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The Raven Grill
- Nearest Transit:
-
Columbia Heights Metro Station (Green, Yellow)
- Hours:
Mon 4 pm - 2 am
Tue-Sat 2:30 pm - 1 am
Sun 1 pm - 2 am
- Parking:
- Street
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- No
- Price Range:
-
$
- Good for Groups:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Music:
- Juke Box
- Best Nights:
- Fri, Thu, Sat
- Happy Hour:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Smoking:
- No
- Coat Check:
- No
- Noise Level:
- Very Loud
- Good For Dancing:
- No
- Ambience:
- Hipster, Dive-y
- Has TV:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
86 reviews for The Raven Grill
Review Highlights
"The jukebox here is amazing and everything is cheap."
(in 32 reviews)
"3) bathroom graffiti = never be bored while you pee."
(in 6 reviews)
"miller high life, PBR, the resurrected schiltz."
(in 3 reviews)
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86 reviews in English
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Review from Sean B.
12/22/2011
Even though my place is less than 10 minutes away, I've only been here twice in two years, the second of which was yesterday. Why have I gone so infrequently? Because I am an idiot, and didn't realize how cheap this place is until last night's return visit.
Yes, $3 PBR kinda blows but why order PBR here when you can get Sierra Nevada for a buck more? Or Natty Bo for a buck cheaper? Any place in DC that sells Makers Mark for $5 is golden in my eyes.
Good prices + quality jukebox + amusing graffiti on the bathrooms walls= a bar worth visiting. -
Review from John M.
Washington, DC
12/18/2011
A real dive bar. With a real dive bartender. With real dive bar prices. And real dive bar smells. And real dive bar holes in the wall. And a really good jukebox.
I think we'll spend some time together. -
Review from Brian K.
U Street Corridor, Washington, DC
11/25/2011 1 Check-in Here
A lot of people seem to really love this bar but my experience - which is only limited to one visit for a couple of hours - is that it is a 3 star dive bar. Cheap drinks, decent ambiance, and overall good people make it a pretty fun place; holes in the walls and ceilings are a bit off-putting but I think it does add to the character.
I will definitely visit again another night to see if it deserves the bump to four stars, -
Review from Colleen C.
Washington, DC
7/15/2011
The first time I went here, my friend ordered a White Russian. The bartender told her, "No." "No Kahlua?" she asked. "No milk," he replied. It's that kind of place. The kind of place that received complaints when they reupholstered their booths. It's crazy crowded on Saturday and Sunday nights, in part because it has the best juke box in the city. If you prefer room to move around, check it out on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. You might be the only one there. Or, you might find yourself sitting next to a guy drinking O'Douls. Regardless, you're bound to have a memorable visit. That's the beauty of the Raven.
It's also cash-only but has an ATM, and is next to a Bank of America. Stick to the beer and booze. Even the bartenders don't recommend the wine. As for the "Grill" part, there is no food, unless you count the Utz chips for sale. You can bring in food from other places though. -
Review from Susan H.
Austin, TX
11/16/2011
Dark, dirty, dive. Best jukebox in town, amazing graffiti in the bathroom. It's a great place to have as a local.
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Review from C M.
Washington, DC
7/13/2011
Do you ever have nights where you want - no, need - to sit in a dark corner somewhere downing cheap beers while pounding your fist on the table and ranting to your VERY unfortunate companion about "society" and how you want to move somewhere "authentic" such as Milwaukee?
Well, apparently I do. And then I go to the Raven. Usually it is like a Tuesday. There are holes in the walls and some times drunk people at the bar start yelling about who knows what. Sometimes the bartender kind of wanders away for a smoke and you have to wait for them to come back to order a drink.
What is not to love? Thanks for existing, Raven.Listed in: It's time for the Circulator
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Review from Ben B.
2/9/2011
Really dig this place. Definitely fits the "dive bar" genre, with low light and a kind of grungy, unpolished feel. Totally what I like in a bar.
The jukebox, by the way, is excellent. So excellent every time I've been there there's been a line to get your song played. Good music, cheap beers, great vibes. My kind of place. -
Review from Oscar M.
