This is a low key no frills divey bar right in the middle of the H street corridor. It's not a great spot, but if you're looking for something simpler/quieter than the surrounding bars, this fits the bill nicely - we came while waiting for a table to open up at Sticky Rice next door. The guys behind the bar were quick, friendly, and make larger than average mixed drinks. That works for me.
Review Source:Tasty beer selection. Brunch menu was meh. Lots of firefighter/police kitsch around the bar, which is a big turn-off. Also, definitely NOT a Ravens bar. They put it on one TV without sound. Then they refused to put the sound on after the Patriots game (which the bartender was watching) ended. Oh, and lots of tiny bugs everywhere - gross.
Review Source:What to say about the pug? You get what you come here for. When I came in here on my first Sunday, my first reaction was "where am I?" The place is dark and gives off the vibe of a typical dive bar. Yet, after your second mimosa from Billy Bartender and a delicious meal from the culinary maestro Joey Garlic, the pug's unique environment begins to grow on you. I highly recommend the pug to anyone looking for a Sunday brunch that doesn't play around with it's identity. It's Sunday funday, no pretentious people, politicians or bombs!
Review Source:In a Wikipedia entry about dive bars a link to The Pug would be found at the bottom for further reading.
They do it right here kids. Reasonable prices and a great selection. Its cozy with minimal seating but its very comfortable. Lots of interesting junk on the walls if your date is a bore or you're stopping by to wait for a table at Toki or Granville.
I don't have much to say and I have nothing to complain about. I hope this place is around forever.
I need to come here a few more times before deciding if this is the right "dive" for me on H st... I've been here twice, once on a weekend where it's butt crowded with people and it's hot and stinky. Â Went here again on a Thurs night for late night drinks and it was surprisingly crowded. Â Not a fan of $7 dc brau on tap, but a fan of $5 dc brau cans.. They have great deals on your typical morning beer-sh*t brands: natty light, natty boh, PBR, etc... ($5 for tall boys). I wish we could sit at the bar b/c it's awkward to sit on the rando seats facing the bar. Â You end up staring at the booty of people's that are hovering by the bar... and trust me, it's not sexy booty. Â The crowd is diverse and bartenders are fast and efficient. Â Be aware that they are die hard MD fans, so if you wear any other team paraphernalia, be ready to trash talk/defend.
Review Source:I LOVE dive bars; partly because of the no-frills, no nonsense nature of them that makes them so charming, but more so because of the atmosphere. Very laid back and chill, with greasy, yummy bar food and super-cool bartenders that treat you like a bro, or a friend they haven't seen in a while. You know, very un-DC.
The Pug offers NONE of these things. It looks like someone's basement or garage (there's "dive-bar chic", then there's what THEY'RE doing... ugh), had a funky smell when we walked in and a bitchy bartender with an even funkier attitude (which is probably where the smell came from).
The last thing that someone who has been working all day wants to see is a bartender with a crappy-ass attitude. (Take it from someone who bartended on and off for 10 years and made great money doing it!). Â I was starting to think the girl was either mute or a little slow, because when we asked about happy hour and bar food she did little more than grunt and point. We were barely there 5 minutes and it was obvious that we were not going to get any decent acknowledgement from Little Miss Quasimodo behind the bar. The messed up part is, the bar wasn't even busy: there were like 2 other people in there. I guess her favorite show was on or something, because she ran back to the TV instead of taking our orders. Needless to say that visit didn't last long.
Hipster Heaven!
Thank you for the random soundtrack and Summer Shandy tall boys. Â They share a liquor license with Toki Underground upstairs, which is awesome when you're waiting for a table for dinner. Â Now that's a partnership everyone can benefit from.
The vibe was very cool and just a chill spot to sit in a dark corner, drink some beers, and have a good time.
This is a dive bar!!!
I say that with some disdain because my first experience with  the Pug was for brunch.  After coming here I realized that this place is a bar and is not setup for any kind of restaurant like experience at all.  The bottom line is, if you're coming here with friends for drinks you'll have a good time!
This isn't the typical DC bar, it's very low key, unpretentious, and it does not try to appeal the masses. You can be loud, the music here is loud, and most of the folks here will be drunk, which is a good thing! The lighting is dim, the decor has a boxing theme and a hodgepodge of other stuff, the furniture (eg bars, stools, tables, and chairs) look like shit! But if you're here for drinks most likely you won't care.  The music here, surprisingly  was great! Hip-hop, blues, rock...good stuff.  Â
Another cool point for the Pug!! Â Is that the brunch here is pretty tasty and inexpensive; it's cheaper than your typical chain restaurant! Â Â In addition they have $10 bottomless mimosas when you order food!!! Â
Overall I dug the place and will definitely visit again!
