What's new

House rules, written down

There's a new Terms page, linked at the bottom of every page. The short version: use the listings as much as you like, share links, call the bar if a deal matters to your plans — and please don't copy the whole directory. It took a lot of legwork to put together.

A second look, and a little more privacy

We had a second checker go back over the spots we weren't sure about. Where both agreed with the bar's own website, we updated the listing — 35 more spots have corrected hours or prices. Three DC spots that are closed for now are off the map until they reopen. And comments got simpler: the little picture next to a comment is now just your initials, instead of an image based on your email.

We re-checked the rest of the map

After Gaithersburg and Rockville, we went through about 2,200 more spots across DC, Maryland, Virginia and the Delaware beaches and compared each one with what the bar says on its own website. More than 180 now show new hours or prices. We also fixed about 100 website links — a few bars had lost their old web address to spam sites, and those links are gone. Spots that don't post their happy hour online are on Rusty's call list.

We re-checked every spot around Gaithersburg and Rockville

We went back through 122 spots in Gaithersburg, Rockville, Germantown, North Bethesda and Potomac and looked up what each bar says about its own happy hour today. Good news: nothing closed. More than a dozen got fixes — Beers & Cheers Too and its Germantown sister now show their real hours, Matchbox Rockville runs happy hour all day Thursday through Saturday, Fogo de Chão is all day Monday through Thursday, and a handful of others had new times or prices. About 50 don't post their happy hour online, so those are on Rusty's call list. The rest of the map is next.

Privacy page update: we now use the Meta Pixel

Rusty's is starting to run ads on Facebook and Instagram, so the site now uses Meta's pixel to see whether those ads bring anyone in. It only reports which pages you open and when you tap a bar's website, phone number, or map link — only after you confirm you're 21 or older, and never if your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control. The privacy page has the full details.

The Deals page speaks Spanish and French now

Flip the language switch and the Deals page follows — the pitch to bar owners, the sign-up form, and the featured deal's details all switch over. Bar owners who'd rather write to us in Spanish or French: go for it.

News and Donate now speak your language

This page now shows updates in whichever language you've picked up top — English, Spanish, or French — instead of stacking translations under the English text. Older entries without a translation stay in English. The donate page speaks all three now, too.

Now in French, too — look for the FR switch

The language switch up top (and in the footer) now has a third option: French. Tap FR and the browsing basics flip over — search, filters, and each spot's schedule, days and hours included — just like Spanish. The homepage, the happy-hour-right-now page, weekend specials, and every state and city page get their own real French web address too, so French speakers can land here straight from Google. A lot of French speakers call the DMV home — bienvenue.

Every spot you see now has real happy hour info

We took about 1,100 spots off the map — places where we knew the bar but couldn't tell you a single thing about their happy hour. No times, no deals, nothing. They're not gone; Rusty's working the phones, and each one comes back the moment we can actually tell you what's pouring and when. Also new: the quick buttons under the search box now jump to Latest Updates and Contact Rusty.

Some updates now come in Spanish, too

This what's-new page will start carrying Spanish alongside English for new updates from here on. Older entries above stay as they are — this is where the Spanish starts.

Google can find Rusty’s in Spanish now, too

The Spanish switch from earlier this week only changed what you see once you're already here. Now the homepage, the happy-hour-right-now page, weekend specials, and every state and city page have their own real Spanish web address — so someone searching in Spanish can actually land on a Spanish page from Google, not just the English one. Individual venue pages are still English-only for now; the switch up top still works there.

Now in Spanish — flip the switch in the header or footer

Rusty's now speaks Spanish. Tap EN/ES up top or down in the footer and the main browsing controls switch right over — search, filters, and each spot's schedule, days and hours included. More of the site is coming; for now the basics of finding a happy hour work in Spanish.

