Bardo Brewing

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Our Story

750 seats. Beergarden. Brewery. Next to Nats stadium. On the river. The 2 acres at Bardo feature riverside seating outdoors, a designated dog park and lots of bicycle parking spaces. After 5 years at our Trinidad location on Bladensburg Rd NE, we moved to Navy Yard. Bardo Rodeo operated in the 90's as the largest brewpub in the country. The 22000 sq. ft. facility included 900 indoor & 700 outdoor seats and a 25-barrel brewhouse. As one of the first bars in the Clarendon neighborhood in Arlington VA, Bardo brewed 4000 kegs a year and enjoyed thousands of visitors each weekend. THE CONCEPT Riverside Beergarden. Brewery. GABF award winning beers. Bardo will offer more house beers on tap, at any one time, than any brewpub anywhere. How often do you go into a brewpub to find they only have 4-6 house beers available? At Bardo, we have over 20 recipes. Most given to us by some of the most prominent brewers in the country. Brewers from Rogue, Bridgeport, Anderson Valley and Schmidts have all contributed to Bardo's stable of beer styles. In the past, we have maintained an average of 15 house beers on tap. Check out our beer menu at bardodc.com FUN FACTS In the late 80's, Bill Stewart jump-started the Clarendon nightlife scene when he opened Roratonga Rodeo, the first bar in Clarendon and the first of his 3 bars on Wilson Blvd. in Arlington. By 1993, Bill had converted an old car dealership into the 22,000 sq ft behemoth of a brewpub, Bardo Rodeo. Bardo garnered national attention for: 1) Being the biggest brewpub in the country 2) Winning medals at the Great American Beer Festival 3) Having William Kennedy Smith arrested after sucker-punching a Bardo doorman. Bardo is also credited with giving several local brewers their start in the industry. Jonathan Reeves at Port City Brewing in Alexandria, Favio Garcia at Lost Rhino Brewing in Ashburn and Alan Beal at Virginia Beverage Company in Alexandria all started their brewing careers at Bardo. ABOUT US The Roots of Bardo reach back to DC in the 1980's. Bill Stewart first started brewing beer in his kitchen and giving it away in an old row house near 11th & P in Logan Circle. After several months at that location, a bigger spot was needed. Christened the BBQ Iguana (14th & P), it functioned as a live music venue for bands such as Scream, with Dave Grohl on drums (“the only drummer who didn't need a mic”). A late night burglary of the sound system forced a relocation to what became Roratonga Rodeo in Arlington. Roratonga’s opening in 1989 made it the very first bar in Clarendon. Roratonga provided 15 microbrews on tap and was one of the area’s first multitap bars (if not THE first). By 1991, Roratonga had become too small. Bill sold it (to the Galaxy Hut people) and opened the 2nd bar in Clarendon, Amdo Rodeo. Amdo’s 23 taps eventually proved too small and, in 1993, it was sold to the IOTA people. In 1992, an old car dealership became available and it was here that Bill finally realized his dream of opening a place where he could brew beer. So started the 22,000 sq. ft. brewpub, Bardo Rodeo. After waiting tables at Amdo during college, Bill’s brother Andrew graduated and came on board to manage Bardo. In the new millennium, Bill was on to his next project. When the county condemned the old part of the building, the brewery was moved to his farm then put into storage. Bill moved to Australia with the idea of opening a brewpub there. Frustrated with the level of bureaucracy, he decided to pursue another passion: Campaign for Tibet. Bill spent the next 7 years working with TIPA (Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts) in Dharamsala. In the meantime, members of the Stewart family downsized and renovated the Bardo site, renaming it Dr. Dremo’s Taphouse in 2000. It served as a multitap bar until the building’s demolition in 2008. Efforts to re-open another multitap bar were scrapped when Andrew convinced Bill to come back from the high Himalayas and start making beer again. PRESS COVERAGE Check out our press page on bardodc.com for coverage on the old and new bar. ALSO If you have old Bardo paraphernalia, contact us. We will give you lots of free swag (Free beer! t-shirts!) if you bring it on by. Our personal archive of goodies got ruined in a storage flood.