Washington, DC
8/23/2010 1 photo
This is a secret.
Don't tell anybody. It was there all along, right between dry cleaners and an abandoned shed. The signs outside can entice you at night, blaring "Cocktails" and "Blue Ribbon" like an Edward Hopper painting. And the tattooed arms, hastily smoked cigarettes, that politely open the heavy wooden squeaky door that would love to cut your ankles on the way in.
Once inside, you're greeted by locals, vagrants, potato chips, Jimi Hendrixx, Lou Reed, no cocktails, simply mixed drinks, damn reasonable prices, and that pretty brunette with even stranger tattoos. But it's a secret. Let's keep it that way. -
Review from Laura L.
The Raven- it's dark, it's grizzly, it's as homey as a dive bar can get. Do not come here if you are looking to hit on whatever has legs. Leave that elsewhere! The Raven doesn't play that game. It's more of a "leave me and my beer at peace" type of place.
The Raven stays true to all that is divey and awesome-- serving up suds for cheap. (Side note: it's cash only). While you're not going to get a fantastical variety of bottled beers, what they do have on hand is pretty tasty. And liquor? Yup, they've got that too.
The finishing touches to the Raven are the graffiti'ed bathrooms. Not only is there a shared sink which spews out only cold water (accidentally environmentally friendly?) and a shared sink may not be considered the most glamorous of restrooms, I personally find it all very charming.
What always scores mad points in my book is the presence of a jukebox. I've never actually stopped to count how many albums are encased in that little jukebox of theirs but I can tell you it spans a multitude of both musical genres and eras and is bound to please even the most discerning of aural judges. With an economy price of three plays for a dollar, why not throw on some tunes? And what's more, how could you not love a jukebox appropriately named, "Digital Thunder"? -
Review from Sky K.
Washington, DC
10/13/2010
Come here to drink canned malt liquor and PBRs that cost $2 above the national average in putrid squalor.
The Raven has become legendary for being the spitting image of the "authentic dive experience" that every 20 something is so desperately searching for as of late.
Rad:
Your epic jukebox will help me seal the deal with a drunk bangsy hipster after putting on FAME by Bowie.
I generally describe this place as the trashiest bar in DC to friends and proceed to force them to drink here for the novelty.
Bad:
You are drinking at the trashiest bar in DC.Listed in: Really Mediocre Places
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Review from Khalib B.
Washington, DC
Do you want a bar that could be anywhere?
Do you want booze that is cheap?
Do you want to not talk to anyone you didn't bring to talk to you?
Do you like cavish atmospheres?
Do you like places where you wouldn't be surprised if a sad clown was sitting 3 stools down?
If you answered yes to any of these questions the Raven maybe worth a try, if you answered yes to all of them you sound like me on a rainy day in which case I'll save you a stool at the Raven. -
Review from Andrew H.
Washington, DC
9/8/2010
2 cranky old man style observations on the Raven:
1: $3 is not cheap for a beer! Especially not a PBR! For the love of god I am sick of people saying how cheap their beer is. $3 is standard for a PBR in DC and that is already way too high!
2: When a bar undergoes renovations designed to attract hipsters and suburbanites but still keep its "gritty dive bar feel," IT'S NOT A DIVE BAR ANYMORE! If you think the Raven is a dive bar because it has "vintage" lamps and a jukebox and doesn't take credit cards, I fear you may be the kind of person who thinks TGI Fridays is an authentic route 66 roadhouse because it has license plates on the walls and an antique gas pump. -
Review from Chris D.
Washington, DC
11/18/2010
I can't speak to the grill part so I'm just gunna talk about The Raven.
What you need to know:
1. It's a true dive: Shit's kinda banged up. It looks like a place that should smell like cigarette butts (no smell though) and it's got broken mini jukeboxes at each table (and a working one at the back). Uncomfortable booth seating, unassuming exterior just a few doors from a broken ass building, and a bathroom that has been sufficiently graffitied in every space possible.
2. Two dollar Shlitzes! I don't know why people keep talking about over-priced PBRs? The Shlitzes are 2 bucks. Have them and be merry.
