Your Last Day to Grab a Beer at Stetson’s is Saturday

Stetson’s fans have just four days after today to visit the iconic U Street bar before it closes for good.

The bar, which has existed at 1610 U St. NW since 1980, will shut down on Oct. 31, said assistant general manager Tommy Osborne last month. Patrons wishing to throw back one last drink can sidle up to the bar any time before Sunday to pay their respects.

The bar will celebrate its 35-year run with a big bash Osborne describes as “lots of old school community celebrating the closing of [one of the] great places of the past” this Thursday at 9:30 pm.

Osborne added that he will be working behind the bar during the party and will be available to share memories from his time working there.

What kind of memories, you ask?

“This was the place where [Democracts] could come and be incognito,” Osborne told us last month. “Several people whose names don’t want to be mentioned publicly used to hang out here and get tore up. Like, they throw down like five one hundred dollar bills to let them stay until you have to pour them into a cab.”

Chuck Brown also once played an impromptu show at the bar. A murder-mystery reality show filmed was filmed there once. There are actual bullets in the ceiling.

So what happens after Stetson’s closes? “It most likely will be a piece of D.C. history that’s just going to float off into the ether just like so many other places have before,” Osborne said.