The Codmother

I have a lot of love for this place. It’s grimy and in a basement and they turn the music up way too loud at night, but it’s such a perfect dive bar. The food is also pretty good, too. The nachos come smothered in fake cheese, jalapenos, and guacamole and the fish and chips are crunchy and appropriately greasy. PBRs are cheap enough and rail drinks are strong. Soundtrack is excellent (late 90s, early 2000s) and you may be lucky enough to come here on a night when people start dancing in every available open space (there are not many — I have had experiences with overeager dancers knocking over full bottles of vinegar). Bartenders DNGAF.

After going to the club my American friends took me here.
A chalk covered dark bar with beer beer and more beer. I was given my beer in a can which is something I’ve 100% NEVER experienced in the UK. It was a Blue Moon which means something else in the UK.
The venue was very busy, full of seeming ly happy people and the music was 90s and 00s chart and commercial with some Brit Pop thrown in.
And like the oldest person in the bar. I found myself a seat at the back and soaked up the vibe.
Well worth going to even if it does call itself a pub here.

A man put his hand in my purse and was selling drugs to my friends and the staff allowed him to stay in the bar. Unacceptable. Terrible behavior by the staff when dealing with men threatening women. I feel unsafe and the staff did nothing to make me feel better.

Sorry guys, I can see how this would be a super attractive place to the young and drunk, but I swear we can do better. Yes it’s a dive bar, but even dive bars should have some standards. It’s a literal basement, which is tough to get used to after some of the spacious bars a few blocks away. You’re going to be elbow to elbow with everyone all the time. Maybe if they got rid of the tables there would be a little more room to move around, but then where would everyone ditch their terrible drinks? Seriously… got a gin and tonic, and it was about 90% tonic. You know it’s bad when you’re wishing for the taste of crappy well gin.
The big appeal of this place is that it’s all 90’s all the time. Which is great… I love shouting along to some middle school jams as much as the next millenial. But it’s just not worth it. One of the toilets was overflowing the night I was there, so you’re literally standing in piss/​shit water if you want to wait in the never-​ending line for the one working stall. That really might have been the last nail in the coffin for me. But even if plumbing issues aren’t the norm there, I just can’t imagine this being a pleasant experience for anyone, with so many other options on the block.

It’s a dive, but that’s part of its beauty. It’s kinda the anti DC, which is fun, but since it’s usually pretty crowded and doesn’t have any activities, usually only good for a drink before moving upstairs to Handsome Cock or elsewhere.
Worth stopping through and drawing on the walls.

This was what I would expect from a place calling itself the «shittiest bar in DC»: a place that’s really trying too hard. It’s like a 12 year old who just got their first Crass album and wants to remind everyone every five minutes that they’re a vegetarian who is into punk. From the unnecessarily snotty bartender, to the plastic glasses, to the broken lock on the bathroom (complete with leaking fixtures) they really want to get the dive post-​apocalyptic pub look down. The music selection was weird pop, Chaos UK would go better with the décor. I love dive bars, but this comes off as more of a ridiculous theme than anything else.

Bathroom has a hole on the wall, and sometimes the pipe by the table drips on you. The quintessential dive bar experience.
Bartenders and bouncers are friendly. Drinks crazy cheap (that matters!), they have a beer and shot deal for $ 6. I like that it’s non judgemental and easy to get a table (if you show up around 10).
Grab some chalk by the bathroom and draw on the wall

I love this place, but still can’t get used to the smell. I know it’s in a basement but takes me a while to get used to the grungy smell – not bad but wish it wasn’t there.
Despite that, this place is a perfect dive bar with some go to food options and creative drink combos. For 8 dollars, you are set with some amazing perfectly battered fish and chips – I would skip the calamari as this wasn’t as good and the fish and chips were just so filling!
In terms of drinks, the shot and beer combos are perfect and affordable! I didn’t know what the hell was in a Peruvian Bear Fucker but holy shit did it fuck the living shit out of my mouth in the right way ;) excuse my profanities! A little splash of juice (you can ask the bar tender for whatever juice you prefer if youd like), spice rum, and some beer and you got the PBF. Seriously was my combo in college and so glad Codmother made this a reality! I love how popping this place is on almost every night and can’t wait to get crazy here again!

