The Columbia Room offers the best service I have ever experienced in a bar. Tucked behind The Passenger, this reservations-only bar seats only a few people in a cozy escape from the busy nightlife out front. A flat rate brings Champagne, a small plate from the kitchen, and two expertly crafted cocktails from Derek Brown. This is very much in the Japanese style of bartending: You’re greeted with a hot towel, the ice is hand-carved, and the drinks are made one at a time in a cobbler shaker. Everything I had here was excellent, standouts being the Hibiki whiskey sour and duck prosciutto.
Some speakeasy-style bars take themselves too seriously; I have been in one and watched the host make a customer search her Blackberry for her password even though her name was on the reservation and the bar was nearly empty. In contrast The Columbia Room takes you seriously. It’s all about creating the best experience possible for the guests, from meticulously taking care of every detail to customizing cocktails to suit their tastes. If you’re in DC this is absolutely worth visiting.
Another great surprise is the new restaurant Eventide in Clarendon. This is the kind of place I wish existed when I was there, standing out from the bro bars that have flourished in the neighborhood. The crowd’s a little more restrained, the food is good, and bar manager Stephen Warner makes some excellent cocktails with spirits that were often unavailable in Virginia before he convinced the state bureaucrats to carry them.
Finally, Churchkey lived up to its promise as a beer destination. With 500 bottles, 50 taps, and 5 casks, one would never run out of beers to try here. Fortunately they offer 4 ounce pours of all their taps and casks, making it easier to experiment without getting hammered. My favorites were one of BrewDog’s Scotch-aged beers on cask and Victory’s Scarlet Fire rauchbier.
Other highlights: It’s always great to see Gina at PS 7’s and James at EatBar, Crisp and Juicy still rules, and I couldn’t get enough Salvadoran food.
This morning I’m heading back to DC for the Cato Institute’s first-ever intern reunion, a massive event bringing together veteran interns from the think tank’s long history. This will be my first time back in well over a year. On my last visit I’d only been gone a few months and it felt like coming home. This time the city and my lifestyle there seem more distant, though perhaps I’ll slip right back into once I’m there. I will say this for DC: Despite the political world’s constant careerism and its priorities that are often not my own, I do miss the intellectual engagement the city always had on offer and the camaraderie shared by libertarians living in the belly of the beast. Where else could one pack a bar to the walls by offering drink specials and airing a Milton Friedman documentary?
In any case, the weekend will be fueled with copious food and drink. I already have a reservation at Columbia Room and Sunday brunch plans at my old hangout Eatbar (even if we can’t light up stogies there anymore). The lure of pollo a la brasa is strong. I’d like visit all the places on my old list, though that’s impossible. Eventide and Birch and Barley have opened since I left and I would love to visit them. What else is new that I should seek out?
Grape and Bean, a great coffee and wine shop in Alexandria, VA where I worked a couple years ago, is the subject of a new video by Caleb Brown:
The video is part of a contest highlighting free enterprise; vote by liking it here, and if you’re in Old Town drop in to visit David and Sheera at Grape and Bean. (Also, I’m glad to see that the Clover is still brewing good coffee!)
The Washington Post reports that DC city councilman Jack Evans has succeeded in obtaining a waiver from the District’s smoking ban for two groups he personally favors:
Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) has asked his council colleagues to keep tradition alive for the all-male Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and another organization, Fight for Children, which hosts an annual smoke-filled professional boxing fundraiser.
Evans, who is a member of the Irish organization, said the measure was narrowly crafted, making an exception for only two nights a year and protecting workers by allowing venue employees to opt out of working the events.
But the bill has proponents of the District’s 2006 workplace smoking ban in a huff.
Angela Bradbery, co-founder of Smokefree DC, urged Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) in a letter Monday to veto the legislation that she said would force workers to choose between their health and a paycheck; open the door for other organizations to request exemptions; and send a message that “it’s okay to break the law if you’re on the council or a buddy of a council member.” [...]
Despite opposition from the smoke-free camp, he succeeded last week in passing a one-year waiver on a 10 to 3 vote. The bill initially failed to get the necessary nine votes, but Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) and Marion Barry (D-Ward 8 ) switched positions on a second try.
