Recessions

It’s so good! Every time I come here I make the right choice. As someone who loves Indian food, I’ve never been let down by this place. Will definitely come back often as my office is only a block away! They have different menus for buffet lunch everyday so every time is a different experience. Always delicious.

Let’s start by saying it’s a DIVE BAR! You don’t come here for glamour or well seasoned food. You come here to get DRUNK and it definitely serves that purpose. Great happy hour specials, 1 pool table and most nights they have karaōke. I must admit it does smell old and like vomit, but if you drink enough you get immune to the smell. The bartenders are pretty decent Indian native men. I’ve gone a few times and my nights have always ended up really fun whether they ended at Recessions or another place, Recessions is definitely a great dive bar to start! or end your night!

Cool bartenders and great food!

Food and drinks for happy hour are awesome. Bathrooms on the other hand could use some TLC. Love the atmosphere and the karaōke is definitely a plus.

Found this place accidentally when I looked up for bars near Pennsylvania Ave. Both me and my wife loved it. We went during karaōke night. The singers, and you’d expect, weren’t always great, but everyone was having a good time, and that’s something we liked. Also, the food and the drinks are very reasonably priced. The burger and fish we had were pretty tasty. Will be back here.

Who knew a recession could be so much fun? This place makes me nostalgic for 2008, when our economy tanked and we spent most of the year drinking off our unemployment in places like Recessions.
The circle of life doesn’t have to stop at economic recovery, however! Recessions meets and exceeds your expectations for any and all establishments, including those not named Recessions. In fact, Recessions delivers on things that you didn’t know you want until you’ve experienced them only at Recessions. I wish I could give this bar every star in the galaxy, but since I’m only limited to five, I’ll give them half of Orion’s belt plus the handle on the little dipper. Recessions is simply out of this world!
The pros:
1) Recessions is in a basement. To arrive at Recessions is a journey on its own: one descends down a spiral staircase– you can practically feel the magic in the air– before taking a carpeted hallway reminiscent of the Shining if the premise of that movie was set around boring administrative offices rather than an accomplished author mastering his craft in a stunning locale. (I haven’t seen the film, but I think that’s what the movie is about!)
2) Recessions has karaōke. Presumably it is free unless the karma it costs to sing a Frank Ocean song will haunt me in some afterlife where I’m forced to hear other terrible singers’ take on «Novocaine.»
3) Recessions has every form of entertainment available: a television, a pool table, a bulls-​eye, a bathroom! See if you can win some money betting the neighborhood folk on a game of billiards; I owe several thousand dollars to a loan shark this way. Best of all, Recessions has Big Buck Hunter, Safari Edition! Protip for vegans: if you are unamused by the thought of shooting defenseless animals as they’re grazing with their families, you can opt to shoot pumpkins off a truck instead! (And pumpkins, as far as I can tell, don’t have any feelings.)
4) Recessions is literally a cavern. It is a cavern-​tavern. As someone who has spent his formative life in caves, this is very appealing to me.
5) Recessions has a daily Indian-​Pakistani buffet for $ 10.95. Before you scoff at the idea of eating unspecified Indian food from a cavern-​themed dive bar, consider this: I actually had a dream about this food. I expect only excellence from Recessions; but with the lunch buffet I get Indian food transcendence. Also, come at a reasonable hour and you’ll hear deep cuts from Bob Marley’s Legend as you pile on your curried lentils. What better way to soundtrack your visceral inhalation of tandoori chicken than «No Woman No Cry»? If you said «Three Little Birds,» you bet that’s next up on the jukebox! (Recessions, you get me every time.)
The cons:
1) I can’t live in and/​or above Recessions. Believe me, I’ve tried– hell, I’ll even sleep in a utility closet (which nets a fair $ 1000/​month in this city). Thankfully, I work right across the street so I can conceivably have Indian food for lunch every day for the rest of my life.
2) The clientele. They are just too good. Recessioners (a term I just made up) are strictly the cream of the DC crop: hard-​working beer enthusiasts with great taste in colored polos and nuanced opinions about women’s liberation. These are the fellas I’d like to be drinking steins with after a long day at the office. Or start your celebration during the Indian buffet and come back later for dinner and dancing (and karaōke)!
3) All things are fleeting and immaterial, says Heidegger, so we will never truly «know» Recessions.
In short: this is the best place I have ever been, and I have been to places. Five stars!

Love Recessions’ buffet. Great food and service. I try to hit it at least once a week.

Recessions is now serving an all you can eat Indian-​Pakistani buffet at lunch for $ 10.95, and it’s everything it should be and more. The food was shockingly delicious. I was stuffed after three plates. I tried everything, and it was all good. They didn’t have labels on the food (manager said he ordered them already), so I’m not 100% sure what I ate, but it was all really really good. Each table got waters and naan brought out to them, and the staff was super-​friendly.
My coworkers were too scared to join me because they didn’t trust Indian food from a dive bar, but I want everyone to know DON’T BE SCARED! It’s delicious. I swear. Great value.