3. It's just a good time to hang out with friends: Come here for a few rounds of Shlitz to start your night off and you'll be ready to roll. Friendly bartenders, friendly clientele and a well-stocked jukebox.
Overall, you'll be in for an old fashioned good time. Enjoy. (cash only - ATM) -
Review from Zz K.
Washington D.C., DC
2/5/2011
Ahhh, the raven!!
Truly a total dive!
Come here to get liquioured up on the cheap.
Great for easing down a new date or shooting the shit with an old bud.
Finally a bit of NYC in dc but a total district feel ~ in a good way!
Do not come if u are clean cut or in khakis- Ann klien is also bArred
The music beats Rock too -
Review from Ronnie C.
Washington, DC
3/17/2009 ROTD 4/21/2009
I know if you "took a cab here, you don't belong here," but what if it's a rickshaw attached to a fixed gear bicycle? I've only been to The Raven twice (and I've never taken a cab there) but each time has been outstanding. Why is "grill" even in the title? Do they have food? Would you really want to eat it if they did?
The Raven is not THE dirtiest dive bar I've ever been to, but the furniture is adequately chipped and worn and the wallpaper is the same as it was in the 40's, though it is now brittle with age and yellow from years of soaking up nicotine. The fact that a chip of it could end up in your drink is enough to make The Raven a dive for my purposes. Last time I stopped in, on a Sunday, the doors had only recently opened and I didn't leave until they were preparing to close. The intervening hours are sort of unclear. Like a pointillist painting, when I step back and consider the entire experience, it makes sense as a whole, but if I try to closely examine any one incident, it's impossible to see anything clearly. Was that a pretentious analogy? I'm sure one of the many Raven patrons with a Master of Fine Arts degree could answer that question.
The Raven is probably closest to a dive bar as I've seen since Froggy Bottom. Unlike "The Frog" I've never been actively afraid of any of the patrons. Unfortunately, I think fear is the sign of a good dive bar, hence the loss of one star. I sat next to an elderly black man in a tattered suit who would dance on command in his seat when something good was on the jukebox. I imagine that he came straight from church.
The bartender was fantastic, and not just because he started pouring me unrequested (but not refused) shots around 4:30. When I wasn't taking half a dozen shots, I was drinking my new favorite whiskey, "Old Granddad." Old Granddad Whiskey is just like your kindly old grandfather, if your kindly old grandfather routinely hit you in the head with a shovel until you made terrible decisions. As you pause to consider whether what you're about to do is illegal or immoral, Old Granddad whispers to you in the voice of Tom Waits, "It's a good idea and nobody will ever know. Do it. Don't worry about getting caught - you're invisible!"
But you're not invisible. The granddad is a liar. I spent the entire next day throwing up and finding stuff in my pockets (and the purse of my companion) that I'd stolen from area houses.
Anyway, you will have a great time here and meet interesting people. Yes Virginia, many of them will be 20-something hipsters who are interning, working a shitty job while they find themselves or otherwise delaying the inevitable slide into lameness. What I'm trying to say is, bring flannel and tight pants. Oh, and whoever is playing Brittany Spears and One Republic on the jukebox in those other reviews, quit being ironic. -
Review from Jenny K.
Washington, DC
12/11/2008
How do I love The Raven? Let me count the ways...
1) shots of Makers Mark for $4.50
2) actual, honest-to-goodness, non-internet juke box filled with great rock 'n' roll tunes
3) bathroom graffiti = never be bored while you pee
4) pretty much always running into people I know here
5) the one magical night when the bartender cleared the floor (I was squished behind the bar) and did a mesmerizing recitation of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
6) cheap beer
7) 7-11 across the street should you need to buy cigarettes (not me anymore!)
8) cramming into booths with friends brings you all closer together
9) convenient location for friends coming from Dupont who can take the 42 bus right there
10) it gets crowded, but its tiny size makes it easy to step outside for some fresh air if the crowd is getting to you
11) Makes a great second location after getting food at Haydee's across the street
You encapsulate everything a person needs for happiness: booze, friends, and tunes. Raven, you complete me.Listed in: Gentrification Junction, where…
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Review from Karen L.
