About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Five Dollar Bar. 1359 U St., NW.
The idea to open a bar where every single drink costs $5 started out as a joke. Other bars around U Street had occasional $6 deals. But what if you stripped away the premium liquors, the DJs, and the comfortable furniture, then offered the most basic of basics for the cheapest price possible all the time? Think the Sprit Airlines of bars, and a rare antidote to cocktails casually creeping over $20.
“It was literally one of those things of throwing spaghetti at the wall,” says Five Dollar Bar co-owner Jon Rube, a nightlife veteran from Las Vegas who also runs LGBTQ+ venue Icon DC. He and business partner Shewa Etana previously operated other bars in the same U Street space, including Hashtag Lounge and Revolt, before coming up with Five Dollar Bar. “We tried it, and people started coming in. It started getting picked up by the blogs. So we’re, like, oh, shit, we might actually have something.”
To try to make the economics work, Rube says they buy bottles that retail under $10. Their rail liquors—a brand called Recipe 21—cost them around $7-$8 per bottle. Then they often get deals with distributors and find random bottles with deep discounts, like Fireball Blazin’ Apple or a pre-batched Porn Star martini that was 70 percent off. Most of it is available as shots, although the bar has also been using mixers like Harris Teeter colas (because they were on sale), and Sunny-D, because it’s way cheaper than actual orange juice.
“People ask for limes and lemons. It’s like, this is not a salad bar. This is literally a $5 bar,” says Rube.
To entice people in, the bar will occasionally offer some nicer liquor too. Three bottles of Don Julio disappeared in 32 minutes on a recent Friday night. Five Dollar Bar has also used a spin wheel for a chance at more premium shots. Everything is served out of plastic Costco cups.
While everything really is $5, the bar does charge a 20-percent auto-gratuity. So technically every drink comes out closer to $6.50 when you also factor in sales tax. “That’s another one of the jokes that, you know, you barely want to pay $5, so we have to do auto-gratuity. Otherwise, the bartenders will quit,” Rube says.
In fact, the bar only employs one bartender, who Rube says has been doing surprisingly well with tips. Business has ramped up enough that Rube says he plans to try out adding a second bartender.
The space itself has a “you get what you pay for” vibe. Gone is the lounge-y furniture and “nicer looking stuff.” Instead, the owners have brought back Revolt’s chalk walls for people to scribble on. Rube has also stapled fake $5 bills made for film productions all over the walls and ceiling.
“People keep trying to take them and think that they’re real $5 bills,” Rube says. “I tell the bartenders, ‘Hey, when you’re taking cash and you see $5 bills, take an extra second to look at it.'”
For now, the bar is open Thursdays through Sundays from 8 PM to 2 AM, and Rube says it’s quickly become a popular pre-game destination for groups starting their night out.
Five Dollar Bar has been advertising itself primarily with AI-generated social media flyers, which has stirred some backlash. But Rube sees it as one more part of the schtick: “Just like you don’t want to pay for a $10 drink, we don’t want to pay for a graphic designer because we can’t afford it,” he says. “It’s five dollars. What do you expect?”
At this point, the bar is playing things by ear. Even if it doesn’t work out on U Street, Rube says they may try to find a different location with cheaper rent. They’d like to offer $5 food options, and maybe beer and hard seltzers. In the meantime, they’re looking into hosting birthday parties on the third floor mezzanine—possibly with a $5 reservation fee and five-person minimum. Maybe they’ll even paint the building “money green.”
“It’s still in that stage of ‘let’s see what happens,'” Rube says. “People are about it. So, I think time will tell if it will make sense financially.”
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.
