Aside from the amazing historic and cultural spots, the great music and food, Washington DC also has the best dive bars around. The Pug is a great spot to hit, but don’t come here looking for fancy drinks: the “speciality cocktails” button on its site sends you to the webpage for Cosmopolitan magazine. This is a place for beer: draft, cans, tallboys, bottles. Before you go, it’s a good idea to have filled your stomach. Great places to soak it up include Ben’s Chilli Bowl , famous for Washington’s local speciality, the “half-smoke” – a half-beef, half-pork hot dog that comes with chilli on top. The tiny street food stand Meats & Foods does great sloppy joes and chilitos (they also serve a beer to really help things along), but sadly they’re not open in the evening. For something a little smarter, head to the Basque-inspired Bar Spero, where they cook squid and scallops over an open fire.



The Pug DC, 1234 H Street NE; thepugdc.com
Bar Spero, 250 Massachusetts Ave, barspero.com
You can try Mr Lyan’s drinks at Seed Library, 100 Shoreditch High Street, and follow him on Instagram here: @mrlyan