In a true sign of a vibe shift in Washington, a DC bar beloved by Republican staffers announced that it was shuttering its doors – and will reportedly be replaced by a bar that only accepts cryptocurrency as payment.

Local news site PoPville first reported on Thursday that a D.C. outpost of Pubkey, a bar located in Greenwich Village that describes itself as a “vibrant bitcoin community”, had taken over the lease of Hill Country, a popular Texas barbecue restaurant and music venue, which recently announced it would close its doors in Penn Quarter after 14 years.

It’s part of a trend of crypto-centric social venues opening up across the country in the past several years. Pubkey, which opened in 2022 near New York University’s Manhattan campus, has a notably casual atmosphere: a subterranean dive bar-slash-podcast recording studio, with a pub grub menu designed by an Eleven Madison Park alum, where anyone could hang out – so long as they paid with cryptocurrency. (When Eater visited in 2022, they observed “a variety of regional styles” of hot dogs on the menu, as well as a stuffed raccoon next to “a television that appeared to be playing A Christmas Story”.) But …

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