Bar owners: run a deal only Rusty’s drinkers get

New on the Deals page — venues can now pitch us a Rusty's-exclusive special right from the site, try it free, and get real numbers on how many people saw it and tapped it. If you run a bar (or know someone who does), take a look.

Cleaner cards — tap for the full rundown

Venue cards now show just the essentials — who's live now, what days, how far. Any spot with times or deals on file opens its full rundown in one tap. Less clutter while you scroll, everything when you tap in.

Richmond, you're on the map

The v2.0.2 update brings the whole Richmond area onto Rusty's — about 200 new spots in one weekend, checked against live sources before they went up.

• New coverage from Scott's Addition breweries to Carytown patios, plus Short Pump, Midlothian, Mechanicsville, and Ashland.
• More than 100 Richmond-area spots already show their happy hour days, times, and deals.
• A couple of places that closed for good came off the map. If we can't back it up, we don't show it.

Loudoun wine country arrives — and we crossed 3,000 spots

The v2.0.1 update is our biggest two weeks ever. Rusty's now covers over 3,200 bars, restaurants, breweries, and wineries across DC, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware — including two whole regions that just got the full treatment. Every new spot was checked against live sources before it went on the map.

• Loudoun County, properly this time: 88 new spots including 33 wineries and 25 breweries with real tasting-room hours — Purcellville, Middleburg, Leesburg, and the whole LoCo Ale Trail
• 350+ new Montgomery County bars and restaurants, found through county license records and confirmed open one by one
• Baltimore joined the map — about 150 spots across the city and county — plus new finds on DC's H Street corridor
• Hundreds of happy-hour schedules added or refreshed, taken word-for-word from the venues themselves
• A dozen places that closed for good came off the map, and a bug that hid some venues from "Happy Now" when your location was on is fixed

44 new happy hours land in Montgomery County

Our biggest single drop yet — and a new way of finding them. We now start from the county's own liquor-license records, confirm every venue is real and open against live business data, and take the deals word-for-word from the venue's own menus, including the ones hiding in image and PDF menus. If we couldn't read a price cleanly, we left it out rather than guess.

• 44 verified happy hours: 11 in Bethesda, 10 in Silver Spring, 10 in Rockville, 8 in Gaithersburg, plus North Bethesda, Takoma Park and Derwood
• Over 750 Montgomery County venues now indexed and mapped
• Every deal is verbatim from the venue's own menu — where a menu was ambiguous you'll see the schedule without prices; call ahead
• Plenty of licensed 'venues' didn't make the cut: private clubs, caterers, and a few spots that closed quietly. What's listed is the real list.

Two closures caught, one bad link fixed

Fresh round of checking on venues we'd flagged. Two are gone for good and came off the map; a few others got their status confirmed or tidied up.

• Chili's in Glen Burnie closed — there's a sushi bar there now
• Capsize in Oxford closed for good — the building is up for sale
• Pope's Tavern in Oxford is off the map while they renovate — back when they reopen
• TGI Fridays Silver Spring is alive and well — earlier closure worry was a false alarm

A little spring cleaning

We tidied up. The message board and the long venue-suggestion form are retired — the Contact page is now the one place to reach us, and it covers everything those did. Venue tips, corrections, and hellos are all still very welcome.

• One place to reach us now: the Contact page
• Ratings, comments, and photos on venue pages work exactly as before
• Everything anyone ever posted is safely archived, not deleted

The back button finally behaves

Biggest quality-of-life fix yet: tap into a venue, come back, and your filters and your place in the list are right where you left them. Filtered views live in the web address now too — copy the link and send a friend your exact search.

• Back returns you to your filtered list, right where you were
• Share any search — the link carries your filters with it
• Cleaner look all over: simpler badges, easier-to-read buttons, tidier layout on phones

You can send us menu photos now

See a happy hour menu we don't have? Snap a picture and add it right from the venue's page. We look at every photo before it goes up, so give us a little time to post it.