It’s a rare day that I agree with groups like Smokefree DC, but they’re right to oppose the exemptions. Jack Evans attempted to pass one for the Sons of St. Patrick last year as well, at which time I wrote:
Evans has discovered the pain of having one’s treasured tradition banned by a bunch of meddling bureaucrats. I’d be sympathetic if not for the fact that Evans is one of those meddling bureaucrats. If he doesn’t like the law, he should introduce changes that open up smoking venues to everyone, not just to clubs that happen to have a city councilman in their membership.
In 2005, Evans voted for the DC smoking ban that took away the rights of business owners, employees, and patrons to determine tobacco policies by voluntary exchange.
Friendly reminder to Capitol Hill interns: Especially when you’re in DC, there’s a very good chance your bartender or server is smarter, more educated, and wittier than you. Act accordingly.
The good news for Clarendon is that Boccato Gelato and Espresso is now serving Stumptown coffee. The store had just received its Synesso when I moved away last summer. I haven’t tried their coffee, but the gelato is very good. With Murky closed a place to get well-crafted coffee drinks is a welcome addition to the neighborhood.
[Thanks to Clarendon's coffee-deprived Chad for the Boccato link!]
This is why, as someone who makes his living in the bar and restaurant industry, I despise local politicians:
Restaurants and bars pour big money into their images–the logo on the sign outside, the look inside, the acoustics. Then along comes the government to order nightspots to clutter up their showcase entryways with signs announcing that the establishment doesn’t serve anyone under 21, that pregnant women shouldn’t drink, that the business doesn’t discriminate and that people shouldn’t smoke.
Now, the District’s Alcoholic Beverage Control board wants to add one more sign to the flurry of announcements greeting folks headed out for a good time: Board member Mital Gandhi has proposed that all eateries and bars licensed in the city be required to post a sign saying “Please do not drink and drive. Driving While Intoxicated or Under the Influence is illegal in the District of Columbia.” [...]
Gandhi is frank about the limited impact such signs might have. “Do we think this is going to stop drinking and driving? No,” he says. “It is a marketing technique and we felt it was a win-win situation. No one wants people to drink and drive.”
Interestingly, Gandhi agrees with the restaurant lobby that there is such a thing as sign clutter and message fatigue. “If we had 10 signs, I’d agree with the restaurant association,” the board member says. “Even if we had five signs, I’d agree. But two or three signs are not a problem.”
This, dear reader, gets us into an area I never thought I’d ever need to discuss: Defining a sign. As we’ve seen above, the city does indeed require bars and restaurants to post at least five, um, notices. But whereas [Andrew Kline from the restaurant association] calls them all signs, Gandhi says there’s a huge difference between signs and–quoting now–”placards.”
“Placards are a totally different story,” Gandhi says. “Apples and oranges.” And the big red thing that announces that a particular business’s liquor license is coming up for renewal is a placard, not a sign.
You can’t make this up! Read the whole thing for even more bureaucratic absurdity.
I can still remember my first encounter with the coffee shop at 3211 Wilson Blvd. in Arlington, VA, which is surprising since I didn’t actually go into it. I was visiting DC on college spring break — in those days that seemed to me a fun destination — and meeting a friend from the Institute for Humane Studies for dinner in Clarendon to talk about policy jobs in DC. He wasn’t a coffee drinker and so the place barely merited a mention from him as we walked briskly by, yet I felt an almost gravitational attraction to it. It was, I thought, the kind of shop where I could happily spend a lot of time.
It turns out I was very, very wrong for thinking I would enjoy working in public policy, but the coffee shop became more significant to me than I’d ever imagined. Back then it was called Common Grounds and when I returned to DC for my first internship a few months later I immediately sought it out. It became my escape from the depressing realization that I had no real interest in the career I’d been working towards. Nearly every night I’d come home, change out of my business attire, and walk the two miles uphill to relax with coffee and a couple of books. Though I was rarely joined by anyone I knew, I enjoyed the sense of community one feels in a busy cafe even when alone.
I returned to Virginia following college graduation for lack of any better plan, my new apartment just three blocks from Common Grounds. I applied for a job there following one more failed attempt at enjoying public policy. When I checked in a few weeks later, the manager admitted that they’d lost my application. This turned out to be a moot point, for the shop was about to be sold to Nick Cho of Murky Coffee. For some reason Nick hired me.
