On November 14, after a long day jeering at antifascist and Black Lives Matter protesters, the Proud Boys were thirsty. In downtown Washington, D.C., where about 400 of the group’s members had gathered for the Million MAGA March to protest President Donald Trump’s electoral defeat, a small band of Proud Boys wandered down E Street, their feet dragging in heavy tan combat boots. The weather in D.C. had been unseasonably warm for November—about 65 degrees and sunny—and the group looked sunburned and tired. Toward the back of the pack, a middle-aged man in a tactical vest and blue-mirrored sunglasses came to a stop, pulled a mango White Claw from the front pocket of his vest and cracked it open.
“I want to punch some commies,” he said, and took a sip.
In the nation’s capital, it’s not easy for a Proud Boy to get a drink. Coronavirus restrictions aside, many of D.C.’s restaurants refuse to serve members of the far-right hate group, who are easily identified by their signature black-and-gold Fred Perry polo shirts. “Hate not welcome here,” read a sign posted in one downtown shop window. So instead of roaming the streets in search of another drink, the gang of Proud Boys headed toward the group’s favorite D.C. watering hole: Harry’s Pub, in the heart of Penn Quarter.
The low-key bar has suddenly been news for all the wrong reasons. On Saturday night, after the second running of the Million MAGA March, police responded to a fight between Trump-supporting rallygoers and counterprotests near Harry’s, in which at least four people were stabbed. On Election Night in November, a group of Proud Boys that included Enrique Tarrio, the group’s national chairman, and the conservative provocateur Bevelyn Beatty was assaulted while leaving a watch party at Harry’s. Beatty suffered a non-life-threatening stab wound to her back.
In a city known for its high-powered, wood-paneled eateries, Harry’s can seem out of place. Housed on the ground floor of the Hotel Harrington, Washington’s self-proclaimed “tourist hotel” where rooms begin at $95 per night, Harry’s is a rare dive bar in the middle of the city’s expense account district, an oasis of $6 Bud Lights in an ocean of $18 Manhattans. Hundreds of police patches hang on the walls of the narrow bar, which is filled with old-school red vinyl stools and faux-Tiffany lamps, while black-and-white tiled floors gives the place a sort of funhouse feel. The food is cheap, and the atmosphere is casual. “Don’t eat the fish,” counsels a top review on Yelp.
But what for years was a low-key haunt for off-duty police officers and busloads of tourist groups has, during the Donald Trump presidency, attracted a brand-new clientele. In the past four years, Harry’s has become the de-facto D.C. headquarters of the Proud Boys, the all-male extremist group known for its members’ thinly veiled racism, penchant for street violence and unwavering support for the president. When they’re in town for rallies or protests, the Proud Boys and other rank-and-file MAGA loyalists toast Trump and down beers among the vinyl stools here, or on the patio, under the eerie technicolor glow cast by the pub’s neon signs.
If the Trump Hotel has become the social nerve center of the MAGA elite—Republican senators and foreign oligarchs courting favor with the president under the gilded lobby vaulting—Harry’s Bar, a block away from the hotel, is where the other half of MAGA social life in D.C. unfolds—a hangout for bearded militiamen and young, clean-cut white nationalists and Trump supporters on a budget. Stella Artois at the Trump Hotel’s high-end cocktail bar costs $11, and cocktails start at $22. At Harry’s, drinks cost half as much. But it’s still close enough to feel like part of the hotel’s upper-class ecosystem, benefiting from its power and appeal through some mysterious social osmosis.
“We bounce back and forth from Harry’s to the Trump almost every night we’re [in Washington], but the Trump is a little too expensive,” said Tarrio over the phone. “[Harry’s] is your practical, everyday run-of-the-mill bar.”
In the twilight hours of the first Million MAGA March on November 14, the Proud Boys’ bravado was on full display at Harry’s. Groups of scowling men in tactical vests milled around, eating popcorn, drinking pitchers of beer and trading war stories from past rallies. The crowd spilled onto the outdoor patio, where a vendor was selling American flags and Trump knickknacks from the back of a trailer. Many wore MAGA hats. Few wore masks. At one point, a group gathered in the street in front of Harry’s to unfurl a massive “Thin Blue Line” flag with “TRUMP” emblazoned across the top in oversized block letters. A handful of Proud Boys ran under the flag while its handlers sent ripples across the surface, like toddlers at some sort of beer-soaked jamboree. The city’s Beverage Regulation Administration later slapped Harry’s with two $1,000 fines for violating social distancing guidelines and occupancy restrictions during the gathering.
For D.C.’s left-leaning residents and business owners, the growing presence in the capital of groups like the Proud Boys has been a frightening sign of the times. The group’s leaders deny any link to white supremacist or neo-fascist ideologies, preferring the less inflammatory label of “Western chauvinists.” But behind closed doors and in private group chats, members traffic in the meme-heavy discourse of white nationalism that has become a calling-card of the radical right. The FBI considers the Proud Boys “an extremist group with ties to white nationalism,” while the Southern Poverty Law Center opts for the punchier “right-wing hate group.”
Asked if D.C. locals ever frequent the bar today, Bryan Coxwell, a resident of Penn Quarter, laughed out loud. “F--- no,” Coxwell said. “Look at the type of people who go there.”
Meanwhile, Harry’s isn’t saying much about its newfound popularity.
“We’re just a burger joint,” said Harry’s owner John Boyle, before declining to comment further.
