5 O'Clock Meeting: Temperance Hall
“Before there was Harlem, there was U Street,” and before there was national Prohibition, there was the Sheppard Act. Passed by a Congress intent on making the District of Columbia a beacon of temperance for the saloon-soaked nation, the Sheppard Act closed Washington’s four breweries and nearly three hundred licensed liquor establishments on November 1, 1917—two years before it outlawed the sale of alcohol in the rest of the country. Congressman Morris Sheppard successfully had brought his Texas values to bear on Washington. Washingtonians faced this congressional fiat with our typical aplomb: the part of town we now call Adams Morgan became a distillery hotbed, and, within a few short years, the District was home to thousands of bootleggers.
The Great War presented Washington with its first affordable housing crunch. Working class families who could not afford the drastically rising rents soon found themselves living in shanties in the alleys that cut through the city. One alley located just south of U Street, NW was called Temperance Hall. The rent for a two-room shanty was about six dollars a month. Today, six dollars at Temperance Hall will buy you a draft beer, a glass of wine, or an Old Overholt Rye on the rocks, unless it’s happy hour, in which case five dollars will do the trick and you’ve got yourself a reason to hold a Five O’Clock Meeting.
Photo of Temperance Hall chandelier from Intangible Arts.
Located at 3634 Georgia Ave NW, one block south of the Petworth Metro stop, Temperance Hall opened in January 2006 to almost unanimously positive reviews. Both the décor and the drink menu reflect the bar’s Prohibition-era theme and neither resorts to kitch. Crystal chandeliers and the pressed-tin ceiling peer down at seltzer bottles and the largest selection of rye whiskeys in Washington. The exposed brick walls look like they’ve seen it all and the draft beer selection wisely offers a Belgian wheat beer (Allagash White), an IPA (Dogfish Head), and a brown ale (Wolaver’s).
Temperance Hall’s happy hour runs on Mondays through Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m. Every drink on the menu is a dollar cheaper; the draft pints, red, white or sparkling wines and Jim Beam or Old Overholt ryes sell for five dollars a glass. The bar’s Classic Cocktails, such as a Manhattan or a sidecar, are wonderfully mixed and are just $6 during happy hour.
During any given happy hour, Temperance draws one of the most eclectic clientèles in the city. Like the Petworth neighborhood it calls home, the bar fills with government workers, young professionals, couples and a few older folks. If the conversation skews a little loud, it is because the music is often played much, much too loud, sending some drinkers fleeing for the downstairs “Whiskey Room” and back patio.
It is not just because I am afraid that the Prince of Petworth would hunt me down that this reviewer writes positively of Temperance Hall. In this day of destination lounges, a good true neighborhood bar deserves its due. Temperance Hall is a welcoming place to spend a happy hour, to raise a glass of rye, and remember Congressman Sheppard who--after outlawing liquor in the District--declared that a hummingbird would fly to Mars before anyone drank legally in Washington again.
Temperance Hall
3634 Georgia Avenue NW
202.722.7669
Metro: Georgia Ave./Petworth