Nick has an intense passion for coffee and he passed that on to me on my first day of training at his existing Capitol Hill location. He gave us new employees twenty bucks and sent us down the street to Starbucks to order whatever we liked. Then we came back to experience the same drinks the Murky way. I’d consumed thousands of coffee beverages and spent countless nights in coffee shops, but I’d never paid close attention to what was in the cups. This all changed when I watched Nick deftly pour perfectly textured milk into espresso, a lovely rosetta forming on the surface of the cappuccino as if by magic. I’d never seen or tasted anything like it. To this day the memory informs my work as a barista and bartender; the best gift I can give new customers is recreating that feeling of astonishment that comes from witnessing a mundane drink transformed into something wonderful.
I spent only eight months working at Murky but I continued as a customer far longer. The friendships and relationships that bloomed there are the reason I stayed in Virginia for as long as I did. Our cast of characters — a Pilates instructor, an opera singer, and a medical consultant, among others — formed a welcome community outside the cocooned world of politics. Every Sunday we gathered for coffee and a late lunch. This ritual was so valuable to me that for the year following when I worked at Open City my only requirement was that I claim the painfully early Sunday morning 5:30 am barista shift; I felt it necessary to get off in time to meet for coffee at Murky, despite spending the entire morning working the same model espresso machine and serving exactly the same blend.
I wrote above that I felt a gravitational pull to the shop. Looking back at the five apartments I lived in during my time in Virginia, I realize I was literally in orbit around it. Murky is in red, my various apartments in blue.
That’s no coincidence. Though I moved frequently and made many compromises, always being within a short walk or bike ride from my favorite coffee shop was an essential amenity.
Many people drifted in and out of our circle of regulars over the years. By the time I packed for Oregon just two of our original crew were left, meeting every Sunday to drink coffee and smoke cigars at the green light pole. Like many things at Murky, the pole was weathered and useless, existing mostly to annoy people trying to park their cars around it. Yet it was charming in its way and was the perfect place to prop up our feet and light a couple stogies in the breeze.
If I could be there today, that’s exactly what I’d be doing. This Sunday was Murky’s last day open for business. Nick and his staff are opening a new shop, Wrecking Ball Coffee, in downtown DC. The space at 3211 Wilson Blvd. will soon become a bakery, the newest sleek addition to Clarendon’s redevelopment. Murky’s end removes one more of my tethers to the city. The thought of moving back to Arlington is now less tempting.
I could go on, but the important thing for me is saying thanks to Nick and the Murky community. Thanks for teaching me how to taste, for showing me the beauty in craft, and for giving me a place to call home in Virginia. You’ll be missed, and I wish you the best of luck in your new venture.
Washington, DC blog 14th and You has a great post up today about consistent anti-alcohol bias in the city’s local government, this time directed against a popular U St. bar by politicians not even representing that neighborhood:
Thanks to a recent article in the Dupont Current, we learned of Saint-Ex owner John Snellgrove’s attempt to convert the liquor license of his business from a restaurant-class license to a tavern. The reason, according to Snellgrove, is that “keeping a chef on premises until two hours before closing time [as necessitated by the restaurant-class liquor law] makes no financial sense.” So he’s seeking to convert Saint-Ex’s license to that of a “tavern” which would significantly loosen the restrictions on the hours of food service. [...]
… never mind that Saint-Ex doesn’t even reside within [Dupont Circle ANC Commissioner Ramon] Estrada’s ANC — he led the charge for a unanimous vote (with one abstention) by the Dupont ANC to protest them anyway. And yet, the most absurd statement made by Estrada must be this:
“On its face, I cannot accept that you can’t keep your kitchen open until two hours before closing.” To which I say: On its face, I cannot accept advice on running a food-serving establishment from someone who never has.
Go read the whole thing for more frustration with regulators who are standing in the way of a business that’s helped revitalize the U St. corridor.