No frills neighborhood "dive bar" on H St. Â It's got cheap beer and that's about it. Â Take it or leave it. Â Not much to say really and can't necessarily say I'd go out of my way and would probably pass it without giving it much thought. Â Last time I went, I played connect 4 with a friend which was a nice trip to my childhood while sipping beer and jager. cool.
Review Source:In some ways, this place is so NOT DC, it's laid back, it's a regular place, but it has enough personality to keep you coming back and feeling cozy.
And yet, this place IS SO DC: they had presidential debate viewings, etc.
I guess it's just more of what DC needs.
Pretty small to medium sized, hard to fit large parties on the weekend. Â Lots of games inside (like trivia cards). Â Good beer selection and you can eat Toki Underground's food down there.
"...If you're choosing a generally cheap region of the District, I recommend H Street. It's hard as dragon scales to get to, but once you're there you realize that only 60% of DC's night crowd knows it exists and 90% of that was too lazy to make the trip out there. You'll have to battle a lot of hipsters who already think the area is less cool for me writing about it, but they'll back off if you make up a fake band name and ask them if they've heard of it. Rock n' Roll Hotel is a neat joint: small covers, good shows, but the beer hovers around $5 a bottle.
That said, I have two words for you: The Pug... where beer in general stays closer to $3, and even very high-end beers are no more than $8-$9 (we're talking the stuff that wins world beer awards). Don't ask for shooters or bombs or any other drink that sounds like a form of terrorism. They don't serve it. Not because it sounds violent, but because they keep it simple at The Pug. No frills, just thrills..."
--from my "Penny-Pincher's Guide to Dive Bars in DC"
This is a dive-y bar.
The layout is a bit narrow, but what can you do with limited space? A good place to grab a quick drink if you're waiting for something/someone.
Service is friendly enough. Prices are on-par for DC. beer selection is not bad, but not extensive. Definitely a funky, punk-rock, hipster atmosphere if that makes any sense.
Don't go here on a weekend night - we tried. Â It's not a great space for crowds. Â The bar is SUPER narrow so with people sitting at the bar and in the seats on the wall it was difficult to even get to the back of the bar without tripping over people's feet. Â Not many seats and when all the seats are taken there is really no place to stand either. Â
Seems like a cool place to go, Â just not on a weekend.
Look, there are plenty of places that appeal to a quote/unquote "hipster" crowd that I absolutely effin' love, but the Pug is not one of them. Â It feels like we want it to be awesome and it thinks it is awesome (just see the 4 stars here), but really if you TRULY think about it... It's not so awesome. Â Awesome.
What it is is a shithole, with strong but boring drinks, a pis pour beer selection, and a hit or miss staff. Â One night you'll get an awesome bartender who is glad to shoot the shit and get you drunk; the next you'll get a cockeyed stare like they want to punch you in the face for ordering a drink.
I like dive bars a lot. Â I like good dive bars even more. Â I am big on being able to hang out with friends and get hammered. Â I don't need specialty cocktails and nice lounge sofas and all that other Dirty Martini of Smith Common crap, but I do need nice atmosphere, cool staff, and a homely, comfortable, feeling when I'm in the place -- not the sense that I'm going to get grabbed by the neck and hurled on the street. Â I do that on my own when I stumble blind drunk out onto the street at 2 AM, thanks.
Biggest pro for The Pug are the prices, which remain cheap.
I think the first thing that came to mind when I entered this desperately "divey" hipster circle-jerk in the middle of H Street was the outrageously and inappropriately loud music. I was here to meet up with a large group of people so we can try that noodles joint upstairs that you can never ever get a table at and after a lot of yelling, we all agreed the music made it impossible to maintain a group conversation.
Overall this is not a bad bar. They have their specialty cider which was supposed to be alcoholic but the only thing alcoholic about it was that it was served at a bar. I think because of DC's vast shortage of decent bars, cafes, restaurants, and hang-out spots, this place has become popular and thus too crowded all the time for the size and type of place it is. And anytime you have a annoyingly massive crowd of "Hipsters" - each one of them more self-important than the over - you will have people who refuse to move out of anyone's' way when they need to get a drink and give you snarky looks if you are not dressed in tight jeans, flannel shirts, or pseudo-intellectual-looking glasses.
