DC, A through Z

Lima

2010-06-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

After some sleuthing through my old gmail archives, I determined that June 21 is the anniversary of my arrival in the great "state" of District of Columbia*, and so to celebrate my making it four years here without succumbing to this city's migratory bug (or ever having to meet a lobbyist—-that I'm aware of), I decided to check out Lima. I seriously walk by this place constantly, seeing as it's about a block from my house, so it was high time to actually see what it was about.

It was approximately 1,000 degrees out, but we still braved the outdoor couches on the patio (I know, classy right? What place has outdoor couches?). Lima has happy hour specials on certain beers, wines and cocktails, but the main event was mojitos, which we ordered in big $29 pitchers...and promptly drank roughly a pitcher each**. They had mango!

The clear highlight of the night though was when this guy walked past the patio a couple times, and Ebo pointed out that he really looked like a character on Lost, to which Christina responded that she was 100 percent positive he was. Even cableless and TV-phobic as I am, I was pretty excited that this dude who kept passing us looking confused and "lost"*** may have actually been on television at some point. Just when we thought we'd missed our window of opportunity though, he walked toward us again and we nominated Ebo our ambassador to fame. He made the introduction and we got to talk to the guy for a while.

He was apparently there to go to a benefit for a refugee charity, cause, as he put it, now that he's been on TV and people know him he should, you know, probably actually do something. Later we also saw another dude from Lost that I totally didn't recognize (it may have been this guy? ...I could be totally wrong about that). So woohoo for me, only four years in this city and I finally see someone who's recognizable...just not to me.

Afterward we went to the Post Pub and got pitchers of Sam Summer, diner food and free shots from the waitress cause she enjoyed all of our best drunk stories. And at one point someone put my favorite INXS song on the jukebox.

Best anniversary ever.

*I technically started out in Maryland, but.....shhhh
**But who's counting?
***I'm so hilarious

Kushi

2010-06-12T11:12:00.000-07:00

For my K, I decided to check out the new sushi bar and "izakaya" in Mount Vernon Square, Kushi. You could still wear your shoes and there wasn't any raw horse on the menu, but it still felt pretty authentically Japanese to me (cute bartender and all).

Kushi is part of the new revival just east of my place, which is awesome for me. The CityVista condo building has a host of cool eateries, including another Busboys and Poets location and a (squee!!!) Taylor Gourmet sandwich shop. Even the New York Times recognized that good things are happening in this area.

The place has a hip and classy vibe, and the drinks were priced as you might expect in that setting, but they had pretty decent happy hour specials until 8. We had *strong* Japanese-style margaritas (and the cutie bartender gave us an extra that he had "accidentally" left over), so we made out pretty well for under $10. I also appreciated the wide selection of Japanese liquors, like shochu, that aren't always that easy to find here.

We didn't try the sushi this time, but the selection here also seemed pretty broad. They even offer otoro, though they do specify that it's limited. I didn't think the sushi prices seemed all that unreasonable either, especially considering that everything we saw looked pretty amazing.

My verdict is that I will definitely go back, and I will try to have a shot at that sushi if I can stop myself from ordering Taylor's when I'm right next door....

J Paul's

2010-05-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

I'd had some experience with J Paul's back at last fall's Buffalo Battle wing contest. Definitely enjoyed the wings then, but I'd never made it to the bar, so it was about time. With specials on rail drinks and oysters, I was plenty glad I did. Never met an oyster I didn't like.

Irish Channel

2010-03-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

I've had no shortage of experience with the area's Irish bars, but for some reason the Irish Channel hadn't yet made my list.

I knew they poured a good pint of Guinness from watching their bartenders at Fadó's Perfect Pint Pouring Competition, so I figured it was time to see for myself. And since my birthday is two days before St. Paddy's day and I'm full blown Irish, I figured this might not be a bad place to celebrate (before the crowds descended).

The bar struck me as one of most authentic Irish place's in the city. It managed to transport me to the Emerald Isle without any of the Disneyland theatrics of some of the region's other Irish bars (what's the thinking behind that Druid corner of Fadó anyway?). The bartenders were friendly and smart, and all in all it was a great time.

Their happy hour special is a dollar off drafts, but it sadly doesn't include Guinness or cider.