Which state has the most breweries per capita? I thought it might be Oregon, my new home state, but the honor goes elsewhere [via Rob Kasper]:
The great state of Vermont tops the list of U.S. state breweries per capita based on the Brewers Association’s count of operating breweries and the 2008 population estimates found at www.census.gov. The fortunate citizens of Vermont have a brewery for every 32,698 people. There are 19 breweries and 621,270 citizens in Vermont. Additionally, every Vermont brewery is a craft brewery according the Brewers Association’s craft brewer definition, from small start-up microbrewery Lawson’s Finest Liquids in Warren to the revered Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington to regional craft brewer Magic Hat Brewing Co. and Performing Arts Center also in Burlington. The top 5 states in breweries per capita are rounded out by Montana, Oregon, Maine and Colorado.
Well, at least we’re in the top five. But what does this mean for the consumer, anyway? Is this really Beervana?
It certainly seemed to be when I first arrived here. Locally brewed ales were available at every pub I went to. And they were so cheap! $2.50 wouldn’t buy a pint of Bud Light in DC, much less a quality craft brew. Portland seemed like heaven.
But as time went on, the initial euphoria wore off and all the beers started to run together in my memory. They were good, but often failed to stand out from one another.
And that’s when I started getting nostalgic about the DC beer scene. The beer selection at an average DC bar is terrible, the prices are too high, and there are no good local brewers that I’m aware of. But the bars that try a little harder offer some of the best beers from throughout the Eastern US. Dogfish Head in Delaware, Brooklyn in New York, Allagash in Maine, and Bell’s in Michigan stand out particularly as innovative, relatively large craft brewers who make consistently good beer in a wide variety of styles, and they’re all distributed fairly well within the city.
On top of this DC went though a welcome Belgian invasion over the past few years. Newcomers Birreria Paradiso, Brasserie Beck, Granville Moore’s, and Rustico in Alexandria are amazing, offering a wide array of imports and some of the best American craft brews (Marvin too, apparently, though I haven’t been there). DC has become a fantastic city for beer drinkers despite having very little beer culture of its own.
To some extent, I think DC’s poverty of local brewers has been an advantage, freeing local bars to open their taps to the best brewers they can find, no matter where they come from. In this respect it is a surprisingly good beer city and I often miss its best destinations and my favorite eastern brews. (A similar dynamic is at work in New York City’s coffee scene, which in just a few years has gone from dismal to one of the best in the country. In addition to there being a few local players, NYC consumers benefit from competition among Stumptown, Intelligentsia, and Counter Culture to get into the top cafes.)
Oregonians, in contrast, take pride in drinking locally. And while there are many great local brews, my outsider’s impression is that this allows some good but unremarkable beers to skate by. There are benefits from showing tough love and a willingness to abandon the home team that don’t show up in a measure of breweries per capita.
None of which is to say that this isn’t an incredible city for beer drinkers. It’s certainly better than the District; even the place I get my haircut in Portland offers better beer than what’s found in many DC bars. There are more Oregon beers to try than I could possibly handle (though it’s fun to attempt it). So while at the margin I’d like to see a little less local dominance of the taps here, I’m more interested in finding out what I should sample next. Ninkasi and Caldera are especially good breweries that I’d never encountered before moving here, and Belmont Station’s unbelievable retail selection takes care of a lot of hard to find bottles. What else am I missing? What are the Oregon beers I should seek out immediately?
Amanda at Metrocurean reports that a new coffee shop called Mid-City Cafe is coming to Logan Circle in DC. They’ll be serving Counter Culture Coffee and not brewing drip; all the coffee will be from pour overs or French presses.
The biggest advantage for the coffee in Portland over what I got at my favorite shops in DC is that many places here don’t brew drip at all. For about $1 a cup I can get fresh, full-bodied French press coffee any time of day. It’s a little more work for the shop, but the difference in quality is worth it and I actively avoid any cafe that defaults to drip. Hopefully this is the start of a trend in that direction in DC.
I’ve complained often about the job market in Portland, but things may not have been much better for me even in recession-proof DC (though of course I could have just kept my job there). Elizabeth Nolan Brown covers the dim prospects for libertarian/conservative writers and activists: politicians are out of power, publications are closing down, and donations to non-profits are taking hits.
At her blog she also breaks the disappointing news that Doublethink is shutting down its print operation, going online only.
