Cue Bar

So, I’m staying in DC for 4 days a week on business. And because I’m doing so much business travel, I’m trying to soak up as many frequent flyer miles as possible. According to United’s «Dining Awards» website, if you eat here, you get 10 miles for every $ 1 you spend! Color me sold.
So, I hopped the Metro from my hotel in the hopes of finding a laidback atmosphere with talkative bartenders (I’m traveling alone), good food, and maybe something amusing to watch on TV. All of these reviews can’t be wrong, right? Wrong. If it’s not open (See Joel S’ review), you can’t hang in a laid back atmosphere with talkative bartenders, good food and maybe something amusing to watch on TV. Not if it’s called Cue Bar, anyway.
Seriously, this place sounds right up my alley. Plus, it’s surrounded by really cool looking Ethiopian restaurants on U Street. Please, Cue Bar — open your doors so this Chicagoan can see what a non-​downtown/​Metro Center bar looks like! (And so I can give you more stars!)

Tried to play ping-​pong Th 7÷3÷2008 but front door glass was covered in newspaper with sign…
«No cue bar associates allowed inside. Trespassers face prosecution» or something to that affect.
Not sure what happened, great place for ping-​pong, pool and darts, in a chill environment. Hopefully the problems will get resolved soon…

Okay, so. I used to work at an establishment that had me seeing the owner of Cue Bar on a semi-​regular basis (not trying to put his business out there). So when me and my boyfriend decided to try something new (NOT sitting in the house watching playoffs games), Cue Bar came to mind. We went on a friday night, pretty early in the evening. The décor was GREAT. They have a projection-​screen TV, so you can see whatever’s on pretty much anywhere in the bar. $ 2 darts was really fun and I’d never played darts before, drunken or otherwise! The pool tables were pretty much on lock when we got there, so we had a game of ping-​pong that took me back to my Boys and Girl’s Club days. *memories*. Drinks were awesome. The lady bartender got me on Rum Punch, which i happily slurped all night (after testing the Midori Sour waters – which tasted like all sour, no LIQUOR! boo).
the only reason that this got 4 not 5 stars:
1) The Lady Bartender thought we were drunk enough to not realize that the shot of Jack Daniels that we ordered was about a THIRD of the shot of Crown Royal that was ordered earlier in the evening, and refused to take it off our tab. GRRRR.
2) At around 9:30/10:00, Cue Bar brung new meaning to the song «The freaks come out at night». To me, it just looked like a crowd of Hot Ghetto Mess stormed out of some random club out in PG and decided to come to U st, lookin’ for somebody to look at them the wrong way or step on their Jordans. Nuh-​uh, my BF has a temper, we had to roll.
So we left… but will try again for LACED (btw, what does that stand for? The Wii station got me exited)! :)

Yay to new U street discoveries. So maybe I’m a little behind in the game, don’t hold it against me.
Went here after a good dinner at Vinoteca on a Saturday night. Not crowded at all, which I appreciated. We grabbed a couple seats at the bar, and had a nice drink and did some people watching. The DC United game was on one of the screens as well, so that was nice to see.
After hanging out a little bit we decided to play some darts. I believe darts are $ 2. Pool is something like $ 14/​hr on the weekends and I think $ 11/​hr on the weekdays. There’s also a ping pong table which was the hot spot of the night.
Greatly appreciated the music videos, which allowed for excellent dart board chit chat. My only recommendation is to get better chalk for the dart boards.

I was really psyched to find this bar primarily because it really reminds me of a place I used to frequent in college, secondarily because it doesn’t seem to fit into the mold of your average DC bar. Love the pool, love the ping pong, love the underground vibe, but what I really love are the 80’s/early 90’s music video hits playing on the big screens. Drinks and shots are strong, but it gets busy and you might end up a waiting around to get a drink. If you plan on playing pool or ping pong get there early and get your name on the list… or just forget about it!

A great place for a Friday night happy hour. Lots of space so that you don’t have to worry about spilling your drink, great curly fries, and of course there’s a bunch of pool tables, dart boards, and TV’s to keep you entertained. Happy hour specials included Skyy Vodka/​tonic for $ 4.

I adore the Cue Bar. Great location, cozy environment, great bar selection! Yeah, Cue Bar!

I go here every third Thursday for LACED. So they have pool, ping pong and a nintendo Wii station. It’s so much fun. They also play old school hip hop videos. The drinks were pretty strong this time around and if you order the tater tots there are a shit load of them. You must share them with 4 people. I have no idea how much it cost to play pool since I don’t play.

I prefer Kokopooli’s. This place is very big, but also crowded. When I was there, they were playing the video hits of the long-​lost girl-​group S.W.V.– random. This place wasn’t very relaxing, it was too hectic and hot. I’m not sure if I would go back — definitely not on the weekend but maybe a Tuesday at 6:30 or something.

I loved this place! It is dark, cozy and comfortable. Lots of fun (ping pong, billards, darts), laid back atmosphere (it even has a jukebox!), and a great drink selection (from Sierra Nevada on tap and Belgian beers to top shelf liquor (has 20 yr. Scotch). Also has bar food (wings, nachos, fries, etc).
Dare I say it for fear of misinterpretation, but it reminds me of Midwestern sports bar dressed up for an different audience, with some slick paint, lighting, etc. There I was listening to Guns N Roses and playing pool, while people watched the Packers on the big screen tv, drank beer and ate fries :).

