O’Shaughnessy’s Pub

It’s not a dive… it’s a dump… We walked in and walked right back out… The bar had 4 people sitting at it smoking… DUMP

This is my new favorite bar in Old Town! I’ve been searching for a low key dive bar for months and I found it. The bartender (Carrie?) is really efficient and attentive. I love the live music; when I was there I saw the Double D’s and they are seriously a talented group. Drinks are priced well and I love that they pool tables upstairs. Its kind of off the beaten path of Old Town so street parking is typically not a problem. Absolutely love this place!

This is probably the best dive spot in Old Town. You can actually smoke upstairs. Drinks are inexpensive. Pool tables are easy to access and their are always lots of friendly patrons.

Young lady at the bar kept it real … Def a place to check out.
Music bar downstairs … Live music …
Pool tables …
Great drinks …

This place is awesome been going for years now and will continue to keep going until they ban me. Something really attractive about going to a bar and lighting up a smoke. They have a pool table in the front and two in the back. People always flock to the one in the front so put your quarter down quick. They have a bar with a music stage downstairs and someone is always playing something fun. You meet a lot of interesting characters in there so be prepared. I will say that if your socially awkward this is probably not the place for you.

I love this bar. You can smoke inside. It’s great. The only negative is that, if you’re a woman, creepy men will try to hit on you.

This place used to be a hidden dive for locals, but since then the owners have taken to putting a sign outside and re-​characterizing the place as a Sports Bar, which has kind of ruined it for me. There’s plenty of sports bars along King Street. As a dive bar, they had a great niche but now I just can’t ever imagine wanting to go there over any of the other places like it on the street.

Love love LOVE this place! Great environment and everyone is always friendly here.
They have a jukebox which can be good or bad… Sometimes you’ll get great jams, and othertimes someone with sub-​par music standards will play 20 of his favorite songs.
You can smoke in this bar, which is pretty rare nowadays. It can get a little smokey inside, though, so if that’s not you’re thing then I would definitely avoid it.
The bar food here is really good. PLUS they have a dessert menu from downstairs. I love that I can drink my beer while eating ice cream (please don’t judge me).
Oh, definitely try to make it for their happy hour specials if you can!

Pretty cool bar. They have pool tables upstairs and a juke box. They have live music some nights which is kind of cool as well. The bar is extremely divey and has a lot of smoke, so if you can’t deal with smoke then this may not be the bar for you. Not a bad bar tho if you want to get off the beaten path of old town alexandria.

Cool dive bar on a regular night. Had a decent band downstairs, with rockers and goths upstairs. Strong pours evened out the prices for drinks ($ 6). Craft beer selection was a bit cliché, but I ain’t no beer snob. Perfect place to get your drink on in liberal style. Not for prissy girls or snobby frat boys. Definitely get some wings from the deli up front. Top 10 wings in the USA. Totally dead on off nights.

I have been coming here for years so I felt it was high time I wrote a review for it. If you’re looking for a dive bar in the truest sense of the word, or you just like interesting people who may or may not be drunk, this is the place for you.
Most of my better friends from my high school days still come here, and with good reason: drinks are cheap ($ 9 pitchers of PBR at all times), the people are interesting (Yuppies will come in on Fridays and some Saturdays, though they usually get scared off quickly enough), the all-​music jukeboxes make for some good musical variety, and smoking is freely permitted. They have bands playing downstairs frequently, and every once in a while one of those bands will actually be worth listening to.
The pool tables go in cycles: they work well, they work less well, someone scratches the felt, the table breaks but people still play on it because the coin-​taker is broken too, they get a new pool table and it works well. Regardless of its state, you’ll usually find some people here ready for a game. The upstairs is basically a hallway and two rooms, and the room without the bar in it (the one with two pool tables) is a nice place to hang out with your own group of friends if you’d rather not be bothered.
Don’t be surprised if someone strikes up a conversation with you, this is a true bar here: you will make a friend (or several) and people will get to know your name after you’re here a few times. The AMAZING deli downstairs will be there to fill you full of food once you’ve downed your drinks (which will have had a large amount of liquor in them, they don’t cheat you here).
Some disclaimers: 1) the taps have issues sometimes, and you may end up having to spring for bottles, 2) be polite, fights do happen here, hence the security, and 3) if you do get in a fight, don’t knock over my beer, or I will fight you too.
See you there! I’ll be the only one not smoking. ;)
Overall: 4.0 stars
— — — –
Pros:
— Like Cheers, everyone will get to know your name here.
— Cheap drinks, and they are generous with the liquor portions.
— Smoking is allowed. I don’t smoke, though I believe in freedom for smokers, so I think this is awesome.
— Jukeboxes play pretty much anything.
— Great place to play some pool, especially with skilled players.
— Live music sometimes.
— Great deli downstairs, get some food there.
Cons:
— If you’re faint of heart or looking to impress an uptown girl, this place isn’t for you.
— If you’re allergic to smoke, this place isn’t for you.
— If you’re looking to find a girl to take home, this place DEFINITELY isn’t for you.
— Taps don’t always work, so no guarantees there.
— Bathrooms are usually busy and not always clean. If you’ve gotta go, the Old Town area is full of alleys after all…

Blend Billy Joel’s the Piano Man with a Charles Bukowski novel, and I think you’d end up with this.
It will remind you of a time when bars where something a bit different than today – people of all walks of life went to drink to forget their day, and make an interesting night. Some of the regulars here are some of the most insightful and intelligent political and business minded individuals I’ve met in the area. Others I’d stick my dog’s nose into and swat if I found them on my carpet.
It’s not a place for the faint of heart – it’s smoky (yes, they still allow it upstairs), fights happen, and if you’re trying to keep to yourself, there’s a good chance you’ll get accosted by a drunken patron. However, if you want to meet some interesting people and forget about the real world for a while, it’s hard to beat.