• "Add a photo" on every venue page — no account needed, just a quick human-check
• Every photo gets reviewed by a person before it appears

New: tell us when we're wrong, and filter by food type

Every venue page now has an "Is this still right?" section — one anonymous tap tells us if a spot looks right, feels off, or has closed. And the filter bar has a new Food type dropdown: tacos, sushi, BBQ, breweries, and more.

• "Is this still right?" buttons on every venue page — one tap, no sign-up
• Filter by food type — 15 cuisines tagged across about 1,600 spots

14 more closures cleared, one back on the map — the closure-flag inbox is almost empty

We hand-checked the last big stack of "is this place still open?" flags, each against two separate sources. Fourteen spots came off the map for good — and one we're happy to report is alive and pouring.

• 14 spots off the map, including both remaining MoCo Ruby Tuesdays and Hooters Towson
• Back on the map: Laredo DC Mexican — website is live, reservations are open
• Three spots are still being double-checked

Big cleanup: 58 spots got their green badge, 8 closed for good, and one changed its name

An evening of double-checking the places we weren't sure about: most turned out fine (just stale listings), eight were really gone, and one changed its name. Velocity Wings in Purcellville is now Velocity Bar + Kitchen — same building, same team.

• 8 spots off the map, including Bar Pilar in DC after 20+ years
• 58 more places earned the verified checkmark
• 7 spots finally show real happy-hour times

Another 24 happy hours locked in across the DMV — plus two more closures cleared

One more pass through the spots that have been on the map a while but never showed their happy-hour times — 24 more now list the real schedule, from PG County out to Loudoun. A couple of places came off the map for good, and Red Shedman in Mt Airy isn't gone, just rebuilding.

• 24 more spots now show real happy-hour times, from PG County to Loudoun
• Off the map: Jongro BBQ Wheaton and Pop-Up District Falls Church
• 2,652 happy hours now showing across DC, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware

Beach week: filled in the Delaware coast and the Maryland Eastern Shore

We spent beach week in Bethany doing the thing we'd been putting off — filling in the Delaware coast and the Maryland Eastern Shore. 218 new bars and restaurants are on the map now, from Lewes down to Fenwick and all the way across the Shore to Smith Island.

• 76 new spots along the Delaware beaches, 142 across the Eastern Shore
• Real happy-hour times already locked in for 106 of them
• Beach trip not wasted

We just gave Maryland's happy hours a top-to-bottom once-over

We went bar by bar through Baltimore, Annapolis, the waterfronts, and out across the Eastern Shore, chasing down real happy-hour times for spots that didn't show a schedule yet. About 150 of them now list actual hours, and a handful that closed for good came off the map.

• Real happy-hour times added for about 150 Maryland spots
• Off the map: Olive Garden Owings Mills, Harryman House Reisterstown, and a few more
• Maryland went from about half to two-thirds of spots showing real hours

And now DC — the last big piece — got the full once-over

Right after the metro-wide sweep, we finished the job in DC — bar by bar through every neighborhood from Dupont to Anacostia, finding a second source to confirm each spot's details. DC is now 90% confirmed, and the whole region is in the best shape it's ever been.

• 251 DC spots upgraded to the green badge
• Off the map: District Chophouse, Sandlot Anacostia, and Ellington Park Bistro
• Bar Pilar on 14th stays — a listing said closed, but the bar's own site says otherwise

We just double-checked over 1,100 happy hours

Spent the week going bar by bar across almost the whole map — Baltimore to Richmond, the Eastern Shore to the Delaware beaches — confirming who's still pouring and when. More than 1,100 spots got a second confirmation and now wear the green badge, and the ones that closed for good came off the map so you won't drive out to a locked door.

• Over 1,100 spots now show the green high-confidence badge
• 17 closed spots pulled off the map, including BJ's and Hooters in Towson
• Seasonal waterfront spots stay on the map — they're just closed for the off-season

Northern Virginia just got a fresh double-check — 178 spots now show the green badge

We went through every Northern Virginia spot still wearing the yellow badge — Arlington out to Loudoun wine country — and found a second source confirming each one's happy hour. 178 now show the green badge, and a couple that turned out to be closed came off the map.

