Brass Monkey

The funnest bar in Admo for some weekend shenanigans! It offers 3 floors and an outside deck (open when it’s warm).
The karaōke bar on the lowest floor is fun for bonding with friends, if you are into hearing mostly 90s throwbacks inclusive of blink 182. Wonder wall must be played at least once a night.
The second floor turns into a dance hall and the top floor is more chill.

Horrendous service. The people who work at this bar could not be more rude or disrespectful. They treat their customers like trash for no apparent reason and I don’t understand why. I will never go back to this awful place and I will tell all of my friends to do the same because no one should be treated the way these people treat their customers.

Brass monkey is a fun bar for a night out with friends.

An average college bar– it’s fun with friends, but a bit of a mess. Low ceilings, tight corners, and it felt very cramped. Music was mainstream but seemed be be mostly filled with crowd-​pleasers I guess. No real theme and nothing particularly special about it aside from having a nice outdoor patio on the top floor to be able to escape the craziness for a few minutes.

STAFF IS EXTREMELY RUDE! Bar closed down half an hour prior to its actual close. They forcefully removed drinks from our hands and pushed us out the door at 2:30. If we paid for these drinks and the bar closes at 3, why were we FORCED to leave so early?! Treated very inappropriately. Won’t be returning due to unprofessionalism of this staff.

Old duck taped décor and over priced for Sunday brunch. Completely ghetto will never come here again.

The Worst! I am here now and I am so disgusted and disappointed with my experience I couldn’t wait till I got home. I came for brunch which was buffet style and they ran out of food. Not to mention, when I mentioned it to staff they were rude. The icing on the cake is the fact that this place is utterly disgusting! Sticky floors, dirty stairs, and countertops. I would never come back here. When I’m done writing this I am contacting the health department.

Came here to get our Saturday night started in AM. Drinks weren’t too expensive and had a good time dancing in the back of the main level. I must admit it does have a bit of a smell but after a few drinks you won’t be too worried about that.

With 3 really different floors and a bar on each level, Brass Monkey serves any type of personality. Every time, I have friends, I bring them here as our last stop of the night. With karaōke on the bottom floor, hard core dance on the second, and open space and lighter music on the top, Brass Monkey will cater to whatever kind of night you want! I always want to get wild and crazy so I am always on the second floor and end up on the karaōke level somehow, but generally, I like all the floors!
On a weekend night, expect this to be one of the most crowded bars – would even call it a MEGA BAR because it’s so huge and still has so many people. The bar tenders are a bit slower on busy nights, but the drinks are affordable. Shots are a bit pricy, but rails and beers are affordable and can get you messed with a few rounds! The crowd is usually people in their mid 20s, but the music is always jamming and the vibes are always right. If you don’t like crowded spaces, I would not suggest it, but if you’re looking for a good time, I would definitely suggest BRASS MONKEY that FUNKY bar.

Best bar in AM to have a solid night out. Always packed. Drinks are cheap, big, and strong. Multiple levels, atmospheres, and dance floors.
Bouncers are hilarious and will deservedly tease drunk girls that are being rude, actually looks like some of those girls regretted their decisions that night and decided to take it out on the monkey by writing bad reviews.
Careful when pregaming here, there’s a high chance you’ll end up joining the karaōke party and staying all night. Be polite to the bartenders and they’ll hook you up.

Anyone who doesn’t like this place is most likely a pretentious asshat who enjoys blogging about their gluten-​free paleo diet.
Brass is gross, dirty, and shameless. It smells like someone booted in each corner 40 years ago and they never cleaned it up. The staff isn’t going to S your D making small talk, they’re too busy getting people housed to have time for that malarkey. The crowd is 30% white college (GW) kids, 65% white yuppies who are trying to relive their days as white college kids, and 5% the aforementioned’s token minority friends.
But it’s also one of the few bars in AdMo, if not all of DC, that is guaranteed to be packed on a Fri or Sat night, even during off-​weekends during the holidays or bad weather.
If you haven’t gotten laid since the Bush administration, Brass is your slump-​buster.
If you just got fired from your job on The Hill which didn’t pay you shit to begin with and want to black out for under $ 40, Brass is your mecca.
If you’re a girl born in 1988 or a proud product of an all-​male education and want to take over the dance floor and belt out Genie in a Bottle with your bros, Brass is your stage.
Tinder? Hinge? Fuck that shit, just go to Brass and knock back seven $ 3 Bud Lights and four or five $ 4.50 shots of Kentucky Gentleman then let the crowd witness the textbook gameworking that will surely ensue. Or, strike out and crush Jumbo Slice next door… also a good move.

