Washington DC for Writers

Expecting a three day layover in DC, I was ambling around the internet in an itinerary planning mode when I started building a themed visit. I worked in DC for a while after college and grew up in the neighboring suburbs in Northern Virginia, but it’s been years since I stayed downtown. 

Along with a tour of the museums at night, I’d hoped to roam the mall area and go to the Spy Museum. While I love a good revisit, I’ve done the traditional museums so I was trying to find some less common places to go. Looking at bars and restaurants, I noticed an easy literary theme. If you didn’t know, I love a themed bar crawl – but usually the theme is just Thursday or Martinis. I haven’t been able to actually DO this yet as I changed my flight when my arrival coincided with a massive snow storm.

I’ll share my list now and let you guys know when I can make it happen. Maybe you can join me! I’m open to any feedback and I’ll keep adding to the list as I get new info. 

Here is a list of writerly places to go that are largely within a 2 mile radius.

Some ways to spend your pre-bar crawl time: 

• Kramerbooks. Starting strong with a combined bookstore/bar/restaurant, what else could you need?
• Planet Word Museum
• Jenni Bick’s Custom Journals. So many notebooks and journals all perfectly clean and ready for that first sentence you are going to be anxious to write. Go flip through them and try all the pens.
• Nerds and Nibblers – cute name for a sandwich shop.
• Drunk Shakespeare (if you need even more laughs: DC Improv comedy Club)
• American Women Writers National Museum – it says it’s there but I’ve never heard of it. Anyone ever been?
• DC Writer’s Salon – if you need a cowork space to hang out with a bunch of writers, this is your jam.
• Folger Shakespeare Library – I feel like this place would smell like paper. 
• National Museum of Women in the Arts. While not super writerly it’s a beautiful building with amazing installations. Go get inspired.

On to the bars. Here’s my starting point: 

• Off The Record
• Allegory
• The Quill
• The Bottom Line
• The Looking Glass Lounge
• The Monocle
• The Raven
• The Dubliner
• Busboys and Poets

I made a shared Google Map: Washington DC for Writers and a Pinterest Board DC for Writers.