Washington, DC
11/12/2009
So what makes this a dive bar vs. a hipster bar? They don't serve Tater Tots??
This is not a dive. A true dive makes you think twice when you walk in for the first time and get a good look at the locals. You think, "OMG, what have we done?" but at that point it's too late and you have to go in.
Walk in this place and you're likely to wonder what everyone's GRE scores were. It looks like a grad school hangout, with wet-behind-the-ears non-profiters drinking the same beer my dad drank, not because it was hip but because it was cheap.
Except the Raven's beer is warm. -
Review from Danielle W.
Washington, DC
1/10/2010
On weekends I give this a 2, on weeknights I would give this a four. So 3 is happy medium.
On any other night of the week you can walk in, sit down and drink cheap beer at cheap prices. It's mostly people who generally only walk a couple blocks to get here because hey, it's a neighborhood bar. On Fridays and Saturdays GIRD YOUR LOINS! Prepare yourself to see bridge-and-tunnel folk - people from Clarendon that actually use Metro to come to Raven because all their friends told them it was hip - and the crowd swells with polos, pearls and attitude. Thanks to numerous nods from the Going out Gurus (namely Fritz) it's teeming with people who live nowhere near the area but clog it mercilessly on weekend nights. (so the lesson here is whatever Fritz recommends, do the exact opposite. I hope you learned that from the infamous LNS party)
Case in point: I recently went at 9:00pm on Saturday (9! that's early!) and not only was there no place to sit or stand, it looked like I walked into an Urban Outfitters catalog. And I don't think they were all hipsters because guess what - everyone, from your high school girlfriend who loved Third Eye Blind to your boss on the Hill and even Miley Cyrus dresses like a hipster now. People in tight pants preening and flirting over each other like a Williamsburg meat market. I fled to a quieter, hipper, dirtier bar in Adams Morgan that I am NOT disclosing here for fear of the invasion of sharp dressed interns and hill staffers.
Long story short, avoid like hell on Fridays and Saturdays unless you live in Ballston and love hearing "living on a prayer" twice in one night. -
Review from Allyson P.
Washington, DC
8/4/2009
I really don't see what everyone seems to love about this place. In my opinion though, dirty + gross does not automatically equal cool. I should note though that I haven't been in awhile, and based on some recent reviews, they've remodeled recently, so maybe it's less gross though. Both the times that I've wandered in there, there were roaches everywhere, crawling on the bar, the walls...seriously, everywhere. Maybe it's because unlike most people I was there during the day, and the bugs go into hiding at night, but seriously, it was bad. And, since we were there in the late afternoon/early evening (best time to drink!), we were pretty much the only customers, so how was the bar already sticky? Did they just not bother to wipe it up from the night before??
I'd be willing to cut them a little more slack if the beer was actually all that cheap, but it really isn't...you can find $3 PBR/$4 decent but not spectacular domestic beers at lots of places in the city (I feel a new list coming on-places with cheaper beer than the Raven). -
Review from alexis g.
Falls Church, VA
8/3/2006
First of all, I'm not sure how accurate the name of this bar is. No one here is grilling anything.
The Raven is a good old fashioned dive bar in the heart of Mt. Pleasant. It's metro-accessible, and most of its clientele live in the neighborhood, though others have flocked there through word-of-mouth. I've heard people say that the Raven is D.C.'s last "true" dive bar.
The Pabst Blue Ribbon set tends to hang out at the Raven, so don't expect a fancy wine list to be handed to you as you walk through the door. It's a good place to meet friends, get drunk and play music on the jukebox. It tends to get a little crowded though, and sometimes "outsiders" get glared at by the regulars, I'm sorry to report.Listed in: My favorite dive bars
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Review from Kori K.
Washington, DC
8/17/2007
"If you took a cab here, you don't belong here." That's the truest line I've ever read on a bathroom wall.