There is just so much to say about Codmother. It’s at first glance your typical basement dive pub, but then when you get to know her, the mother is something you’ve never experienced and more. There’s usually chalk and you’re welcome to draw on any surface you can reach. I’ve got one or two on the ceiling.
Atmosphere: this really depends on the time you’re there. When they first open and for an hour or two you’ll be able to pick almost any seat at the bar or have any table. After that it’s first come first serve and many times standing-​room-​only. The food alone is worth it. The people are an amazing mix from every country in the world. You’ll hear many accents.
Drinks: NO WINE! There are a few other «WE DON’T HAVE» items but I don’t remember them. It’s stuff I don’t typically drink. They’ve got a good selection of booze, a few beers on tap and a few different canned beer options. They usually have a cider for me to drink.
Food: If you don’t try the fish and chips at least once, you are a fool. It’s really that simple. It’s heaven in a basket. The green goop on the side is not the world’s worst guacamole, but mushy peas. You can scoop them with fries but I usually ask for a fork. The other food is also killer. Second best is the lamb burger. I haven’t tried the fried desserts, but there’s not reason to think that’s not killer too.
The Codmother in a nutshell. Loud, drunk, and well-​fed.

Oh for the love of codmother. This is a solid divey bar that is almost always a U street go to. The walls are covered in chalk while the speakers play an odd selection of 90’s pop. The bar offers great value to U street. The food menu is simple and they do it well. My go to is the seasoned lamb burger, it comes with wedges and its pretty tasty. They also have fried pop tarts and oreos. I recommended the oreos on account of the pop tarts not as good as expected. The drink list excludes red bull, jäger, lite beer and wine. They have 4 taps as well as PBR and Natty Boh in cans. Specials include Peruvian Bear F’ers and 6 dollar beer and whiskey shots. I have been here once when they were completely out of beers on tap, I was disappointed. The bathrooms are covered in stickers and this place is pretty crazy when packed. The service is OK and can get a little slow but they get to you right before you get annoyed. If you’re on U street a little early in the night I definitely recommend stopping by for a good bite and affordable drinking.
Hipster factor 2.5÷5
*pro-​tip A beer and a shot of whiskey is 6 bucks… let that sink in before you decide to drop 12 – 16 on a cocktail most other places on U. Great place to grab a bite and a couple beers/​shots for about 20 bucks.

The Codmother is a beacon amongst the other restaurants and bars found on U street. The crowd is an exceptional array of people ranging from those who I could probably beat at trivia ranging upwards towards the type of person who waits in line for the newest iPhone.
When contemplating places to announce that my now ex was finally coming out of the closet I knew this would be the perfect place. There’s enough stuff of the walls for confused eyes to dart to and good plenty of drinks to drown our sorrows. The coming out dinner was such a success that we’ve returned multiple times for other life events (the outing was just the tip of the iceberg).
I’m hoping that they’ll start offering a packaged deal sometime soon to simply all the hurdles I’ve been thrown lately.

We came as a group of Brits ages 2 to 46. When we walked in we kind of said himmm.
But, the beer was reasonably priced –small selection, but every one find something they liked-​, they had d oda and juice for the kids. I got a Genesee wasn’t bad.
The fish and chips we ordered came realy crispy, with a good amount of chips, and a nice suprise; mushy peas!
But what made this place for me to give then the whole 5 stars was their staff. They were attentive, quick and very pleasant.
We also get to taste the fried s’mores. Which was surprisingly good and not awfully sweet.
When we are near by I am sure we would stop by again.

This bar is bro-​central, or maybe I just went on the wrong night? I think that it would have been a really cool dive bar had it been a little less crowded. It was completely packed that night, and was difficult to even get to the bar to get a drink. Luckily, we snagged a random table, although it felt like the table was right in the middle of everything, so we kept getting bumped into… They were playing mostly 90’s stuff, which is great b/​c that’s the music that I grew up with, but the crowd seemed a bit on the young side. I mean they appreciated the music, but I bet they thought of it fondly as music from «another generation». The music was also WAAAAAY too loud considering how small the space is. I would have preferred if they turned down the music a smidge.

The Codmother is a cool basement bar on U Street. Dark, divey, and pretty dirty looking. Just look for the red stairs. It’s smothered in chalk, with customer art everywhere — on the ceiling, walls, and bathroom.
However, I’m probably not coming back due to the limited drink selection. I’m a wine lady, and they do not serve wine, light beer, red bull, and several other things.
Pros
— Super close to the U Street metro
— Good number of people — busy and loud, but I waited less than 2 minutes at the bar for my drinks.
— Cool specials (check the photo gallery on Unilocal for a better description)
Cons
— Chalk galore. I personally don’t like all the chalk; it makes the bar feel more dirty and stuffy.
— Inexperience bartenders. I asked one bartender for vodka lemonade, and I got one. I asked another bartender for the same thing, and said they do not have lemonade. OK, all bartenders should know what’s available and what’s not. Also, they did not know what a Moscow Mule was. I explained what went in it, and they do not have ginger beer.
— You’ll probably be standing for a while. We luckily had a table, but many groups of people came in and left since all the tables were full, and the open space is awkward to stand in.
Codmother has a nice vibe; everyone comes here already drunk and happy, so you’ll have a good time. But I’d rather go somewhere else with a wider drink selection.

