The Bit Turns Barrel's Basement Into a Bar Worth Going Back To

"If I see you a year from now, you can still come get a hug and remind me your name." That line is on The Bit's own website, signed with a single initial, D. The same page tells you how to get in. Walk into Barrel at 613 Pennsylvania Ave SE, go past the host stand, and look for the staircase on the right. There is no sign. "There won't be one," the site says, "I want you to feel like you found it."

A promise to remember you a year from now is new for this basement. Since Barrel opened, the room downstairs has mostly been something you saw once. It would become a joke, run for a weekend or a season, and then turn into something else. The Bit is the first version of the space set up for a second visit, a third, and a standing Thursday night.

A room that kept changing its name

Barrel opened on Friday, April 11, 2014, in the space the 18th Amendment had occupied. In those first weeks the lower room had its own name, Elixir Bar. A locked storage room behind it was called The Dispensary, and the space was described as well suited to private events.

The changes started almost immediately. Here is how the room's identity shifted over the next decade, based on local coverage:

• 2014: Elixir ran weekly flavor menus such as Basil Week and Grape Week, with two to five cocktails rotating through.
• 2015: The basement reportedly took on a new theme every week for twelve months.
• Fall 2016: Elixir became "Make Cocktails Great Again," also called the Trump Elixir Bar, with plans to run through Election Day.
• January 2017: "Unpresidented" ran January 17 through 21, during the inauguration week.
• May 2018: A PoliTiki revival opened May 11.
• October 2024: "All the Presidents' Bars" ran across five weekends.

Between those runs, the basement mostly hosted private events and took overflow seating from upstairs.

The basement ran on the political calendar

Look at those dates and a pattern shows up. The biggest pop-ups came with national politics. The 2016 Trump bar went for satire, with cocktails named after his quotes, oversized menus, campaign decorations and an unofficial name, "Trump Campaign Quarters." Three months later, "Unpresidented" staged a Russian victory party, with cardboard cutouts of Putin, a Last Supper mural with Trump in the center, and Russian-themed drinks.

The 2018 PoliTiki needs some history. The original PoliTiki was a separate bar a few blocks west, at 319 Pennsylvania Ave SE. It opened in 1998 with a bamboo bar and Polynesian decor and lasted about four years. The main floor later became the Pour House. Barrel owner Matt Weiss was a partner in that original bar with Joe Englert. In 2014 he was also named as the owner of Union Pub and 201 Bar. The 2018 revival brought the name back in Barrel's basement, with tiki decor and drinks served in custom mugs shaped like political figures, including Trump, Obama and Steve Bannon.

The 2024 series was the most ambitious version of the idea. It moved through five administrations, one weekend each:

Each of those rooms was built for one visit. A three-day themed weekend gets you there once, for the photo and the novelty drink, and then it's gone. Even the 2015 weekly themes, which ran for a whole year, changed too fast to settle into a regular habit.

What changes when the room stays put

The Bit is built for repeat visits. Its own site lists set hours: Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 6 p.m. to midnight, closed Sunday through Wednesday. According to Washingtonian, half the bar is held for walk-ins and the rest can be reserved on Resy. Holding half the seats for people who just come down the stairs is how a neighborhood bar gets regulars. The site also says larger parties need a reservation.

Weiss described the goal in plain terms to Washingtonian:

"More than anything, we want it to be nice, be comfortable, be cool, but not at all pretentious."

The decor follows the same idea. Washingtonian describes velvety olive couches, and Eater mentions candle-lit marble tables. The name comes from the bits riders use to guide horses. Bartender Decker Beasley's grandfather was a jockey, and some of his bits hang on the walls next to photos of old Hollywood stars with drinks in hand. Beasley says the name also means "doing your own bit." The earlier rooms were dressed up as jokes about politicians. This one is decorated with someone's family history.

Beasley previously worked at Bresca and Service Bar, and he wrote the cocktail menu. The opening details differ a little between sources. Washingtonian reported the bar opening under its new name on September 10, with 32 seats. Eater's new-bars roundup, updated September 22, says the Bit "found its footing this July" and counts 28 seats. Either way, it's a room of about thirty seats, so arriving early on a Saturday is a good idea.

What to order downstairs, and what's new upstairs

Cocktails run $15 to $22 and mix classics with Beasley's own drinks. Here's what has been reported so far:

• Starting Gate: Washingtonian calls it the "charcuterie version of an old-fashioned," made with toasted oat-infused rye, mustard demerara syrup, and a fig stuffed with smoked blue cheese.
• Garden Girls: named for Beasley's sisters, who do floral and landscaping work. It combines Hendrick's gin, honeydew melon, lime and chamomile ash salt.
• The martini cart: a cart that comes to your table, where you build your own martini from a selection of vodkas and gins, with garnishes like blue cheese olives, figs and gibson onions.
• From upstairs: Barrel's 400 whiskies are also poured downstairs.

Eater also lists a banana pisco punch and carajillo cocktails. The food menu is small and made of snacks: smoked pigs in a blanket, melon with Tajín, and ice cream sandwiches.

Barrel itself has new menus too, which matters because the two floors share one front door. The new upstairs cocktails include a brown butter old-fashioned and a set of tiki drinks, among them Barrel's version of a Hurricane. That's a small echo of the PoliTiki years. New food includes a fried cod sandwich, biscuits and charcuterie, and sweet potato tots. Happy hour runs 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and starts at 2 p.m. on Friday. House bourbon or rye is $6.50, and other cocktails are under $10. On Mondays there's a $10 "mystery happy meal" with a surprise beer, a shot and a toy.

The schedules line up neatly. Happy hour upstairs runs Monday through Thursday, and The Bit opens Thursday through Saturday at 6. On a Friday you can start upstairs at 2 and head down the stairs when the basement opens.

A midterm fall without a theme

The 2026 midterms are five weeks away. The basement has marked past election seasons with satire: through Election Day in 2016, and for five straight weekends in October 2024. So far, none of the coverage of The Bit mentions an election pop-up this year, and none of it rules one out. What the reporting does show is a basement with a name, a bartender who wrote his own menu, couches meant for staying a while, and posted hours that run Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight, with half the seats held for anyone who walks down the stairs.

Barrel's basement has been part of the stories on Pennsylvania Avenue SE for more than a decade, and it's good to see it get a permanent name. If you remember the Trump Elixir Bar, a PoliTiki mug, or a weekend at the Barr-e-Lago Club, or you're wondering which Hill blocks put a Thursday night at The Bit within walking distance, I'd enjoy hearing from you. Donald Denton has been watching this stretch of the Hill since 1978. Let's Connect.