar in DC on Friday called the Situation Room.
“Imagine a sports bar… but just for situation monitoring — live X feeds, flight radar, Bloomberg terminals, and Polymarket screens,” Polymarket announced on X.
Although Polymarket did not immediately reveal the exact location of the bar, online sleuths pinpointed it as the K Street outpost of sports bar Proper 21. Bar co-owner Rob Zahn confirms that the Polymarket will be taking over their space from March 20-22. Zahn and his business partner William Strozier previously told Washingtonian they also run a crypto asset fund.
Polymarket has opened a stunt business before. Last month, it opened a a free supermarket in New York for five days to promote “free markets” (get it?).
News of the Polymarket bar prompted plenty of comparisons to Political Pattie’s, and the owners of that ill-fated “sports bar of political affairs” posted on Instagram: “Political Pattie’s walked so y’all could run.”
There was also some early social media speculation that the bar might be tied to PubKey, DC’s new Bitcoin bar in Penn Quarter. But owner Thomas Pacchia says that’s not the case.
“Bitcoiners don’t really like gambling markets. That’s all a prediction market really is,” Pacchia says. He says the dive bar vibe of PubKey is the opposite of what the Polymarket bar appears to be: “The entire point of PubKey is we want people to actually interact with each other and not just be glued to CNN, wringing their hands over the situation like it’s an airport bar.”
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind DC’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
