Tune Inn

December 16, 2011

The Tune Inn is back. This historic bar, with the second-oldest liquor license in the city, has been renovated following a kitchen fire in June 2011. My first impression, which was echoed by my drinking companions, was, “It looks the same, only cleaner.” Back on the walls, in almost exactly the same places, are years of memorabilia and taxidermy. Yes, the taxidermy deer butt has returned to its place over the door to the men’s room.

Capitol Hill is not where you’d expect to find a dive like the Tune Inn, but I’m glad it’s there. It’s an oasis of tackiness close to the Capitol, where there seems to be a lot of people with a bloated sense of their own importance. The Tune Inn is a down to earth place where people get together to eat and drink (mostly to drink), and just be themselves. That’s why I used to like to go there for lunch occasionally when I worked at the Library of Congress. The Tune Inn reopened the day after I retired, which one of my friends pointed out was evidence of a conservation of tackiness principle at work, at least on Capitol Hill.

It’s a real neighborhood bar, and now that the Hawk and Dove has been transformed into a trendy bar, we need the Tune Inn more than ever. I recently visited it with some of my former colleagues at the Library, and we couldn’t have picked a better place for conversation and camaraderie. Long live the Tune Inn!

The Tune Inn is located at 331 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003