The Harrington opened in 1914 and has never since fully closed for a renovation, making it the longest continuously operating hotel in the District. At the end of Prohibition, the hotel’s owners opened a cocktail bar called the Pink Elephant Lounge on the ground floor which soon became popular with hotel guests and the city’s downtown workforce. The lounge was briefly converted into a more modest tavern during the Second World War, but the Pink Elephant returned with a new Art Deco flair in the early 1950s. In 1993, the lounge closed and Harry’s moved in, its name a tribute to Harrington Mills, the hotel’s original owner. Today, the Harrington’s guests can choose between Harry’s and the hotel’s two other restaurants, Harriet’s Family Restaurant, a sit-down place that opened in 2006, and Ollie’s Trolley, an old-timey-theme fast-food restaurant around the corner.
It’s clear enough why the Proud Boys like Harry’s. Located at the corner of 11th and E Street, the bar is a short walk from the Trump Hotel, the National Mall and the White House, all epicenters of recent pro-Trump rallies. Proud Boys visiting from out of town—which is most of them—frequently stay above the bar at the Harrington. During the Million MAGA March, rumors swirled on far-right social media that Alex Jones was staying upstairs and planned to make an appearance at Harry’s. (Jones in fact stayed a few blocks away at the Willard, a landmark luxury hotel where a discount room costs $250.)
“It’s been a place that’s, like, a Republican hangout, and people just know that it’s a friendly spot to go to if you’re on the right,” said Bobby Pickles, a member of the Proud Boys’ Southern Florida chapter, in a phone conversation. (Pickles is an alias.) “I’m happy that they give us a safe haven to go to.”
The group’s choice of a dive bar as its haven is on brand. The Proud Boys call themselves “a fraternal drinking club,” and getting drunk with other dudes allows members to sustain the culture of “toxic masculinity” that they claim as a badge of honor. Regional chapters meet primarily at nondescript bars around the country, and the preliminary stages of the group’s multi-step “vetting” process for prospective members typically involves sharing a beer with regional leaders. (The latter stages of the initiation process include a ritualized beating and a pledge not to masturbate.) According to Tarrio, the D.C. regional chapter doesn’t vet new members at Harry’s. Instead, the bar functions as a sort of all-purpose MAGA mecca, a place where Trump’s faithful from around the country can gather during their occasional pilgrimages to the capital.
Harry’s first gained traction with the Proud Boys during the Mother of All Rallies (M.O.A.R), a pro-Trump gathering on the National Mall in September of 2017. The rally’s organizers promised crowds of more than a million, but the event ended up drawing closer to 1,000 Trump loyalists, leading some to dub it “the Mother of All Flops.” The Proud Boys, however, were well represented, as were members of a number of other far-right extremist groups, including the Three Percenters, Oath Keepers and American Guard. The after-party coalesced at Harry’s.
In September of 2018, the Proud Boys returned to the bar after the second M.O.A.R., which drew similarly underwhelming crowds. Over Fourth of July weekend in 2019, Harry’s served as the group’s home base during the “Demand Free Speech” rally, a hodgepodge of speeches and marches that the Proud Boys nominally organized. More recently, the bar made headlines this October when Trump retweeted a video of unmasked Harry’s patrons first-bumping Metropolitan Police Department officers and chanting “back the blue” as the officers ordered food. The video triggered an investigation by the city’s Beverage Regulation Administration, resulting in two warnings for pandemic restriction violations.
Meanwhile, the Proud Boys’ adversaries have also taken notice of Harry’s. During the Demand Free Speech rally in 2019, a group of antifascist counter-protesters confronted the Proud Boys on the bar’s patio, which was heavily patrolled by police. The groups traded insults across a line of officers before the counter-protesters dispersed. Violence broke out in earnest this past November, though, when roaming bands of Proud Boys clashed with antifascists and BLM activists in the streets surrounding Harry’s, resulting in at least 20 arrests and a number of serious injuries.
During the second Million MAGA March on December 12, this past weekend, police arrived outside Harry’s in the early afternoon in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent clashes between the Proud Boys and other pro-Trump demonstrators who had gathered outside the bar and counter-protesters who had gathered nearby at Black Lives Matter Plaza. At 4 p.m., Harry’s closed, leaving large crowds of Proud Boys milling around on the sidewalk. (If Harry’s gets a third Covid-19 violation, the pub’s liquor license will be reviewed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control board.) At night, four people were stabbed around 11th and F Street, less than a block from the bar. The police have not yet said who the victims are.
As for the Hotel Harrington, they’re trying to keep away from the controversy. The hotel’s managing director, Ann Terry, recently told the Washingtonian that the bar’s new MAGA scene is “Harry’s responsibility.” “I really don’t keep up with it a lot. We don’t play any part in running things,” she said.
With Trump set to depart from the White House in January, the Proud Boys’ future at Harry’s remains uncertain. According to Tarrio, the Proud Boys are planning to increase their presence in Washington during the Biden presidency, and Tarrio is considering buying a second home in the area so he can split his time more evenly between the capital and his native Miami.
“I think you’ll see us a lot more often in D.C. now, if Biden assumes the presidency, which is very likely,” Tarrio said. “I can see already by Biden’s posture what his policies are going to be on certain things … and there’s gonna be a f---ton of policies that I’ll probably disagree with.”
But after the violence at the Million MAGA March and the city’s crackdown on pandemic restriction violations, the Proud Boys are adding new bars to their rotation. According to Tarrio, members have scoped out two nearby bars to accommodate overflow crowds from Harry’s, though he declined to identify either of the two bars, saying he didn’t “want to burn them.”
Meanwhile, the Trump Organization has announced its intention to sell the Trump International, leaving some Washington socialites to wonder where Republican officials will gather for after-hours cocktails.
Tarrio couldn’t care less.
“I’m not looking at officials. I’m looking at the people—the 70 million pissed off people in the streets. And they’re gonna continue to be pissed off.”
Pissed off and, as Harry’s knows, thirsty.
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