• 178 NoVA spots upgraded from yellow to the green badge
• Off the map: Carrabba's Centreville and Sea Pearl Falls Church, both closed
• A handful with conflicting hours stay on our to-check list

DC just got a lot deeper — 105 new bars and restaurants added tonight

DC had been undercounted in a bunch of neighborhoods — Capitol Hill, H Street, Columbia Heights, Chinatown, and the east-of-the-river neighborhoods we'd never really mapped. Tonight we did a deep sweep and put 105 new spots on the map.

• 105 new spots across ten neighborhoods, Capitol Hill to Anacostia
• East of the river is on the map for the first time
• The big steakhouses we'd missed — Morton's, Mastro's, STK, Fogo de Chão — are in too

Big map expansion — Maryland past the bar, Virginia tightened, Delaware doubled

Months of map work wrapped up tonight: Maryland now feels trustworthy to recommend end to end, Virginia got tightened up, and Delaware doubled — we'd only covered the beaches before, and now Wilmington and Dover are on the map too.

• Delaware doubled: Wilmington, Newark, Dover, and more join the beaches
• Baltimore, the Eastern Shore, and the Baltimore suburbs all filled in
• Richmond, Charlottesville, and Hampton Roads cleaned up in Virginia

Tonight's cleanup: 13 happy hours rewritten + 46 phone numbers filled in

A long maintenance night: garbled happy-hour times now read like plain English again, missing phone numbers and websites got filled in, and spots that share a building now cluster properly on the map. Best of all, a few places we'd wrongly marked closed are back — the Stained Glass one was embarrassing — 50+ years in business.

• 13 spots' happy-hour times rewritten in plain English
• 40 phone numbers and 6 websites filled in across the metro
• Back on the map: Stained Glass Pub, La Casita Pupuseria, and Capital Grille Chevy Chase

Faster site this morning

Quiet under-the-hood change this morning — same address, same everything you see, just running on a bigger, faster network now. Pages should load a touch quicker, especially on phone data.

• Same site, same address — nothing you bookmarked changes
• Saved ratings, comments, and message board posts are all unchanged
• Spot something broken? The Contact page is the fastest way to tell me

Prince William just got a big cleanup — 34 venues verified

Prince William County had the biggest pile of unchecked venues left in the metro, so we spent the afternoon on it. 34 spots across Manassas, Woodbridge, and Lake Ridge are now confirmed — phone numbers, websites, the works.

• 34 Prince William spots confirmed, from Old Towne Sports Pub to Potomac Mills
• New happy-hour times at Water's End Brewery, CJ Finz, and Brittany's
• Four chains flagged for a closure check — calling them before doing anything

Six places closed, two are still open, and we have a new Instagram

Morning cleanup: six places confirmed closed for good came off the map, and a couple we'd flagged turned out to be just fine — we never take a place down without double-checking. Also, Meta deleted our Instagram this morning out of nowhere — no warning, no way to appeal — so the new account is @rustyshappyhour — help us rebuild?

• Off the map: Reliable Tavern, Sprig and Sprout, Wicked Bloom, and three more
• Kept: Mi Pana in Adams Morgan and Bar Louie Woodbridge — both just fine
• New Instagram: @rustyshappyhour — the old account is gone for good

DC is nearly all confirmed — plus 31 new neighborhood spots

A heavy data night: nearly every DC venue now has its phone, address, and website confirmed, and 31 new spots joined the map in neighborhoods people kept asking about — Palisades, east of the river, Brookland, Mount Pleasant, and more. A few places showed signs of closing, but we never delete a venue on a single signal — they're on our to-check list while we make sure.

