WASHINGTON — The Madness is here once more.
Last year for the NCAA Tournament, we listed places where fans of each school could find a friendly watch party. This year, we’re leaving it up to you to tell us what the best sports bar is in each area in and around D.C.
First, a few words on selection and seeding. We compiled a more comprehensive list than the final 32-establishment bracket entails. Certain places were excluded because they didn’t really count as sports bars (Hawk & Dove, Madhatter), and others based on our final determination for seeding.
In order to remove any personal bias, we seeded bars first based on their average Yelp review, followed by the quantity of reviews. So Whitlow’s earns a 1 seed while First Down Bar & Grill pulls in a 6, because the former has nearly three times as many reviews. Ultimately seeding is relatively arbitrary, but we needed numbers next to names, because this is March.
We’ve almost certainly left someone’s favorite place off the list, but that’s just how things go sometimes. Blame bad reviews, or bad SEO, or just blame us directly, if it makes you feel better.
We created four regions: Maryland, Virginia and two D.C. regions, split by 16th street. It was an arbitrary dividing line, but gave us an even eight spots on each side.
Oh, and no chains. We’re not interested in comparing Buffalo Wild Wings or Applebee’s, but it’s also unfair to leave local chains on the list that have multiple locations, especially if they cross between states.
Our Final Four is set, with voting running through Wednesday night.