Fun bar, cheap drinks, but rude bartenders

It’s amazing how bars have somehow weaseled into the restaurant category, yet have become entitled to do and say whatever they want to customers on the presumption that because alcohol is the commodity, the customer doesn’t deserve respect.
I went on Saturday night to the second floor where a miserable blonde woman with short choppy hair (hopefully her manager can ID her off that) with an ugly personality was stomping around behind the bar. Wasn’t that busy, super unnecessary attitude. I get it though, high stress environment, I place my orders throughout the night on my open tab and go about my business.
It’s time to leave so I go to close out my tab and she BARKS (no other word for it) «I don’t have your card.» It’s super loud (of course, it’s peak time on a Saturday night) so I ask her to check again. Before I can repeat my name she stomps off and flips through the cards. When she comes back, I start to spell my first and last name and explain that both are very commonly misspelled. She ironically yells at me not to yell at her, which I was taken aback by. I explain I’m not yelling, I’m just asking her to verify my spellings and thoroughly check, and no it’s not possible someone closed out for me.
She hands me a pad to write my name and card info and number. I’m pretty alarmed at this point but there’s nothing I can do. I go in search for a manager but can’t find one.
There is really nothing else to do at this point but leave, so I LEAVE THE BAR. I legitimately walked out am in a taxi home when I get a text from a weird number that just says «come back. we have your card.» You have got. to be. kidding me.
So I go all the way back, and am not trying to deal with Choppy Blonde so I go to her partner behind the bar and don’t even get my story out he just says «Yeah, we have your card» and slides it across to me. No apology, no anything.
Awful people operating a bar can really ruin it. I’m obviously not expecting the Ritz, but I’m also not expecting you to lose my card and make a bare minimum effort to look for it.

It’s only good really late at night… like 1:00am. If you show up before that you will be looking at the only people you rolled in with because the bar is a ghost town! And be careful walking down the stairs they get very slippery and you will fall on your face.

One of the better bars in Adams morgan, but honestly nothing to rave about. Drink prices are fair, and the music generally is pretty good. Sometimes it gets a bit too crowded but overall its worth visiting if you’re in the area.

My friend loves this place, and I sort of see why. The prices are decent, there are several floors including a nice rooftop if it isn’t freezing. That’s about all I really liked about it.
To be fair, a lot of my complaints are personal preference. It was really loud and crowded on the first two floors, impossible to talk and not easy to move. By the time we made it to the top floor, we temporarily had enough space to move around and talk. It’s my own preference to be in an environment that isn’t crazy crowded and loud, and I understand that some people enjoy that kind of atmosphere.
But the floors are sticky and the place smells awful. AWFUL! My friend said it smelled like moldy cheese, I said cat piss. Either way, it’s not a pleasant smell. You eventually get used to it, but do you really want to get used to particles of cat urine invading your nostrils? I don’t.

At first when my friend invited me out, i wasn’t too excited because of the reputation of the adam’s morgan. I thought the streets would be flooded with drunk people and just was not that interested that night.
When we got there, it was about 1130 and not many people were there. We went upstairs to the 2^nd floor bar and had some beers. I was pleasantly surprised that the beers were decently priced at $ 5. So excited to find a place that wasn’t charging an arm and a leg. After about 30 min, it got super crowded. I was super surprised by the music. The DJ played a range from backstreet boys to old school hip hop/​rap to lana del ray and pompeii. He did a good job mixing and we all had a lot of fun dancing!
If i were to be invited back out here, i would definitely be more likely to come out. It wasn’t too pretentious of a club/​bar which i fully enjoyed as well. not a bad place to go, hang out and also do some dancing!

When you walk into brass monkey the smell of cat pee hits you right in the face, you start to notice that your shoes are sticking to the ground, it is messy and dirty and well pretty awesome.
From the outside it looks like a small dive bar but when you go inside and start exploring you realize it is huge! There are about seven rooms, including an outdoor roof porch. Each area has different music and a different vibe so you have lots of options. When it is busy, every room is a party and it’s impossible to not have a good time. When it’s dead though, the largeness of the bar ends up creating problems because everyone is so spread out.
The crowd is really young and fairly cool. Brass Monkey seems to attract all the weirdos in DC and I say that in the most endearing way. Then the drinks there are decently price and there is a bartender named Vladimir who kicks ass.
I always enjoy my time at Brass Monkey and if you’re some who doesn’t mind a little grunge, you will too!

«Brass Monkey is the best bar in DC.» That was how I considered starting this review off, then realized that was obviously absurd. But is it? Yes, I guess so. But every time I end up at Brass Money, I have a good time.
What possibly makes this kinda gross spot on 18^th St. so good? First, there are seemingly 1 million floors (I think the official count is 6). Karaōke in the basement, a dance floor, a quieter dance floor, an outdoor patio, rooms with people just hanging out. Regardless of what kinda mood you are in, you’ll find a place, making it ideal for large groups.
With so many different bars (3?), it’s not hard to get drinks, and they are cheap for DC. The crowd is a college-​y /​immediately post-​college-​y one, which may not be a plus for all, but I still appreciate.
Look, it’s kinda smelly in there, and not everyone will love the «bro-​y» crowd. But you’re going out in Adams Morgan, so you’re not above smells and bros, so this is probably the place to go.
Finally, the last two songs of the night are always Brass Monkey and Sinatra’s New York New York. I really like that.

When I first moved to DC I went to this bar a lot because so many of my friends recommended it, but after a little while I felt pigeonholed. I felt as if I always came here and I was missing out on a lot of other great bars in DC.
I was right, kind of. There is a ton of great bars in DC I was missing out on because I only came to this place, so I am glad I branched out. What I discovered though was there are a bunch of unique fun bars, but this place is still my favorite. The big thing that sets this place apart from all the other bars I have went to is the different atmospheres on a given level. Do you want to sit in a booth and relax with friends? Brass monkey has that. Do you want to dance to the greatest hits of the 80s, 90s, and today? Brass monkey has that. Do you want to chill on a rooftop overlooking Adams Morgan on a nice night? Brass monkey has that.
I find myself continuously coming back here especially when in big groups because it is a one stop shop for bar fun regardless of what you are in the mood for.