Hump Day Happy Hour at Lou's City Bar

It's easy to tick off all the things that have been less than impressive about Lou's City Bar, a sports bar with dozens of flat-screen TVs and a large, covered, TV-laden patio just steps from the Columbia Heights Metro: Service can be hit or miss, the burgers-and-wings menu isn't great and the weekday happy-hour specials -- including a $3 domestic draft and $3 appetizer -- aren't much to write home about.

However, on Wednesdays, all 24 draft beers are half-price from 11:30 a.m. until last call. This means $2 pints of National Bohemian, $3 pints of Victory, Starr Hill and other microbrews, $3.50 pints of Dogfish Head. Where some bars exclude Guinness and other "premium" beers from these sorts of deals, Lou's goes all-in. That's what makes it a worthy hump-day destination.

-- Fritz Hahn (June 10, 2011)