Solly's holds the corner of 11th and U at 1942 11th St NW, and it is the kind of unpretentious neighborhood tavern the U Street corridor keeps trying to price out. Two floors, cheap combos, the game on the screens, and a karaoke night that has outlasted half the bars around it. It does not try to be trendy, which is exactly why people keep coming back.
The crowd is the giveaway. On a given night you get a wide span of ages and backgrounds packed into a room that feels like a regulars' bar even when it is full of first-timers, and the bartenders keep it friendly and fast. This is a dive in the good sense: worn-in, honest, and built for talking over a beer rather than posing for one.
The drinks are the draw, and the value is real. Solly's runs shot-and-beer combos that are hard to beat in the District, including a DC Brau plus Jameson for $10.50 and a High Life plus Beam Rye for $8, according to the bar's drink list. The kitchen is run by Sloppy Mama's BBQ, which means the food punches above what a tavern this cheap has any business serving.
What to order is simple: a combo to start, a plate of brisket or ribs from the Sloppy Mama's side of the menu, and a second-floor table if there is a game or a karaoke set running. The taps lean local with DC Brau and rotating regional beers, and the whole tab stays in $ territory, which on this stretch of U Street is its own kind of achievement.
Who it is for: the U Street local who wants a beer and the game without a velvet rope, the trivia and karaoke crowd, and anyone hunting BBQ at tavern prices. It is not a sports bar in the wall-of-screens sense, but the games are on and the room watches them. For the full field, our ranked guide to the best sports bars in Washington DC covers the screen-heavy options up the block.
Best time to go is a weeknight when the karaoke or trivia is running and the corridor has not gone full weekend, or a Sunday afternoon when the BBQ and the early game pair up cheap. The U Street, Cardozo Metro stop is a few blocks away, so the rest of the corridor is walkable from the door. For a louder, screen-first room nearby, Nellie's Sports Bar sits a short walk west, and our round-up of DC's best bars for watching the game maps the rest.
What keeps Solly's honest is that nothing about it has been polished for the corridor's newer crowd. The combos stay cheap, the BBQ stays good, and the karaoke mic stays open, which is why a dive this plain has outlasted slicker rooms on the same block. Our full Washington DC guide and the national sports bars index round it out.
Solly's also leans on its calendar to fill the room, with a trivia night that draws regulars midweek and a karaoke list that runs long on weekends. The two-floor layout helps, since the upstairs gives the singers and the game-watchers their own space when the downstairs bar gets tight. None of it is polished, and the Sloppy Mama's BBQ coming out of the kitchen is better than a dive at these prices has any business serving. For a corridor that keeps trading character for shine, Solly's is the holdout that still feels like the neighborhood it sits in.
Sources: Solly's U St Tavern (official) · Yelp (updated April 2026) · Tripadvisor