It's small, it's dark, there's hippies with fanny packs and no credit card machines. So why do I give it four stars? Because it's a place I can go in my oldest of t-shirts, hair in a pony tail, and listen to the Clash and Beck. It reminds me of my favorite bars in south Chicago, and I feel like there's no one I have to impress.
It's like taking a vacation from the rest of D.C.Listed in: D is for Dives
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Review from Ali C.
Arlington, VA
11/14/2010
I read the reviews for Raven Grill a few months back and thought it sounded like fun, but forgot all about it until I was walking down Mt. Pleasant with two friends who were hungry and wanted food...they got chips instead and I got some cheap $2 beer I've never heard of before.
The best part was the bathroom, I spent a good ammount of time reading the stupidity written in the walls. Plus the hole in the wall and the shared sink to top it all off.
Of course, listening to The Beach Boys, Ray Charles, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, and many other goodies was even better! A buck for three songs it's a pretty good deal, haha! -
Review from kloë l.
Washington, DC
2/4/2011
hello.
if you feel that you must read a review about the raven before coming here, then you probably just shouldn't come here. -
Review from Maple Q.
San Francisco, CA
3/4/2009
Last night a round of 2 PBRs, a Miller Lite and a Jameson cost $11 pre-tip. There was a wasted El Salvadorian guy who kept asking if we had ordered our coats. He told us he had lived in Mt. Pleasant for 26 years. There was a woman slipping ratty dollars into the [excellent] jukebox who spoke as if her teeth were made of split pea soup and kept asking us for $0.50. She looked like she had just gotten off a 15 show vegan burrito-selling stint with the latest Phish tour.
Is the Raven a "dive?" It has the worst bathroom graffiti I've ever seen (paltry in coverage and substance) but everything else seems to fit. -
Review from Evan P.
Washington, DC
8/28/2007
The Raven stands out from a lot of other DC bars. The booths are too small and slightly cramped, sometimes the seat you find slants about 30 degrees to the left, the table wobles like it's been drinking, the bathroom is an abomination at best, but overall, the place simply rocks.
Reasons being:
-cheap beer (bottles only) such as Bass, Newcastle, etc. plus the usual assortment of American standards; I think the most expensive beer they have is $3.50.
-great crowd....one night you'll find someone talking about the impacts of globalization in eastern Africa and the next night the conversation revolves around last weekend's Redskins game.
-aweseom jukebox.....it's an old school joint, not one of the new (and terrible) internet jukeboxes; full of standards from the 50s-70s, a good sampling of some newer stuff, plus some offbeat samplers as well.
Swing through, have some beers, meet someone new, stumble home......that's the recipe for a fun night at the Raven. -
Review from Paul F.
Washington, DC
12/15/2008
4.5 Stars on this one. It just isn't dirty enough to be a real dive bar. The bathrooms don't even stink. COME ON! Other than that, it delivers. Went here with Ben M to check out all the talk we had heard about it.
The prices were right. The booths were kind of fun. Although I'm pretty sure I found an old half smoke in between the cushions. They have board games to play to pass the time. -
Review from Bunny M.
Washington, DC
11/14/2010
I like it, though the weekend crowds were daunting. Still, my girlfriends and I didn't get pawed on like at most crowded places and we had fun.
The bartenders were friendly and good and I met the owner, who is a very sweet old guy. The doorman is one of the nicest people I've ever met. He made up for the shabby exterior. The bathrooms aren't so bad (the women's at least)
We had lots of fun - I can't wait to go back again. -
Review from John B.
2/27/2009
Well, it's not the L'il Pub (or even Tune Inn). And you probably have to go before 8 to avoid being sighed off the jukebox (anyone who prefers "Roxanne" to "My Lover's Prayer" is dead to me; anyone who sighs in my face about it is really treading on thin ice). But Washington is a city with about 1.7 reasonable bars, so up, up and away, to your 4 star perch, little Raven.
Very good staff, a few hardy locals who brave the rushing waves of dull folks, drinks at sensible prices. &c., &c. -
Review from Elaine M.