• Nearly every DC venue now has confirmed phone, address, and website
• 31 new spots across Palisades, east of the river, Brookland, and Mount Pleasant
• Fresh happy-hour details captured at a dozen Northern Virginia spots

Rusty's is on Facebook and Instagram now — come say hi

Two new ways to follow along — Facebook and Instagram are live, with the same tone you'd get at the bar: venue spotlights, closures we catch, and new openings making it onto the map. The icons are in the footer.

• Follow along: instagram.com/rustyshappyhour, plus the Facebook link in the footer
• Coming to social: venue spotlights, closures we catch early, and new openings
• Spot bad info? Flag it via the Contact page or a DM

Two new counties open — Anne Arundel and Prince William

A big overnight drop: Anne Arundel and Prince William counties are on the map, 150 new spots between them, from Annapolis out to Woodbridge. The 'Happy Now' and day-of-week filters got a lot more accurate across Maryland and Virginia too.

• Anne Arundel opens: Annapolis, Glen Burnie, Severna Park, Pasadena, and more
• Prince William opens: Manassas, Woodbridge, Dale City, Gainesville, and more
• 'Happy Now' just got smarter — over 1,200 schedules added behind the scenes

Charles County goes live, the first two sponsors are verified, and the mobile polish lands

Charles County is live — 29 spots across Waldorf, La Plata, and the surrounding towns, most already placed on the map. Our first sponsors, Firebirds and Beers & Cheers Too, had their happy-hour schedules confirmed straight from the venues, and the site got a lot friendlier on phones.

• Charles County opens: Waldorf, La Plata, Indian Head, Bryans Road, Hughesville, White Plains
• Sponsor happy hours confirmed by the venues themselves
• Phones: no more surprise zoom on forms, bigger buttons, easier-to-read text

Charles County opens — plus sponsor previews and a mobile tune-up

Charles County joins the map — 29 spots across Waldorf, La Plata, Indian Head, Bryans Road, and Hughesville. Frederick and Loudoun picked up more happy-hour times too, and sponsor preview pages went live.

• Charles County: 29 new spots, happy-hour details coming next
• Loudoun and Frederick show more real happy-hour times — one closure caught
• Privacy policy now live at /privacy

Some gold badges are turning silver as we re-check older data

A reader caught wrong happy-hour times at Fontina Grille in King Farm, and pulling that thread turned up seven more Rockville spots with shaky data — all corrected now. Over the next few days you may see some venues drop from the gold badge to silver as we re-check: the data isn't getting worse, it's getting more honest.

• Fontina Grille corrected: happy hour is Mon-Thu 3-6pm, not all week
• Two Ruby Tuesdays that quietly closed years ago finally came off the map
• Spot wrong info? The Submit a Venue form goes straight to us

DC nearly doubled in a day — and the wordmark says 'Happy Hour' now

One huge day in DC: the map jumped to 420 spots — nearly double — from the 17th Street strip out to Wards 7 and 8, every one of them placed. Also, the logo now spells out 'Happy Hour' instead of 'HH' everywhere.

• DC nearly doubled: 420 spots, all on the map
• Fresh happy-hour details hunted down for dozens of the new spots
• The wordmark now reads 'Rusty's Happy Hour Finder' everywhere

Loudoun done, DC refreshed — the map passes 1,200 venues

Loudoun County went from zero to fully covered in a single day — One Loudoun, Leesburg, Sterling, Middleburg, the western breweries, all of it. A DC refresh added 16 more spots, and a reader tip caught a Chili's in Gaithersburg that had quietly closed months ago.

• Loudoun County complete: 108 spots from One Loudoun to Purcellville
• 16 new DC spots in Petworth, Brookland, Tenleytown, and Union Market
• Chili's Gaithersburg is off the map — thanks to a reader tip

Fairfax County done

Fairfax County is done — 154 spots, from Mosaic and Reston Town Center to Old Town Fairfax, Clifton, and the Route 1 corridor. Along the way we caught a few closures that had slipped by, like the Greene Turtle Kingstowne and the Tavern at Great Falls.

