Reminder: R is for Rocket Bar

This week R is for Rocket Bar, the centrally located, subterranean entertainment hub, featuring pool tables, shuffleboard, darts, and boardgames. Your favorite space-themed bar features happy hour specials from 4-7 p.m., including $4 draft of the month, glasses of any wine, champagne, and rail cocktails, plus $3 PBRs and $4.50 "pounder cans" (huh?). Champagne and shuffleboard sounds good to me! Hope to see you there, and nominate your favorite 'S' bar for two weeks from now.

R is for Rocket Bar

714 Seventh Street NW

http://www.rocketbardc.com/

Wednesday, April 20, 6-8 p.m.

L was for Laughing Man Tavern

The Laughing Man Tavern is hidden behind an inconspicuous plate glass window in Metro Center. The facade doesn't tell much about the little downtown gem within.

Laughing Man features two floors of dark wood bars and trim, more than a dozen beers on tap, and fun little touches like built-in bookcases full of classic volumes.

The convenience of Laughing Man's location (G Street, between 13th and 14th) is hard to beat for the downtown after-work crowd. The generous happy hour (3-8 p.m., Monday-Friday) features $3.25 select domestic drafts, $3.75 rail drinks, $4 premium drafts and house wines, and $4 special appetizers. Try the calamari and jerk chicken wings. Plus, Wednesday is 35-cent wing night.

TVs abound in virtually every sight line, so it's not likely you'll miss a play. A small foosball/darts corner in the basement gives added entertainment options, and the nearby private room is popular with organized happy-hour groups.

K was for Kellys' Irish Times

Kellys' Irish Times, with its drifting comma (official sources list it as both "Kelly's and Kellys') and vast collection of patches from police and fire brigades across the country, has the feeling of an unpretentious, blue-collar joint. It may not always be filled with off-duty police officers and fire fighters (it's close proximity to Union Station gives it a decent commuter, after-work crowd), but the friendly bar staff and authentic kitschy decor welcomes you any day. And the occasional live music performances (like it's neighbor The Dubliner) and the jukebox really liven things up, even in the bar's dingiest corners.

Emblazoned above the green awning leading to the bar's front door is the perfectly friendly phrase: "Give me your thirsty, your famished, your befuddled masses." The classic Irish pub feel is rounded out by 60's pop culture memorabilia and lots of Kennedy swag. To poke fun at the absurdity of past sentiments toward the Irish, the Kellys' walls are also full of historic political cartoons with unfavorable depictions of the Irish.

Their website seems a bit out of date, and the bartender had no idea what $3 PBR happy hour special we were referring to, but she honored it nonetheless. And the onion rings were darn good, too.

In the end, who can't love a place with a Family Guy pinball machine, war propaganda posters, a vintage cigarette machine and a Christmas tree all in the same room. Something for everyone!