Definitely a dive, but a good dive. Was here two nights in a row, catching some local bands. It wasn’t very crowded, and the drinks were well-​priced.

This is your classic dive bar. Bartender was very nice and the people there were genuine as well. Only downside was there was smoking allowed, but not a huge deal.

Great old school bar atmosphere. Great staff and good food. Live music often and good local bands. Smoker friendly. Again great staff.

Quintessential dive bar, as the others have said. My friends and I went here the other night to see an acquaintance’s band.
For those of you coming from the metro, the West Street entrance does not have a sign. Look for the solid red door (and listen for the sound of the band playing).
Also missing from O’Shaughnessy’s is a sink in the bathroom. I found it quite strange that you have to go down the hall from the bathroom to use a random sink if you want to wash your hands… naturally not many people bothered.
The downstairs band area gets packed pretty quickly, and it can be difficult to move. Combined with the smoke-​filled atmosphere, it can get a bit uncomfortable.
It is nice to see though that some bars still allow patrons to light up. Old school.

If you are looking for a dive bar in Old Town, this is it! Great place to play some pool and get away from any yuppy crowd. Mwanga, one of the bartenders, is great to chat with and can give you tons of recommendations of where to eat and drink in Old Town.
Cheap. Chill. Minus one star for letting everyone smoke, it becomes pretty dank after a few hours.
Extra points for having a deli downstairs that makes grilled cheese, burgers, fries, anything. Drunk food at its finest.

O’Shaughnessy’s Pub should have a T-​Shirt printed that simply says: O’Shaughnessy’s…No Apologies. This smokey little pub is the ultimate Dive Bar. However, I have only ever been to its 2^nd floor bar, so I can’t speak to its live music, but I understand that its bands are very good.
With cheap beer and unpretentious décor, O’Shaughnessy’s knows what it is and doesn’t try to be anything else. It boasts a cast of characters that one might find in a Charles Bukowski novel. I wouldn’t be at all surprised one night to find some Mikey Rourke-​like character tossing money at the bartenders, saying, «Drinks for all my friends!» Well, maybe not, but if you have ever seen the movie Barfly, you get the idea.
This place is anything but boring and much of that is due to the love the bartenders and regulars have for this dive bar. (Bartender Lisa N always knows how to bring out the best in her people.). You just never know what people are going to say or do here and that alone is worth the price of any shot.
Last night, Lisa wasn’t working, but her co-​worker, was equally attentive and made sure that my beers were icy cold. Regulars discussed such topics as failed relationships, U.S. Embassies, and how e-​cigarette holders can blow up in your mouth. Ouch!!! Conversation that was much more informative and entertaining than the line on the latest football game or what’s the special for the day. And let’s face it, you have to love a bar where the regulars take a shot Jagger, Bourbon, or whatever without make a school girl production of it. Yup, a real bar, not some plastic imitation of the same.
Yeah, it is cozy, eclectic, and fun, and will remind you of a time when bars didn’t try to be something that they aren’t.

I think this may be one of my new fave places. This was our last stop in our exploration of the Irish bars on King St.
Theres one small sign above the door to the stairs that lead you to, quite possibly THE diviest bar Ive ever been to. If you cant take the smell of smoke, fresh or stale, save yourself a trip.
I love that they have a pool hall in back here, it just adds to the diviness. The bar is wee tiny and «maned» by one of the more awesome lady bartenders Ive had the pleasure of chatting with. They have a decent beer selection here too. The regulars are very friendly, and apparently I look like one of them. Loved the music selection too. Cant go wrong w/​some old punk/​pop punk.
This place is a must visit.

If you were a movie producer and called Central Casting to send up a dive bar to the set, O’Shaughnessy’s Pub is exactly what they would deliver.
It has all the grunge and character that you would expect along with a far reaching cast of characters to keep the place interesting. The bartenders are amongst the friendliest anywhere. The table behind the bar has this serious sag, order a few drinks and start wagers around if it will implode on itself before the end of the evening… or before you yourself do!
This place is set right in the middle of Old Town Alexandria, in the heart of old world charm and beautiful. So you will probably miss it (how can one hide a dive bar in the middle of all of this??). The entrance to the place is a set of old stairs positioned behind the always open front door. If you stand at the door and look straight up, you will see the sign for the place. Google Maps is your friend, turn on the walking navigation thing and listen for the voice to say, ‘Your destination is on the right!‘
After you climb the stairs, you are greeted by one of the bars in the place. It is entirely likely that the bartender will greet you like a long lost friend before you even scope out a seat. You order, they strike up a conversation almost to the point that you ask yourself if maybe you don’t actually know this person. When you leave, they also display a certain sense of sadness (or maybe that was my exorbitant tab that they were going to miss) but tell you to hurry back.
If you are a smoker, rejoice. Smoking right there at the bar, the same bar that has a pool table and a broken pinball machine. And plenty of ashtrays. If you are not a smoker, well, you probably aren’t going to love this section.
So yea, of course the place has vibe because of what it is and the people who work here. But, the locals that climb into this place really seal the deal. There are few, if any, other places in Alexandria where the locals are this friendly. And diverse! Think of a demographic and you will find it here for sure.
If you grow tired of the Colonial Pretention that is Old Town Alexandria, stop in here and recharge your soul. You won’t be sorry.