How do you get into Dirty Bar?
We have not confirmed it. Dirty Bar is in the directory because it calls itself a speakeasy, and that is the whole of what we can stand behind about its door.
Drinks of the era
We have not seen this venue’s own list, so what follows is the period rather than the bar: Bee’s Knees, Southside, and Last Word are all drinks of this era, and each links to its origin and its build.
Where Dirty Bar sits
Dirty Bar is in Washington, District of Columbia, in District of Columbia, in the Mid-Atlantic of the United States. The city sits inside the DC, Maryland and Virginia metropolitan area.
Our directory currently lists thirteen speakeasies and hidden bars in Washington. The full list is on our guide to hidden bars in Washington.
Measured from the map pins, the closest of those to Dirty Bar are The Sheppard, about 200 m away, Toastmasters – Speakeasy in Downtown D.C., about 350 m away, and Sidecar, about 600 m away.
District of Columbia holds thirteen listed venues in this directory. See them all on our District of Columbia speakeasy guide.
Prohibition in District of Columbia
District of Columbia came under national prohibition on 17 January 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment took effect and the Volstead Act defined an intoxicating beverage as anything above one half of one per cent alcohol — a threshold strict enough to close breweries that had expected to survive.
More on the period in our history of Prohibition in District of Columbia.
What the newspapers recorded in Washington
Searching the Library of Congress run of District of Columbia newspapers for speakeasy, blind pig and bootlegger across 1920 to 1933 returns dated pages anyone can open. These are from Washington:
- The Washington daily news, June 24, 1930 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Washington daily news, March 14, 1929 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Washington daily news, December 26, 1931 — read the page at the Library of Congress
- The Washington daily news, January 14, 1931 — read the page at the Library of Congress
Planning a visit
You can reach Dirty Bar by phone on (202) 681-5224 and through its own website.
The address is 1223 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036. Open in Google Maps.
What we have confirmed
For Dirty Bar we hold street address, telephone number, and official website. We do not yet hold social accounts, opening hours, a published drinks list, an online booking link, or a listed-building record.
It is in the directory because the description in the source data describes it as a speakeasy.
Overture Maps carries this venue; OpenStreetMap has no matching record.
The source data classifies the premises as a bar.