Man, I love Codmother. I just don’t have a single negative thing to say about it, except that sometimes it gets so packed that I can’t enjoy it. It’s in a basement, so it feels overwhelmingly crowded fairly quickly, & on a weekend night — especially in nice weather — that happens easily.
Codmother is your standard chalk-​on-​the-​walls, fish-​and-​chips-​in-​a-​basket, PBR-​in-​a-​can kind of joint. The servers are friendly but not overly so, attentive but still a little bit surly. The clientele is professional hipster (yuppies, I guess), mostly a good-​natured crowd, & you can usually end up in some sort of sports or politics or pop culture banter with strangers, if you so desire.
But then it’ll get too busy. And you’ll feel like you’re going to be crushed under the weight of the crowd. And you’ll have to leave. And you’ll be disappointed about it, because when it’s not jam-​packed, Codmother really, really rocks.

On the weekdays, a great place to grab a drink with someone. It’s a nice, chill atmosphere and reasonably priced drinks.
On the weekends, this is a great place to party! There are people dancing all over the bar, even though there’s no actually dance floor.

WHAT a cool hidden gem off U street! Had it not been for my boyfriend’s friends, I would never have step foot (or even known) this place existed. It’s a small dive bar with cool chalkboard graffiti all over the walls and ceiling and a small food/​drink menu, BUT all the items are good! We got lucky because usually it’s packed, but we got there early on a Friday evening and were able to secure two tables for our group.
First off, get the fish and chips. It’s tasty and I was super surprised! One of the yummy sauces is green and looks like avocado, but it’s not. It was a green pea mash which surprisingly tasted really good. Just prep yourself for it not tasting like guacamole/​avocado. They give you a huge portion of it too and all for under $ 10. I mean they had other items on the menus like chilli cheese fries, nachos, fried oreos, and smores pop tarts for all under $ 10. Items ranged from $ 4 and up with beers starting at $ 3. I have yet to come back and try one of those desserts. My drink of the night was hot apple cider with rum. DELICIOUS! They’ve got your reg PBR beer and this one yummy creamy ale that I loved — Genesee. It’s definitely a small unique menu of different drinks and foods that were all surprisingly good.
I didn’t try anything else but the fish and chips, but our group ordered the nachos and the Peruvian Bear Fucker (yummy-​looking bomb drink!), so I’ll have to come back and try those as well as the smores pop tart. Such an awesome dive bar and so chill, I’ll definitely be back! The bartenders are awesome, the vibe is nice and relaxed… it’s a great place to visit when hopping around or just for a short night for a few drinks and yummy food… just get there early before it gets crowded!

Fav dive bar in DC. They always give you more alcohol to mixer ratio & food is amazing! The fish & chips is not exactly authentic (as noted by my British boyfriend) but they are still delicious. I think the most underrated item on the menu is the fried calamari — they are amazing, do not miss out!
Want to go on a weekend night? Don’t even think about it. Line is ridiculous. Best time to go is during weekday nights — though remember every Wednesday is comedy night. They also won’t open on time so definitely try to go after 6pm.

This place… This place is the devil.
Stopped by to find a sign that said «No light beer/​No Jäger» and also stumbled upon a six-​dollar PBR and whiskey shot special. (No, really: I stumbled all the way to the cab and slept on the floor of my hotel room.)
The devil!
It’s dark and covered in graffiti and the chairs and tables are stained a deep brown. In the bathroom, where the mirror should be, scribbled on the wall, you’ll find, «F*ck the mirror. You look just fine.»
I wish I remembered more. All I know is that this place is the devil, and if this is what hell is like, I don’t care to go anywhere else.

As I grow older I enjoy places like this more and more, no glitz or glam just simple food, cheap drinks and a laid back atmosphere.
Staff was friendly, place is small so you have to go to the bar to order but the guy behind the bar with the Hello Kitty tattoo on his arm is friendly and helpful. The rest of the staff is also friendly and bring your orders quickly.
Drinks are cheap, you can get a few different beers for 3 dollars and dollar beer combinations are 6 dollars. They have this drink called the Peruvian Bear Fucker that I was tempted to try but didn’t get a chance to, will definitely make it my mission to order it the next time I am in.
Food is limited and mostly of the fried variety but they do a good job with what they have. I went wit the fish and chips and they do a great job. Fish is battered nicely, seasoned well and fried beautifully. Fries were also well prepared and hot and crisp.
Great little spot and I plan on becoming a regular.