I work right up the street from Recessions and it has become one of my favorite places to visit in the area. The owners are always happy to see you and very welcoming, warm, thoughtful and caring. The prices are unbeatable! Great place to hang with a crowd or alone. The Karaōke is awesome. THIS PLACE IS AWESOME.

Best place I have ever been. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas. And can honestly say the owners are proud, caring and comforting. They make you feel at home and charge ¹⁄₃ of the price of any one else in the area for great food and drinks!

Disgusting… Listening to some of the reviews I thought this would be a good option. It’s musty dirty and dark. The bar looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in years. I wouldn’t dare order food here and real suspect about the drink I just ordered. I won’t return. Just nasty. You must have low standards to frequent here…

Recessions is awesome! Best Dive Bar in the District and don’t even get me started on the A+ Number #1 Karaōke!
Unfortunately, Recessions may need your help soon…
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This is a great place. The atmosphere is fun and relaxed at the same time. Recessions is unpretentious and the regulars are chill people. The bartenders are very friendly. The food is good too!

The prices aren’t bad. The food is pretty good, but they lack happy hour specials. They are in a poor location because they aren’t near a metro. I go there because it’s a New York Mets bar.

The best bar in DC. If you’re depressed about living over the hellmouth that is the nation’s capital, the karaōke here will lighten your mood.

Recessions is the type of place people go because they’ve already had enough drinks to impair their better judgement. It’s not the kind of place you want to go if you aren’t already drunk. The music is too loud to have a conversation, and I can’t say I’ve ever gone their and had a great time.
For all that it’s marketed as a dive bar, the prices aren’t particularly outstanding. Karaōke is okay.

The sign above the door gleams «Recessions» in bright red. Walk down the stairs and along a funky carpeted hallway to the bar. It’s dark, a bit mysterious, and nostalgic. We came at 5pm, and there were three other people there. Most of the furniture is old and dusty and the décor is bland. There is a large screen TV, a billiards table, and darts. The music was too loud and «pop”-y for current mood and number of people in the bar. The drinks are reasonably priced, and since it’s not too busy, you can have decent conversation without screaming. Since it’s in the basement, it does not receive any natural sunlight. It felt wrong to go from an office building to Recessions.

2.25
Categorically one of the biggest jokes in the city, and honestly as I read somewhere that that this is «One of DC’s staples» I literally saw Dr. Pepper shooting out of my nose. Hillarious. Recessions is a realm that skims upon the absurd, the banal, and the nonsensical. It masquerades as a «dive bar» much in evidence to the name that plays off of the ²⁰⁰⁸⁄₂₀₀₉ Global financial crisis yet is somehow located in a business district where workers enjoy some of the highest personal incomes per capita in the nation. Quite a copout of a juxtaposition — they could have just admitted that the Atlas District, Florida Ave, or NoMa was a little too seedy for a bar that literally wants to give you a bargain .
The food — regurgitated orangutan vomit. Depressing gyros that look like tortillas stuffed with steak’ums and canned olives and I mean a place that calls itself recessions and serves lamb chops? Really? The interiors are unspeakably ghastly in so many ways that I really can’t even describe it.
I think this idea could have been really adorable if were in some little hipster neighborhood with arcade games, house-​made tater-​tots, cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon (that everyone seems to lose their shit over), and like sautéed chicken parts in some kind of nice dipping sauce. That could have definitely been more appropriate — and don’t think this is a promotion of that other shitbox Maddy’s just one door down.

Recessions is a DC staple and legend. This bar is not for everyone, but if you love a good, cheap, family owned dive bar that’s cool on a hot DC summer eve, it’s perfect. I generally decide whether I like a person by whether they like Recessions. I brought my brother, and he now laments that he can’t find a bar like it in San Francisco.
The drinks are cheap and generous, the karaōke is awesome (everyone gets to sing as many times as they want), there’s pool, there’s fake stained glass and stone walls, and the owners Qazi (behind the bar) and Hajji (usually playing pool) and the rest of the staff are like family to many of us regulars. My friend and I are two gals who moved to DC in summer of 2009, came here for a happy hour, and never stopped coming back.
It’s an odd place where you can drink cheap and mix with a unique slice of the DC citizenry. If I could give Recessions 100 stars I would!

The entrance to this bar is a bit different than those of other bars, which gives it a touch of uniqueness. Recessions is a nice bar that offers beer for decent Happy Hour prices. The staff here is also pretty cool and there are plenty of tables to sit at. Karaōke is a well-​known feature at Recessions.