• 154 Fairfax spots, from Mosaic to Mount Vernon
• Heritage picks: Mount Vernon Inn (no estate ticket needed) and Clifton's Trummer's
• A few long-closed spots caught and removed

Arlington County done — the first Virginia county fully ready

Arlington County is done at 131 spots — Crystal City, Pentagon Row, Clarendon, Ballston, Rosslyn, Shirlington, Columbia Pike, and Westover. It's the most buttoned-up county on the map so far; Arlington bars are just really good about publishing their happy hours.

• 131 Arlington spots, Crystal City to Westover
• First Virginia county fully ready
• Crystal City, Pentagon Row, and Clarendon are the big clusters

Prince George's County done — and we just crossed 900 venues

A few days of focused work and Prince George's County is done — National Harbor, College Park, the Hyattsville Arts District, Laurel, and every town in between, all on the map. With this push, Rusty's crossed 900 venues across DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

• 141 PG spots, every one placed on the map
• National Harbor alone has 35 — the waterfront, the MGM, and the Gaylord
• We crossed 900 venues across DC, Maryland, and Virginia

Howard County done

Howard County is wrapped — Columbia, Ellicott City, Elkridge, Clarksville, Fulton, Maple Lawn, and the smaller towns. Some fun finds along the way, like Trifecto Bar at Clarksville Commons and the Mount Airy farm-winery cluster.

• Columbia, Ellicott City, and Elkridge form the dense core
• Mount Airy wine country is in: Black Ankle, Linganore, Red Shedman, and more
• Frisco Taphouse and Reckless Shepherd share a building — one pin, both bars

Trust layer + offline backup

First visit now asks you to confirm you're 21+ — expected for a site about drinks — and the new beer-glass logo matches Chris's coaster designs. Behind the scenes, everything now backs up to an external drive several times a day.

• 21+ age check on first visit, remembered per device
• Beer-glass logo and favicon (replaces the martini glass)
• Automatic backups running several times a day

Frederick County is live

Frederick County is live with 91 spots, from downtown Frederick to Mt. Airy wine country. Where we couldn't find a spot's times it says "needs verification" with a comment box — fill in what you know.

• Downtown Frederick: indies, chains, and the Carroll Creek brewery corridor
• Mt. Airy wineries are in: Black Ankle, Linganore, Loew, and more
• Urbana and Walkersville came up empty — help us out via comments

"Needs verification" — you can help fill the gaps

Venues we know have happy hour but couldn't find the times for now show "Needs verification" with a comment button. If you've been there, drop a note with what you saw — we promote useful comments to the public listing.

Montgomery County done

Montgomery County is wrapped — 247 spots from Bethesda to Damascus, nearly all of them on the map and most with happy-hour times. We also cleaned up some duplicate listings and confirmed a couple of long-standing closures, Da Marco in Germantown and Nava Thai in Wheaton.

• 247 MoCo spots, most with happy-hour times already
• Duplicates merged: Bonefish Gaithersburg, Lahinch Tavern (now The Grove), and more
• Closed for good: Da Marco Germantown (2020) and Nava Thai Wheaton (2022)

DC brand refresh + watercolor hero

The palette flipped from burgundy and champagne to navy and tangerine on warm cream — matching Chris's sticker designs — and the homepage hero now has an illustrated DC waterfront scene. State quick-pick chips moved right under the hero for easier browsing.

New domain, new repo

Renamed from DMVHH to Rusty's HH, with a new home at rustyshh.net — the old address still redirects. And welcome Chris DePalma, who's joining to help with design and review.

• Domain: rustyshh.net (primary), old rustysdmv-happyhour.netlify.app redirects
• Repo: github.com/remeadows/rustys-hh
• Chris DePalma added as collaborator