Headed out here recently for a friend’s birthday. Started out skeptical when I heard the address. It’s where? Is that even safe? Once I got past the hesitation of 1. coming into DC, and 2. going to 11^th and U, I had a blast.
The place is very laid back — lots of pool tables that are in good shape. The ping pong table in the corner seemed to provide a lot of excitement for the folks playing, too. A couple of bigscreens to watch football games, and once the games are done for the evening they turn on old-​school music videos. Rock solid gold.
Beer selection was good, and I appreciated the availability of Red Stripe, which seemed to be the choice drink of the evening for most of the diverse clientele.
Lastly, absolutely loved the Christmas lights and ornaments hanging from the ceiling. I hope those are up year round and not just leftovers from the holidays!

This place intrigued me to no end. When you slip through the small door on U Street and head downstairs to the bar, you slip into this place that in innocuous, and somehow makes you forget the surroundings and focus on your friends and the fun (pool, darts, and even ping-​pong).
It’s hard to describe this place physically. It feels like a bar that some ambitious person in Las Vegas in 1988 would try to build and pass off as «cool for the ’90’s, but retro like the Jetsons». Or something. There was a lot of greyed-​blue and deep red… like Scott Norwood’s Buffalo Bills uniform. Or something. It’s very hard to describe. My description is going «wide right» :P But yeah, its a little odd and I don’t know what else to make of it. All I know is that, it has this ability to make you stop focusing on your surroundings (after the initial confusion) and instead focus on the things you should be focusing on like…
The great beer and alcohol selection. The really decent prices for said drinks. The numerous pool tables and laid-​back customers. The diversity of a bar on the edge of U Street gentrification… A good friend of mine says this is one of his favorite bars in DC. I can see why. For whatever reason, you drop your scene, hang with your friends, drink the drinks, and actually DO something like play pool. Oh yeah, and the DJ wasn’t that bad either. All that adds up to a solid place for letting your evening slip away with good friends.

Anyplace that has a ping pong table gets 5 stars in my book. I stumbled on this place when a co worker suggested coming here one Friday night. Its located in a basement on U St. Once you walk down the stairs you enter a very chic sports/​billiards/​ping pong bar. They have several tv’s and comfy couches. The bartenders are really nice, and they make stronnng vodka cranberry’s. There’s also a juke box, and a DJ on some nights.
If you like ping pong like I like ping pong you’ll want to sign up for the table as soon as you get there because they only have one table, and there sometimes is a wait. There are ample pool tables though to keep you entertained while you wait. A great place to hang out on U Street.

This place is pretty good with a chill atmosphere. The drink are a little pricy for being a pool hall/​bar but you paying to play pool in a nice part of D.C. On the weekend this place get pretty full and you usually have to wait a while to get a pool table. I went here on a Friday night and had a good time. I would go back here.

Monday is the new Friday, I promise. At least thats how it was for me at Cue bar last night.
We just sat at the bar, but the pool tables and dart boards looked very appealing. $ 2 off draft beers on Mondays and some sort of special on Bulleit (sp?) bourbon, as well. After my first beer the bartender, quasi-​jokingly, said «ready for shots?». I then, quasi-​jokingly, said «yes». Thats how Monday can quickly become the new Friday. But beware, if you order Bailey’s on the rocks at any given point in time, you might get some serious crap from the bartender who will tell you that you might as well just have a glass of milk. :)
I’ll def be back to this joint. The people in there are nice to talk to, the draft beer and overall bar selection is pretty nice. The bartender was great. Reasonably priced, decent music.

Cue Bar is fun, modern, convenient and reasonably priced. The modern looking entrance to Cue Bar stands out against the backdrop of dilapidated buildings and houses that are pervasive throughout U St. corridor. I went to Cue Bar at the insistence of my friend, who was meeting some fellow Ohioans (?) there. The bartenders were friendly, as patrons went about socializing, playing pool, darts and ping pong. On the particular Monday night I went here, the place was hopping with probably around 30 people, all of which seemed under 30.
As is often the case with bars I take a liking to, Cue Bar boasts a decent beer selection, which for some reason is not listed on their website. But from memory, their drafts include:
Flying Dog Pale Ale (Flying Dog is Hunter S. Thompson’s label)
Yuengling (America’s Oldest Beer)
Allegash White (American Belgian White)
Guinness
Peroni
Cheaper than Buffalo Billiards (which I will review later) and Atomic Billiards, Cue Bar’s hourly rate for pool tables is $ 11 on weeknights. The sticks could have been a bit heavier, but were of decent quality. As mentioned above, they also have darts, ping pong, and a juke box, which is something many bars in DC don’t have. Despite many other places in the country having juke boxes. To clarify, I’m not referring to a diner style juke box, but a digital box.
The best parts of this bar are its atmosphere, beer selection, location and reasonably priced beers, especially on Mondays.
To view Cue Bar’s weekly specials, go here:

Cue Bar is my new favorite bar in DC. Located in the U St. neighborhood, this hipster pool hall /​sports bar is an adults’ playground. It’s filled with pool tables, dart boards, TVs showing the big game of the night on every wall, and a ping pong table to boot !!! There’s even a DJ who spins old school hip hop beats on the weekends. One of the best kept secrets in DC, but given how crowded it gets on the weekends, apparently the secret is out!