Five O'Clock Meeting: Laughing Man Tavern
Laughing Man Tavern's logo, seen in reverse, and a glimpse inside. (Photo by Samer Farha.)
Laughing Man, a new bar from the ubiquitous Bedrock Management group (see also Rocket Bar, Carpool, Buffalo Billiards, Mackey's, etc.), is first and foremost a bar. The owners were trying to capitalize on the lack of plain old bars in the neighborhood, according to bar manager Manny DeAlmeida, and it's a plan that's so simple, it just might work. Sure, the burgers at Chef Geoff's are delicious, but getting your hands on one almost always involves uncertain hovering and at least one awkward conversation with a stranger---two things I think we can all agree are better left at work. Ditto goes for the happy hour crowds at many of the other joints in the area, which are primarily restaurants that cater to the neighborhood's buttoned-up lunch patrons, and not their bar clientele.
Named for an owner's affinity for the J.D. Salinger short story, Laughing Man Tavern opened just after the inauguration, and business has been growing, Almeida said. Weekends are still a bit slow, if a recent visit on a Saturday is any indication. Upstairs, patrons can sit at the smaller and more intimate bar or push a bunch of tables together in the back for a bigger group. Downstairs, the spacious area with its three-sided bar offers plenty of bar stools and room to mingle, as well as dozens of booths and tables with service. A jukebox with mostly Top 40 hits provides the soundtrack. (One down side: don't expect any cell phone service downstairs. You'll have to head top side to check your messages, email your boss, or update your Facebook status. On second thought, maybe we should call that an upside.)
Another upside is that Laughing Man Tavern, perhaps because it's the new kid on the block, has some pretty astounding happy hour specials. Monday through Friday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. select domestic drafts are $3.25, with premium drafts (which last week included two varieties of Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada and the bar's own G Street Brew from Fordham Brewery, among others) for $4 apiece. Rail drinks and house wines also both ring in at just $4. Food specials run until closing, meaning wings, calamari, steamed Sambuca mussels, crab and roasted red pepper dip, and a number of other choices are just $4 from 3 p.m. to closing. A recent visit included crispy, melt in your mouth calamari, and two dips---the crab, which was solid and well balanced between the pepper and melted cheese on top, and the spinach, which would benefit from a lighter hand with the salt---accompanied by piles of crunchy toasted slices of baguette. Laughing Man also sweetens the deal with a few other perks: Mondays burgers are half price all day, Tuesdays are lawyer appreciation day where lawyers get 20 percent off their check and Wednesdays the bar does the same for members of the service industry.
Bartenders are friendly, attentive, and fast, even with patrons pulling them in three directions. Despite the actual laughing man's slightly crazed look in the restaurant's logo (he's still haunting my dreams in a scary clown kind of way), it's an easygoing, relaxing happy hour spot. The crowd is largely unpretentious: 20- and 30-somethings who aren't looking to sip a seven-ingredient sake-tini while they decompress from a day's labor. Frou-frou Laughing Man Tavern is not. But maybe in today's D.C., which seems to have an ever-expanding number of high-maintenance door policies, snooty bar rules and exclusive speakeasies, that's why it'll have the last laugh.
Laughing Man Tavern
1306 G Street NW
(202) 737-1797
Hours: Mon.-Fri.: 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Sat.: 5 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Sun: 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.