Food

10 Great Friday Happy Hours for Drinking Outside

Get your bocce on when the February sun is shining at Vinoteca. Photograph courtesy of Vinoteca

Here are a few great options for enjoying happy hour in this unseasonably warm weather.

Acadiana

901 New York Ave., NW

Day drinking?  This Louisianan spot offers one of the longest happy hours downtown, from 11:30 am to 7 pm. Hit the patio for $5 specials, including cocktails like a Cajun-spiced dark n’ stormy, Abita beers, and house wines.

Alta Strada

465 K St., NW

The patio is open at this Mt. Vernon Square Italian, and you’ll find happy hour twice: 3 to 7 pm, and again on Friday and Saturday from 11 pm to 1 am. Deals include half-price pizzas, discount snacks, Italian cocktails from $6 to $8, wines for $6 (including bubbles), and $3 good ol’ Natty Boh.

Bar Deco

717 Sixth St., NW

Another great option when getting off work super-early. Happy hour runs from 11:30 am until 7 pm on the rooftop of this Chinatown spot. Deals include $5 house wines and DC Brau beers, and $6 to $9 cocktails.

Biergarten Haus

1355 H St., NE

The Bavarian beer garden is open year-round, but it’s extra-nice in warm weather (what isn’t?). Happy hour runs 4 to 6 pm, and includes half-liter drafts ($6), full liter drafts ($10), $6 wines and rails, and discounted food items like soft pretzels.

Boqueria

1837 M St., NW

Head to the patio of this Dupont Spanish restaurant between 3 and 7 pm for deals like $6 sangria (and $25 pitchers), $7 cava and house wine, $4 drafts, and a large range of discount tapas.

Espita Mezcaleria

1250 Ninth St., NW

The patio is open and the happy hour mezcal is flowing at Shaw’s Mexican hotspot. Drop by between 5 and 7 pm for half-off Fidencio mezcals, $6 tequila-spiked sangria and rum punch, $5 drafts, and shot-and-beer combos for $8.

Pepita Cantina

4000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington

Sip discount margs in the sun at Mike Isabella’s Ballston cantina, which extends the bar’s happy hour to the patio, 3 to 7 pm.

1905 Bistro & Bar

1905 Ninth St., NW

This semi-hidden gem of a roof deck in Shaw  is open early for catching those February rays (still sounds weird, right?).  Happy hour is from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, and includes $5 rail drinks and various beers.

Pearl Dive

1612 14th St., NW

Get to Pearl Dive’s lil’ front patio early, because it fills up fast—and seats by the window bar go quicker. The reward, from 4 to 7 pm: half-price drafts, two-for-one local oysters (a dozen minimum), and $12 pots of Addie’s mussels.

Vinoteca

1940 11th St., NW

Two patios mean double the happy hour fun at this U Street wine bar: one front, the other an Italian-style plaza in back with an authentic bocce court. Daily deals include 15 wines and Peroni for $5, and discount small plates.

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.