Harry's Saloon

2010-02-23T13:44:00.000-08:00

For my H, I had originally picked Hard Times Cafe, a DC-area chili chain that serves things like spaghetti covered in chili and tater tots covered in chili (as you may know, my next endeavor is going to be mapping all the places that serve tater tots, so that part's exciting to me). They also randomly have discounted martinis on Wednesdays and one of them has Tang in it. I've since been here, but before that I decided to switch it up and make it Harry's Saloon instead.

The reason behind this was really pretty basic. It's only a few blocks from my house and really close to The Occidental, which was having an awesome special that we were taking advantage of. So I thought, why not? We'll kill my H bar now.

This certainly wasn't a bad place, but I can't say I'm dying to go back. It was really more like a diner, with a bunch of families around who were probably staying at the weird ass "tourist hotel". Whatever that means. It kind of reminded me of a place like the Post Pub, kinda cool in its dirty way, but you can't really figure out why it's lasted so long in the middle of downtown.

They had big frosty mugs of beer though, which is always a plus. Not too expensive either.

Glory Days Grill

2010-01-13T13:28:00.000-08:00

The G bar was a bit of a sticking point. I originally picked Gin and Tonic, but since it's not metro accessible, nobody ever really wanted to go. Plus I realized I'd actually been there before (sort of) when it used to be the Grog and Tankard.

The solution fell into my lap when we went to a Caps game and the team scored five goals--this means everyone in attendance gets free wings at Glory Days Grill. It's a little bit of a pain, since there are exactly 0 locations within D.C. proper, but the lure of freeness motivated us and we trekked out to wherever the f. Fairfax or something. I don't know, I didn't drive.

Strip mall country does have its advantages though, and there was cheap beer to be had. They also had a $5 burger special and Ebo got that in addition to his 12 wings (somehow).

The best part was that they had boneless wings...delicious fried crispy chicken-like niblets covered in spicy sauce without anything resembling an animal body part. Love it.

And did I mention that they were free? That part was great.

Firefly

2009-12-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

Even though DC was buried deep in a Snowpacalypse, we still managed to achieve the F, Firefly. This was partially due not to our determination, but to the fact that for reservations of more than 5 people you have to give your credit card, and they charge you $15 a person if you don't show up. So I made certain we made it.

For this one I decided to do a brunch, since they have a $1 mimosa special. We took advantage. I was really pleased with my food and all in all it was great to get out of the house, even if we did have to trudge through a ton of snow to make it there.

Eventide

2009-12-07T22:44:00.000-08:00

For E, there was a lack of consensus as to whether we should go to Eventide or EatBar. I eventually decided since they were nearby, we should do happy hour at Eventide and then have food at EatBar. This didn't really work out, though, since by the time we arrived at EatBar there was no hope for a table. In the end, the E was really decided for us by the fates.

Eventide is maybe more of a restaurant than a bar, but they have a pretty good happy hour (half price beer, $5 select wines) and some fancy craft cocktails. It doesn't really seem to be designed for large groups though, at least if you want to sit down. We sat in a round table by the front windows and slowly began to acquire all the chairs from the tables around us as more people arrived and tried to cram around ours (think Katamari Damacy). One table was left completely bereft of chairs by the end. Why we didn't just pull it over to us I can't really say, but we may not quite have had our wits completely about us even at that early point in the night.

The beers were good, a lot of local Virginia stuff (I didn't know Charlottesville had breweries, but cool). They were priced from $4 to $8, so as long as you're there before 7 it's a pretty good deal.

The cocktails, though not discounted, were where it's at though. I had one called the Cooper Brothers' Cocktail, made with bourbon, elderflower and ginger liqueur. Theresa had the mulled wine, which tasted kinda like a warm fruity tea—we judged it to be probably pretty deadly if you could resist its sedative effects.

After getting pretty buzzed on fancy drinks we tried to head to EatBar, but that planned failed as aforementioned. We ended up going to Ray's Hell Burger and then the Rosslyn Safeway for some Hurricane.

And then the night went slowly downhill (uphill?) from there.

Here's the quote that I typed into Blogger as it was said to make sure I didn't forget to include it on here. Thank god.

"You know what's great? Beer. Hurray for beer!"

