metrobar

metrobar is built around a decommissioned WMATA Metro railcar. The car was redesigned to serve as the bar structure itself, with a platform-style lounge alongside it and an 11,000-square-foot indoor-outdoor cocktail garden around that, on a site immediately beside the Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood station in Edgewood. The transit theme is not only decorative: the stated concept is to connect the District's eight wards, and the drinks list is built to spotlight local DMV spirits, breweries and wineries rather than national brands. Food comes from rotating truck partners rather than a fixed kitchen, which changes what is available week to week. It was voted Best Bar in DC by Washington City Paper readers in 2024 and was named a 2025 Rammys Best Bar finalist, and Washingtonian covered the opening with the observation that a 5000-series train is one of the main attractions.

For anyone not drinking, the honest position is that this is a bar with non-alcoholic options rather than a bar with a developed zero-proof programme, and the offer is strongly seasonal. Non-alcoholic drinks sit on the everyday menu alongside the cocktails, beer, cider and wine, but the most substantial expression of it arrives each January, when the bar runs a full Dry January menu of hot and cold spirit-free libations, billed as District-made cocktails without the hangover. That seasonal list is genuinely worth planning around; outside it, expect a shorter standing selection rather than named house builds, and it is worth checking what is on before making the trip specifically for the drinks.

What the venue offers year-round is the setting, and for a group that is not all drinking it is a strong one - large, outdoors, walk-in, and structured around space rather than around a bar rail. Practical notes: it is closed Monday and Tuesday, opens at 5pm Wednesday and Thursday, 4pm on Friday and noon at weekends, and runs to 11pm midweek and 1am on Friday and Saturday. Ordering is handled through QR-code Toast tabs at each table rather than at a bar, which suits a large outdoor space. The Rhode Island Ave Metro station is directly adjacent.