This could be a much better place if it wanted to be but first it needs to get over itself....
The Pug is a one-stop shop if you're looking for a genuine bar to belly up to and meet  great people from the neighborhood.  You can also grab one of the tables in the back.  Get ready, you'll be sharing that table with other Pug goers soon enough.
Head in for Brunch on Sunday morning and let Billy pour your drinks. Â 10$ bottomless mimosas for a few hours is pretty hard to beat. Â Don't leave without getting a great dish from Joe who will serve you up some serious eats. Â Get the special. Â It NEVER disappoints.
I went here for Saturday brunch with my friends. Â The menu is quite simple and filled with all of those breakfast goodies that you wish you could eat every day but shouldn't. Â
I had the special - cajun chicken with french toast. Â Btw, the french toast is soaked in whiskey. Â Yum!!! Â
It doesn't seem like the place has a kitchen. Â They have a skillet. Â So be patient. Â Don't go here thinking you'll be in and out. Â Come, expecting to spend quality time with your friends and meeting the great folks at the Pug.
They also have $10 bottomless mimosas! Â
Other menu items I remember: Â Half smoke, spam, sausage, or bacon with fried eggs and hash. Â Whiskey french toast. Â They have a couple other items. Â I think most of the plates are about $8.
I give it more of a 3.5 star, but this place is kinda like a dive bar... it's small inside, got some interesting mix of beer selections (some are pretty awful)... a cocktail of the night... (the summer punch was really tasty)... and then they have some random food too... like grilled cheese (which was actually pretty yummy too)
very limited seating... tv and random trivia pursuit cards in the back... overall.. its a decent little local divey bar...
I'm not much of a pug person, but I'll make an exception for this one. The bf and I stopped by here for a drink before dinner. Mostly because it was right downstairs from where dinner was, and it was a two hour wait for dinner, but it was still pretty fantastic!
Being quite a divey bar the prices on all the brews they had stocked were quite reasonable even if the selection is a bit small. Later on this place really gets hopping man! If you have anxiety about lots of people being crammed into a tight space then you probably shouldn't go here. Service is pretty quick and speedy with a minimal wait, maybe next time we wander over there I'll get to try some of the bar bites.
It's located next to a lot of other bars on H street, so you can hop over to a new one if it isn't your thing or even set up a bar crawl night. The only things you might want to watch out for here is parking spaces are a premium commodity and it is not located near the metro, but you can find some bus stops fairly close by.
Definitely has that neighborhood divey bar feel as soon as you walk-in. Â Not a bad waiting place when you got an hour or two to kill before getting your seating at Toki Underground. Â
I liked the fact that they were promoting a spiked hot cider (called a Flogging Molly) on a blustery winter day. Â While the cider wasn't exactly hot, more like tepid, it still tasted pretty good. Â The service was friendly and quick.
Two words: Cheese Balls.
The Pug is like that crazy girl everyone went to high school with who never wore a bra or brushed her hair, and always has mismatching socks: Dive-y, oddly self confident, and  doesn't give a shit about what people think about them.
I have never had an amazing night that didn't start at The Pug.
If you don't know about The Pug, then I'm not going to tell you. I like it just fine, and as far as I'm concerned too many people know about it already.
Nevertheless, they have a very unpretentious Sunday Brunch. This is definitely not the first place that comes to mind when you think of Sunday Brunch. However, the Hangover Hash is money! Plus, $10 bottomless mimosas (if you don't care what kind of champagne you drink). I prefer the beer here, but try the Hash.
This is solely for the brunch.
I am having a hard time with my star assignment of this place so I'm starting at  zero and will figure it out as I go.
I'm not a dive-bar kind of girl...I can go to one, I can be fine in one, I can have a good time but dives are just not my favorite place to have a drink...they're just not.
So what was I doing in one? And for breakfast at that? Both good questions plus 1 star because I had set this place up to fail just by going.
Over the course of brunch I learned some important things about myself: 1) that while I don't mind drinking in a divey setting I do not like to eat my food in one and 2) I especially don't like to eat in a divey setting with good lighting. There are some things I just don't want to see or smell with a sober mind. Minus 1 star
The food was...edible...I mean...okay...errrrr....did I mention that I'm not a real dive bar girl? I had the "All American" which came with this hash thing that was just too mysterious for me, it also came with a bisuit (which was fine), sausage links (fine), cheesy eggs (not very cheesey), and gravy (again with the mystery), Minus 1 star.
