5 O'Clock Meeting: L'Enfant Café
This post by DCist contributor Rawn James, Jr.
The goal of DCist’s 5 O’clock Meetings column is simple: We let you know about happy hours that you need to know about so you can make the call when your friends get stuck in the endless "but where should we go?" conversation. This week we visited a happy hour that happens only once a week and offers no food specials, but is still worth the trip for any beer lover.
Since 2003, L’Enfant Café has looked out on the vibrant intersection of Florida Avenue, 18th Street and U Street, NW. With its patio seating and bay windows, L’Enfant offers some of the best street level people-watching perches in town. Now that spring has sprung, L’Enfant Café also offers a reason to hold a 5 O’clock Meeting: Every Tuesday, from 4:30 to 7:30: its respectable selection of Belgian beers is half-priced. Each brew, poured and served in a glass bearing the beer’s logo, will set you back about four bucks.
When it comes to beers, I generally reach for the Clean Crisp Taste That Never Lets You Down, so I was mostly unfamiliar with the Belgian choices on the menu. The bartender succinctly explained the different options, and I started with Delirium Tremens. The beer’s malty finish betrays its notorious strength (8.5 % A.B.V). Conversely, the Kasteel Triple, which clocks in at a solid 11% alcohol, finishes much more crisply and, as the strongest beer in the bar, offers the most cluck for your buck. The warm weather invites you to sip Hoegaarden—the resident witbier—or L’Enfant's homage to D.C.'s arboreal claim to fame: cherry fermented Liefman’s Kriek on draft.
As enjoyable as its Tuesday happy hour is, its once-a-week status regrettable. The owner of a very popular U Street bar told me that his establishment does not host a happy hour because it doesn’t need the extra business. Similarly, L’Enfant Café does not appear to need a daily happy hour’s promotional value. There are still a few seats at the bar at 5:30—because everyone is requesting tables outside—but by 6 o’clock the café is crowded. By 6:30, it's standing room only. When my companion and I requested the tab, our seats were stalked like Penn Quarter parking spaces.
L'Enfant Café
2000 18th St., NW
202 319-1800
Metro: Dupont Circle