Copycat Co is a two-floor bar on the H Street Corridor in Northeast Washington, pairing Chinese street food downstairs with a classic cocktail room upstairs. It has poured at 1110 H Street NE since 2014, building its name on doing the standards well.
Published January 16, 2026 · By Daniel Okafor
Copycat Co sits at 1110 H Street NE in the Atlas District, the bar-dense stretch of H Street in Northeast DC. Time Out and the bar's own site describe a ground-floor counter of dumplings and skewers with an upstairs cocktail room that runs a weekly-changing chalkboard menu. Yelp lists it open through 2026 with more than 820 reviews. The hook is a no-reservations cocktail bar that treats the Old Fashioned and the DC Rickey as seriously as its street food.
The room
The room splits over two floors, with a tight street-food counter at street level and a darker cocktail bar up the stairs, where a large chalkboard lists the week's original drinks. Reviewers describe a low-lit, lively upstairs that fills with a neighbourhood crowd, and they note the space can be easy to miss from the street. Its draw is the contrast of fast skewers below and careful cocktails above under one roof.
What to order
Order a DC Rickey, the city's official cocktail, which Copycat keeps on its permanent list alongside Old Fashioneds, sours, fizzes, collins, and mules. The upstairs chalkboard changes weekly, so ask the bartender for the current original, then pair it with beef noodles or skewers from downstairs. Cocktails sit at fair H Street prices rather than top-shelf levels, so a couple of well-made classics and a plate of skewers is the move.
What regulars say
Reviewers consistently name the classic cocktails, the weekly-changing menu, and the upstairs chalkboard as the reasons to find the door, with many calling the drinks creative and well-built for the price. Regulars praise pairing the cocktails with the beef noodles and skewers, and several call it a gem on the H Street strip. The caution that repeats is that the entrance is hard to spot and the room takes no reservations, so the standing advice is to arrive early on weekends or expect a wait for a seat. A few note the upstairs can get loud once it fills, a fair warning for a small cocktail room above a busy counter. Several reviewers also flag the value, calling the cocktails a strong price for the quality on a street where prices have climbed, and they point to the kitchen staying open late as a reason the upstairs bar draws an after-dinner crowd well past midnight.
Who it is for and best time
This is for cocktail drinkers, late-night eaters, and anyone touring Washington DC cocktail bars. It opens at 5pm and runs late, to 2am most nights and 3am on weekends, and closes Tuesdays. Skip it if you want a quiet seated lounge; the upstairs runs busy and loud. For the wider city, see the full Washington DC bar guide.
The verdict
Copycat Co earns its place as the H Street cocktail bar that does the classics right above a street-food counter, a two-floor stop worth finding behind an easy-to-miss door. Climb the stairs, order a DC Rickey, and send down for skewers. For more DC cocktail rooms, compare the tasting bar at Columbia Room, the Penn Quarter standard at The Gibson, and the hotel cocktail room at Silver Lyan. Our cocktail bars guide rounds out the category.
