MiG Bar

MiG Bar is exactly the kind of bar people complain doesn’t exist in Adams Morgan — a small, cool drinking den with good music, affordable beer and personable owners who double as bartenders.

MiG Bar moved into the old Rendezvous Lounge space earlier this summer, and I’ve been visiting it more in recent weeks as a respite from the crowded 18th Street strip. I suspect I’ll be there even more now that the bar has installed an 8-foot movie screen to show classic films every Tuesday night, such as "Red Dawn," "D.C. Cab," "Fire Walk With Me" and old episodes of "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

Named after the trailblazing Russian MiG jet, the one-room bar is decorated with old U.S.S.R. propaganda posters and edgy graffiti-style illustrations of planes, pilots and skulls wearing Russian uniforms. (A message scrawled in Russian on the mirror behind the bar reads “Buy the lady a drink!”) The soundtrack leans towards indie rock and classic Britpop.

There’s plenty of vodka to sip and a small range of canned and bottled beers; Natty Boh and PBR are $3 all the time, while the high end includes $6 cans of DC Brau and bottles of Tsingtao. (The smooth house MiGtini cocktail contains Hammer and Sickle vodka, St. Germain elderflower liqueur and orange bitters, and costs $10.)

Beyond movies, there’s good news for Adams Morgan soccer fans: MiG Bar co-owners Van Hillard and Chad McCall plan to start opening at 10 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays to project English Premier League games on their new movie screen. (The two support arch-rivals Tottenham and Arsenal, respectively, which means you’ll always have a bartender to banter with.)

-- Fritz Hahn (August 8, 2011)