I loved the waitor/chef/bartender...he was awesome. He was chill, attentive, and added to my experience. Plus 2 stars.
My food was CHEAP. Plus 1 star.
I've been going to The Pug intermittenly for almost a year now, but I didn't become a FAN until I stopped by for sunday brunch.
Hashbrowns and bacon drowning in gravy for 6bucks? Yes, please! Â Sausage and steak cooked on a George Foreman grill behind the bar? Don't mind if I do! Â $10 bottomless mimosas served in a pint glass (instead of those bitty wine glasses)? GET IN MY BELLY!
I went there expecting nothing. Â I left satiated and sleepy, with a plenty of money in my wallet.
The Pug rules. Any place that 1) serves San Miguel in bottle and 2) has EPL fan scarves hanging up in the interior is an automatic win in my book. This bar is chill, no nonsense and more importantly, unpretentious (if you're looking for some H Street pretentiousness, walk a bit further down the street...) I've never been to The Pug and NOT met someone interesting. Bar patrons are friendly and chatty, as are the bartenders.
It's a bit of a downer that there aren't more bars like this around DC. But since they're few and far between, it makes you appreciate the diamond in the rough that is The Pug.
After falling in love with Pug at Yelpin' H Street, I knew I had to return on my own. I had the perfect opportunity when met with a long wait for dinner at Granville Moore's, so we headed next door and settled in.
It was a really freaking cold night and the Pug was exactly what we needed: warm, inviting, and chock full 'o beer. We ordered a round, snacked on some freebie popcorn, watched whatever game happened to be on, and chatted with the bartender. There was nothing forced or weird about this place; the whole environment just makes you feel at home.
What a neighborhood bar should be, at it's very best.
The Pug (short for pugilist) is my bar of choice on the H Street strip.
My first visit to the Pug, during the YELP H Street Pub Crawl, was an absolute blast. Thank you Kevin and Miriam! I felt right at home in the small dive bar vibe. This first visit also yielded two kick-ass PBR t-shirts and a PBR mouse pad.
The last time I found myself at the Pug was the evening of my birthday after laughing at some premium raunch comedy from Dave Attell at the Improv. Upon overhearing that I was celebrating another year, the bartenders at the Pug whipped up a nice little shot on the house. If you aren't familiar with a Four Horsemen, it is a brutal combination of Jack, Jim, Jose, and Johnny. These horsemen in the form of an oversized shot did in fact portend an apocalypse of sorts for me that evening. Blaaaaaahhhh!
I like the pictures they have amassed at the Pug, though it does bring a faux-memorabilia cheese factor to the bar. I hope maybe the photo of Chris Webber throwing down a thunderous dunk over Alonzo Mourning contains enough positive mojo to keep other Georgetown buttholes away from H Street. It's only a matter of time though...
It's hard to believe there is a place like this in DC. Â I had the same experience as Sean G. when my co-worker -- who was trying to convince me to buy a house near H street -- took me to this bar. Â The bartender greeted me, shook my hand and asked my name. Â He also remembered it, and seemed genuinely grateful for my patronage.
This is a truly rare find and says a lot for what is happening in the neighborhood.
PS...Thank you everyone for the ROTD. Â I should add that I went back to this bar about 3 weeks ago and things got even better. Â There was a different bartender there this time. Â There were 6 of us there and he asked all of our names and remembered all of them. Â Also, he remembered our drinks over the course of the night (4+ hours) and we all noticed that the bartender knew sign language. Â Not sure if he learned because of the bar's proximity to Galludet or if he just happened to know it, but he was signing with two deaf patrons all night. Â That makes this the ultimate neighborhood bar...the bartenders even learn sign language to cater to the locals. Incredible.
"Put away your credit card. We're grown-ups here. You'll pay when youre ready."
That was how I was greeted when I first went into The Pug.
Wait.
Back up.
Actually first I was offered a handshake and hello, and asked my name. It was then that I reached for my wallet and was told that wouldn't be necessary.
Whaaa?
Yeah. Exactly. It's that kind of place. Which wouldnt be something. Except this is the D-Sizzle. And it is.
$2 Natty Lights, cheese puffs and microwaved goodies for the eating. Plus a pool table.
What more could you want?
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