New York, NY
6/29/2007
Raven is yet another in a confluence of bars and other estalishments in Mt. Pleasant that make this neighborhood seem affirmatively not like the rest of Washington D.C. Neither upscale and uber-gentrified, nor barren of anything but a corner market, Mt. Pleasant has real people establishments for real people prices. Enter the Raven, which looks straight out of the 1950s and appears to have the unfortunately bland beer selection of that era (maybe meaning it has been around that long). Slip into an old, rubbery-leather booth and order a $2.50 Miller High Life, or better yet, check out the somewhat eclectic juke box, which to my unending joy, featured several Motown CDs. (Playlist choices: "It's a Shame," by the Spinners; "Volero" by The Gipsy Kings; "I Want to Spend the Night" by Bill Withers).
I was here on a Thursday night, so I did not encounter the sort of crowds that Zach H. alludes to. The beer gets two stars but the ambiance gets 4. I'll give it an overall 4 stars for (ironically) being a diamond in the rough of D.C.'s bland Front Page-esque bar scene.
As Nils said, the bathroom graffiti is pretty amazing (bring a pen into the john to scribble a thought or favorite quote that will live immortally). I actually saw the most brilliant one ever last night, and what do I do but forget it. I guess I'll just have to return. -
Review from Nicholas A.
Philadelphia, PA
10/5/2008 1 photo
The Raven is quite a good dive bar.
Only criticism first. There is one seat in there that seemed to be a perpetually magnet for my ass that is just horrendous. Expected from a dive bar, but this sink hole with zero padding and a 2X4 cutting into what I sure is some major blood supply to my legs and feet is truly my nemesis. Sorry, more of a personal problem that needs to be resolved between me and said seat. anyhoo. besides that minor squabble...
Cheap beer is abundant; Pabst & Miller in bottles and Schlitz in the can. My friend assures me that Schlitz means something quite lewd in German but I digress again. I haven't looked at the Juke but good music always seems to be pouring out of it. This bar also seems to have a good crowd, fills up nicely, yet you can still often find a place to sit.
Also, this bar has some interesting graffiti on the walls in the bathrooms. Some favs include, "Dude, who loves you?", a bow & smiley face on the toilet lid accompanied by the word "Love", "Scumbag Casanova", the surprisingly out of place "Foie Gras", and the charmingly elitist or just plain stupid "If you took a cab here you don't belong here". Might as well ride a bike, walk or metro to be safe.
oh and I have been told you should order the cheese plate!: Three different types of generic "cheese flavored" chips. nummers! -
Review from Ryan S.
Washington, DC
6/9/2009
Recently renovated, now with less battered booths and tasteful vintage lighting fixtures. I can understand the impulse, but wish they'd left well enough alone.
The Raven was perfect the way it was - the lack of calculation and retro self-consciousness made it the ideal place to go when I needed to turn off my own brain. Here's hoping they haven't scrubbed off the old grime/magic completely.
6/13 UPDATE: The old grime and magic are still there - I was just overreacting ;) -
Review from Jose M.
Washington, DC
1/20/2010
Proletarian enough for the proletariat. White enough for the bourgeoisie to feel comfortable. Out of the way enough to keep out the d-bags. Cheap enough for poor boys like me.
One of the few bars where I feel I can totally relax and get drunk with a friend. I don't really know who to thank for that. I feel like it's just the result of a confluence of past events and processes that probably have no real responsible party, save history. I could be wrong about that.... -
Review from Gretchen H.
Savannah, GA
7/10/2008
Is this place still standing?! If it is, kudos to duct tape! :D
Sitting in their booths you wonder if you're:
A: Going to fall in
B: Sit on a syringe
C: Be overwhelmed by roaches
D: Be overwhelmed by rats
E: All of the above
But if this weren't a multiple choice test you would write that the bar has character, that it's cramped and cozy and cold in a way that you fear for your life at times.
They don't have mixers, just cans of soda, and some of the people both behind and at the bar have been there for so long you really can't figure out if they actually leave. -
Review from Brooke S.
Seattle, WA
3/23/2009
The Raven is hip but it's definitely a dive so don't look too close at anything or you might get grossed out. I get the feeling that you wouldn't want to see this place with all the lights on. I love that they have a super nice flat-screen tv and they had The Rockford Files playing. I only know what that show is because of my parents, I swear.