So the karaōke here is sub par. The host is very biased on who gets to sing. He favors regulars over new singers. Don’t expect to sing a song if you’re new to the bar. Even if you get here early.
The bartenders are ok. I give them a 3 out of five. The beer selection is ok. Definitely not a beer lovers spot. If you’re looking for a place to have a beer and just people watch, this place is ok.

I agree with whoever called this bar «weird.» It is. It’s in the basement of an office building but looks like my parent’s basement during the 70’s. They have big mugs of draft beer for $ 10 during happy hour, but, for a place this shitty you’d think it would be a lot cheaper. Regular beers are $ 5 in happy hour. The selection is fairly standard.
The food is bar food — frozen stuff fried in the back. The bartenders, well, I dunno. They don’t really seem to care to serve you. I was the only patron trying to order but the bartender told me to wait while he ran off somewhere. My request for «all the napkins» to go with my wings was totally ignored.
There’s loud 80’s music playing, but it seems out of place. This is the kind of bar you’d want to talk at. I dunno… not my cup of tea.

A Dive bar with a capital «D,» one that I can only describe as really strange, but with super cheap drinks who am I to complain.
To the left of Mackey’s Public House you’ll see a simple glass door with a red neon sign «Recessions» above it. Upon entering, you descend down a stairway to a long hallway with the funkiest carpet design I’ve ever seen. At the end of the hallway is the door to the basement bar. It looks like it was designed in the 1970s and left that way for the past forty years. There is one pool table and two dart boards, and an old karaōke machine set up next to a projector. Plenty of seating, as the bar was mostly empty when we showed up at 6PM. The place looks like its been in an eternal recession.
If you can get over the weirdness of this bar, you will find some of the best happy hour deals in town. These include (5PM-​8PM):
$ 5 Appetizers– Onion Rings, Mini Crab Cakes, French Fries, Stuffed Potato Skins, Chicken Tenders, Mozzeralla Sticks, Buffalo Wings, Fried Calamari, Nacho Platter, and Chicken Quesadillas
$ 2 Miller Light
$ 3 Rail Drinks
$ 3 Coronas
$ 4 King Kong 28 oz drafts
The King Kong drafts are particularly noteworthy as you get a lot of beer for a cheap, cheap price. The prices aren’t a flat $ 4 — it’s like $ 4 – 5 for Coors/​Miller, then increases with the quality of the beer (the Yuengling was $ 7, the Sam Adams Oktoberfest was $ 10, etc.). The bartenders were also extremely pleasant and just seemed happy to have people ordering drinks.
Overall, it looks like the bar that’s in the basement of your local Elk’s Club, but with the small crowds and the fantastic drink deals, you really can’t go wrong. And yes, I kinda want to go again.

I love me a good dive bar, but this was just… weird. It was half dive bar, half space-​that-​seems-​set-​up-​for-​events, so maybe this is where you could have the most depressing 50^th anniversary party or bar mitzvah ever.
So weird can be a little good, but I guess my biggest complaint is the prices. After I’d read the reviews I was ready for some rock bottom prices, but my friends got a beer or two each and I got a club soda (since I’m prego), and we got a couple fries or something to share, and I don’t remember what our bill was, but we were surprised by how high it was. In particular, I was shocked that not only did he charge me for the club soda, he actually charged me full price for each refill! So I paid like $ 8 or $ 9 for my club soda. In contrast, a lot of bars haven’t even charged me at all, or if they do (which is fine!), they certainly don’t charge $ 2 or $ 3 per refill!
So it wasn’t divey or kitschy enough to be cool, and we felt a little ripped off. Oh well, no great harm done.

Only know you’ve high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missin’ home
Only know you love her when you let her go…
Ha, stupid song keeps playing over and over in my head! Anyways, I was feeling low and hella hungry on a Thursday night… so decided to check out cheap entertainment near the hotel. Karaōke it is.
$ 10 for a large sized gyro (comes with steak fries) — surprisingly good.
Karaōke started promptly at 8:30pm and was able to get in at least half a dozen songs before heading out at 10:30pm.
Recessions fit the bill and I wouldn’t hesitate to return here again.

I know; I KNOW this is a divey dive bar but…
1) It’s SO cheap. SO CHEAP!
2) The bartenders are nice. They can seem cold at first to some but after you get to know them, they’re great.
3) I like dives.
4) I LOVE the Thursday night karaōke nights here.
5) The drinks are strong.
6) The tables have gotten nicer.
7) It’s got a big screen TV that generally has the best events on.
8) It’s located near a TON of offices in DC.
9) The bathrooms are about 14 times nicer than in most dives. Still not, like, the Hilton or something but fantastic for a dive.
In case you can’t tell from my reviews, what I’m looking for is cheap, strong alcohol where people don’t care what you look like or if you. This is one of the best spots in town for those requirements.