Bedrock Billiards

Descending the steps to Bedrock Billiards in Adams Morgan, you feel like you're on the way to shoot a couple games of pool in a friend's basement. Bedrock only features seven tables and the players are relaxed -- no Minnesota Fats here.

The bar serves a huge variety of beers (microbrews, domestic and imports) and hard liquor. Open to patrons over 21, Bedrock charges $10 per hour for two people on a table during peak hours and rates are prorated to the minute so you won't get charged for time you don't play. Thursday and Friday nights are prime times and the small number of tables can mean long waits. Ladies shoot pool for half-price on Monday nights after 7.

Pool isn't the only beauty of Bedrock. On a given night, tattooed ladies lounge on leopard-skin chairs. Guys with long hair were play 8-ball with crew-cutted women. Smoke hangs above pool tables. Groups of Europeans drag on cigarettes in the shadows, and sorority chicks gossip on the couches. They are sofas and chairs a-plenty, and people to fill them. And a buck means control over the music on the jukebox for a few songs.

The club's Columbia Road location makes parking difficult, and it isn't very close to a Metro stop; but for those seeking to shoot some pool in a funky, intimate setting, it may well be worth the excursion.

-- Jamie Krents and Maura Kelly