The Dubliner

2009-11-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

So for my D bar I chose the Dubliner. I've gotta admit though, we kind of half assed this one. We basically just stopped by after work for some food and a drink and then went off to our respective Friday night activities. I did have some tasty fried oysters and there was some Magner's cider to be had, so it wasn't an entire failure on our part (that came later in the night when I drank too many long island iced teas and lost my wallet on the metro).

It wasn't entirely our fault though. False claims had been made on the interweb about so called "Irish Fridays."* These claims involved $3 Yuengling, half price appetizers, and live Irish music. None of these were true.

*Why one day has to be specifically referenced as "Irish" at bar called the Dubliner I never understood.

Real specials were $4 Blue Moon and Sam Adams. Fine, but we'd been lured by falsehoods.

Chef Geoff's

2009-11-16T20:23:00.000-08:00

I've heard a lot about the Chef Geoff's happy hour basically since I've lived here, and the specials are pretty bitchin.

The main attraction is the SuperMug, i.e., the almost 40 for when you're taking a break from the Schlitz: 33.8 ounces of draft beer. They have some pretty good options too. I got a Magic Hat #9, and there was a winter cask ale and a nut brown. The mugs are $7.95 at happy hour, which goes all night on Mondays and Tuesdays. Monday is also half priced bottles of wine night, which we didn't actually take advantage of on account of our liters of beer, but I saw some on the list that sounded worth it. There are specials on burgers and pizza too.

The down side was that I couldn't really lift my beer without threatening to give myself tendinitis, but it did help me take the edge off of my crappy week. And yes, I do realize that it's Monday.

Highlights of the night included realizing the napkin was resting on the candle, Teresa realizing the bar used Papyrus font and regretting having set foot in it, hiding from Ebo and Danielle for no reason but having them totally not notice, Ryan getting confused between northwest and northeast, and meeting the Duke of Ebo's neighborhood on the walk home.

Bourbon

2009-11-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

After Asylum, I decided to kill two birds and head a few doors down to Bourbon. This was definitely a very different scene. We went straight upstairs, but it looked like the first floor was pretty quiet, with some nice tables and mood lighting. The second floor was a more crowded dance scene, so we worked our way over to the bar by the front windows.

As soon as the bartender handed us the leatherbound volume of a drink list, we knew we were not in the land of 50 cent Natty Light anymore. In fact, I think even the Miller Lite was about $6. Luckily for me, as I was looking it over I felt someone tap me on the shoulder, and it was a guy who works in another office on my floor with a beer in his hand for me. Score.

Later I got lucky again when the Weave realized she'd overindulged while beating the clock, so she gave me her almost full old fashioned. I must say it redeemed the bar a little for me, as I guess a bourbon drink had better at this place. Another friend told me later that the bartender made a mean Rob Roy too.

We got down to business, clearing a large area for Ebo to tear it up to. Well, not exactly....his dancing just kind of cleared it on its own. Apparently it was not large enough though, cause he did a crazy kick thing and ninjaed the glass Sarah had right in half.

I'm not sure exactly how the Bud Light got broken (I hear it involved Katherine somehow) but it seemed to happen at the same time, so they both got in the picture.

Later there was a dance off between Ebo and this other guy we didn't know, resulting in the other guy being seriously owned. And then them becoming best buddies. I guess that's how these things work.

Asylum

2009-11-05T10:25:00.000-08:00

For my first step along my journey of 26 new DC bars, I chose Asylum, a dark and kind of gritty Adams Morgan dive that hosts live music. It reminded me of a place you might have seen a punk band in the 80s.

We went down to the basement, which had some vinyl booths tucked into nooks, but these were all taken, so we pulled up some rickety tables to a long bench along the wall. There's a pool table down there too, which we definitely spilled a lot of beer on at one point...

The real reason to go to Asylum on Saturday nights is that they do a beat the clock special, where beer starts at 50 cents at 5 pm and goes up by that much each hour. We got there at 6 and still got pretty drunk for less than 10 bucks each. The beer wasn't great or anything (I think it was Natty Light?) but for a price you could probably find in your couch it wasn't bad.

I hear they do a good vegan brunch on weekends too. But it has real food too (I made sure).