D.C.’s Newest Mini-Golf Bar Looks Wild

D.C.’s golf bar game continues to soar with the arrival of Puttery in Penn Quarter later this month, complete with lots of pizza and themed cocktails that compliment each immersive course.

The new putt-putt pad slides into the former home of International Spy Museum (800 F Street NW). Drive Shack-owned Puttery currently has two other U.S. locations in Dallas, Texas and Charlotte, North Carolina, with more on the way.

The 19,000-square-foot D.C. edition features three 9-hole courses, each with its own distinct theme and drinks menu. The “Art Museum” course is covered in colorful pop art prints and Andy Warhol’s oversized Campbell’s soup cans; the lush “Conservatory” course is filled with giant redwood replicas, prickly cacti, and cherry blossoms; and a trippy “Illusion” course is surrounded with bendy, black-and-white graphics that’ll make drinking while golfing even more challenging.

Michael Baxter, Baxter Imaging LLC

Guests don’t have to play golf in order to dine or drink. Instead of sports bar grub, Puttery’s snacks swing on the fancier side. Starters include veggie potstickers, sous vide pork belly, and a stack of marinated ahi tuna with togarashi rice chips. There’s also oven-roasted meatballs, lamb or beef sliders, and a fig, burrata and serrano ham salad with toasted bread. A core carbs section of eight pizzas includes spicy capicola, sausage pesto, mascarpone and mushroom varieties.

Puttery

Cocktails include the Margarita Standoff, Mean Machine, Old Fashioned, French 75 and Sazerac.

The opening D.C. team includes general manager and BLT Steak alum Massimo Giannetti and executive chef James Oakley, a 30-year hospitality vet who’s worked at the Hilton, B-Smith’s, McCormick and Schmick’s, Brock & Company, Exelon, and Top Golf.

Puttery also take private bookings for 10 guests up to full buyouts for 350.

Puttery joins a growing crop of drinking-while-golfing options that popped up in D.C. over the past year. There’s wacky London import Swingers in Dupont (with a second en route to Navy Yard), subterranean golf simulator Five Iron Golf in Penn Quarter, and a soon-to-open CitySwing downtown.

Hours at Puttery are Sunday (11 a.m. to 12 a.m.); Monday to Wednesday (4 p.m. to 12 a.m.); Thursday (4 p.m. to 2 a.m.); Friday (12 p.m. to 2 a.m.); and Saturday (11 a.m. to 2 a.m.).