Kushi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!"