Mary Cheh, the DC councilwoman who wants mandatory letter grades outside of restaurants, also introduced a bill to ban trans-fats from the city’s restaurantsbecause DC has an inferiority complex about New York City and California to save lives. This is dumb, obviously, but it’s an occasion to bring up San Francisco’s surprisingly more sensible approach (made irrelevant by California’s coming statewide ban):
[...] restaurant owners who prove they serve nothing containing trans fats will get bragging rights in the form of a decal with a green heart emblazoned with a silhouette of the Golden Gate Bridge and the words “Trans Fat Free San Francisco Restaurant.”
The sticker - which is so attractive it’s worthy of framing, according to one public health official - will cost restaurant owners $250 and time spent documenting every ingredient they serve. Or, they can pay the inspector $150 an hour (time-and-a-half after hours and on weekends) to document everything in the kitchen for them.
That tells customers what they might want to know, preserves choice, and brings in some revenue for the city. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give city councilors that electric thrill of banning something they disapprove of, so I doubt a proposal like that would pass in DC.
Also, the “suitable for framing” line quoted above confirms my contention that food regulators have no sense of aesthetics.
The restaurant business is down all across the country. “Extreme solicitousness tinged with outright desperation” is how Frank Bruni described the mood at many of New York City’s top restaurants right now. So how are things going in DC? Amanda McClements at Metrocurean decided to take an unscientific poll at OpenTable. Here’s what came of her attempts to snag prime time Saturday night reservations at some of her favorite restaurants two days in advance:
• Blue Duck Tavern: booked
• Central: booked
• CityZen: booked
• Marvin: booked
• Proof: booked
• Citronelle: booked
• The Source: booked
• Rasika: 6:15 p.m.
• Bourbon Steak: 6 or 9:15 p.m.
• Corduroy: 5:30 or 9 p.m.
• Sei: 6:30 or 9 p.m.
• Westend: 6 or 9 p.m.
It must be nice to have an economy built on spending other people’s money (politicians, government employees) or spending your own to get even more taken away from someone else (lobbyists).
Richard Morrison at CEI points out this story about DC Councilman Jack Evans introducing special legislation to exempt a private club from the city’s smoking ban — a club of which he just happens to be a member:
The city’s smoke-free law provides an economic hardship waiver for struggling bars and restaurants, Evans said, but it leaves no wiggle room for a single event, like the St. Patrick’s Day gala or Fight Night at the Washington Hilton.
“Once a year, 1,000-plus people go there to drink Irish whiskey, smoke cigars and have dinner,” Evans said of the dinner. “Now they’re not allowed to do that. From my reading of the law there’s no other way to get an exemption but to legislate.” [...]
At-large Councilman David Catania, chairman of the health committee, will not move Evans’ legislation or any other exemption proposal, one Catania aide told The Examiner Wednesday. The ban, the aide said, “has been a huge success.”
Evans responded that he might move the measure as an emergency to skirt Catania’s panel. He would need nine votes to get it through the whole body. He’s got one in Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells.
“Absolutely no concern,” Wells said. “I think that having some flexibility is part of good government.”
Evans has discovered the pain of having one’s treasured tradition banned by a bunch of meddling bureaucrats. I’d be sympathetic if not for the fact that Evans is one of those meddling bureaucrats. If he doesn’t like the law, he should introduce changes that open up smoking venues to everyone, not just to clubs that happen to have a city councilman in their membership.
When David Gwathmey and his wife opened their coffee and wine bar in Alexandria, Va.’s “Old Town” section, he defied a ban on sidewalk signs to try to steer customers their way. Now that the city has eased its restriction, what Gwathmey did surreptitiously, he can do in the daylight. Already, he has seen the difference.
“It definitely drives foot traffic,” says Gwathmey, 38, noting that the sign may have boosted the number of weekend visitors to his shop, Grape + Bean, by 20%. “This is a very strong statement and action that supports (the city’s) claim to want to support small businesses.”
Alexandria is one of several communities that have lifted or are considering loosening restrictions on sidewalk signs and banners to help shore up businesses struggling to survive a recession that has slowed consumer spending and depleted municipal tax revenue.
Grape and Bean is one block off the main strip of King St. in Alexandria, so it was easy to miss without the sidewalk sign. Check them out if you’re in the area.
Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
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