Neighborhood Nightlife Part 7: Old Town Alexandria Pub Crawl

Old Town is the oldest section of Alexandria, originally laid out in 1749. It is the DC area’s original and first city-Georgetown followed a couple of years later. In 1791, Alexandria was included in the area chosen by the one and only George Washington to become the District of Columbia. Interesting enough, a young George Washington was part of the original land survey team for Alexandria some 42 years earlier. The Old Town district of Alexandria, as well as all of today's Arlington County, share the distinction of having been originally in Virginia, ceded to the U.S. Government to form the District of Columbia, and later retroceded to Virginia by the federal government in 1846 when the District was reduced in size to exclude the portion south of the Potomac River. Today, Old Town is chiefly known for its bustling streets, tourists, historic town houses, art galleries, antique shops, and restaurants. So there’s your history lesson…now onto our venues!

Our first stop is more like an Alexandria institution: no pub crawl would be complete without stopping here. It has a great festive pub atmosphere, good-natured service, a semi-extensive and reasonably priced beer selection, two bars, and live entertainment. The live entertainment (Irish-folk music) starts at 8:30 on both floors. This pub turns into, as one restaurant/bar reviewer comments, a mob scene later in the night. We’ll avoid that with our early arrival and use of the second floor.

Our next stop will be a stone’s throw away from the Potomac River Waterfront, the Union Street Public House. The Union Street Public House is a cozy pub in the front, with a sprawling restaurant in the back. There is an old world charm that runs from the cast iron lamps and etched glass on the outside of the building, through the revolving door, and onto the dark wood booths surrounding a large central bar. The bar boasts a decent selection of micobrews and tends to attract an under 35 (and mostly single) crowd. As we all know, Virginia still allows smoking in bars and restaurants. However, the Union Street Public House has caved to patron demand and finally banned it! Yay!

Our final stop will be a place even some of the locals don’t know about: the Bayou Room. It’s a quasi-dive bar located under the upscale Victorian style 219 Restaurant. The venue follows a New Orleans Bourbon Street decor, and weekends are most likely to bring thirty-somethings in polo shirts blowing off steam and pumping their fists to vintage Beastie Boys or Def Leppard songs, or even younger folks in jeans and T-shirts drinking gin and tonics or pints of Yuengling. The Bayou Room is only one of two Old Town venues that has something resembling a dance floor, so be prepared to cut some rug if the mood strikes you.

Old Town is definitely accessable by public transit. The nearest metro stop is King Street (yellow and blue lines). This stop is on the edge of Old Town, but our first venue is only a 10-15 minute walk (10 blocks). It’s a beautiful and very safe walk complete with a varity of small shops, restaurants, and colonial architecture. For those that aren’t up for the walk, there is a free trolley service that runs between the King Street Metro Station and the Potomac River Waterfront. It runs every 15 minutes between 10am and 10pm. If using the trolley to get to our first stop, you’ll want to get off at the King and Columbus Street stop, then walk a block south. Additionally, you can use Alexandria's DASH bus service, which offers free weekend service from the King Street Metro Station to Old Town's Market Square. That bus runs every 15 minutes on Saturday from 9:50am to 12:00am. You'll have to ask the driver if they can stop at King and Washington Street.

The organizers have had several requests to do a pub crawl in Old Town, so here it is. For those that requested…your attendance is mandatory! :-) Keep in mind your organizers reserve the right to omit, change, or substitute venues as seen fit depending on the group dynamics, scheduling, and available space. The pub crawl officially ends at midnight but I'm sure most of us will be out well past that. Disclaimer: Yes, it's perfectly fine if you choose to get intoxicated, drunk, blitzed, plastered, wasted, toasted, smashed, or pissed. However, make sure you have a friend present to take on any applicable baby sitting duties.