They don't have taps but that's ok because you can get CHEAP $3 bottle beers. Good jukebox. Lots to read on the bathroom walls. Cool place to meet up with friends for a night of debauchery. -
Review from Nils J.
San Francisco, CA
12/19/2006
No credit cards, yuppie. Also, good luck finding a seat, or even standing room, on the weekend.
This place has apparently been here forever, and it shows. It's decorated it what looks like a random assortment of vintage (or vintage-style) posters without much of a common theme except for the [not-so-]thin veneer of cigarette smoke that accumulated over the years. I think the word that's typically tapped to describe such a place is "dingy," and while I'm not so sure that's the most appropriate description, it comes close.
They have a reasonable (and very cheap, for DC) selection of alcohol. I think the last time I was there I was drinking Rolling Rock at something like $2.50/bottle. Considering that I saw a sixpack of Rolling Rock at a convenience store last night for a near-inexplicable $8 (shutting down the tanks at Old Latrobe screwing with your bottom line, Anheuser-Busch?), that's quite an achievement.
They also have an awesome jukebox, although if you don't like your local hipster/baristas drunk and awfully belting out every '80s tune you've ever heard and dancing completely awkwardly, you'd better avoid this place when it gets packed. Because if there's one thing that hipsters love, it's belting out '80s tunes and dancing awkwardly.
This place has some of the most inventive and extensive bathroom graffiti I've ever seen. There's definitely a huge, long-winded rant written by some yuppie who was pissed off that they don't do tabs and don't accept anything other than cash (immediately followed, of course, by a counter-rant). So, consider this your warning, yuppie: no credit cards and no tabs. But there's a Bank of America next door so you're probably fine. -
Review from J O.
Washington, DC
7/15/2008
The best bar in Mt. P, hands down.
Good cheap drinks. Great selection of tunes. Awesome booths. Usually a pretty good crowd.
One star deduction for the lady bartender with major attitude. Get over yourself. -
Review from Oliver F.
Washington, DC
1/12/2007
The Raven is a dive bar on Mount Pleasant Street. It's a great place to have a whiskey after work. It will be interesting to see if the place survives with the smoking ban.
GREAT JUKEBOX
Why not give it the five star status? Too many hipsters. -
Review from This Mac Kills Fascists A.
Washington, DC
11/10/2009
A jolly sad establishment to scream and holler and work yourself into a fine lather, but a dismissible dumpster and an unfriendly toilet. Not a fun place to be stuck if you've got a bad case of the runs or need to vomit, lemme tell ya.
The bouncers are the size of boll weevils, think they're T-1000, and are about one missed pay check away from moving into their mothers' basement. Distant but caring bartenders, nonetheless. -
Review from Rachel B.
Washington, DC
2/20/2009
My favorite dive in DC (so far). The first time I went here, I broke/spilled my drink within 3 minutes of arriving. I was expecting people to give me a hard time because, well, I'm an idiot, but they were surprisingly chill about it. Just asked what I was drinking, immediately gave me a new one, and relocated me to a drier stool :)
Seems like everyone takes advantage of their $3 Miller High Life, but I prefer my $4.50 G&T. And I agree about the jukebox! Haven't heard a bad song yet... The Raven, I love you!Listed in: My Neighborhood, The Places I Go Out
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Review from Brian B.
Washington, DC
6/25/2009
I guess this place is cheap by DC-standards. $4 for a No 9 and I think $3 for a High Life or PBR.
After they renovated, I actually kind of missed the sunken in seats and beat up pleather booths. Thank god for the smoking ban; that place was really disgusting when you could smoke in there.
It's usually a fun place to go on a week night, but usually a shitshow on the weekends. Weekends are completely packed and the crowd is usually hit-or-miss. There have been too many times that my friends and I have argued with conservative Hill staffers or some other variation of young professional douchebaggery.
I'm eager to try out the Grille at some point. I love bags of chips and, if I ever eat meat again, I'll be sure to try out their Slim Jims.
