Drink the district
Some of our favorite DC drink spots and stops
Links
- Where You Should Be Drinking on Capitol Hill: the Return to Acqua al 2 + Parola Finale Cocktail Recipe
- Eatbar Shows Us Whiskey’s Bright Side
- Decoding the Cocktail Menu for Cook’s Cook + Where You Should Be Drinking: Hank’s on Capitol Hill
- Where You Should Be Drinking: Hank’s on The Wharf
- WhereYou Should Be Drinking: All Purpose + Primavera Cocktail Recipe
- Where to Drink in DC: Iron Gate for Brunch + Nicolaki Cocktail Recipe + Mockolaki Mocktail Recipe
- Where You Should Be Drinking on U Street: Service Bar DC
- Where You Should Be Drinking: Hill Prince on H + Beaming Beauty Cocktail Recipe
- Where You Should Be Drinking: Nido
- Where you should be drinking: Red Hen
Where You Should Be Drinking on Capitol Hill: the Return to Acqua al 2 + Parola Finale Cocktail Recipe
The Return to Acqua al 2 One of us was raised in California; the other in Chicago. Because of this, while in most regards our tastes are quite similar, we have very different comfort foods. For the Californian, it’s sushi, smoothies, and juice; for the Chicagoan, it’s Italian-American food, with a stress on the American part. So, with the Chicago family in town to meet the little one, we of course had to make a trip to Acqua al 2. Acqual al 2 is perfect, Italian-Italian enough to offer something satisfying to the Californian, but Italian-American-friendly enough to hit that comfort spot for the Chicagoan. Also, for both of us, Acqua al 2 has always offered better cocktails than the usual Italian restaurant. On this trip, we realized that that’s even more the case since the speakeasy Harold Black moved in upstairs. Cocktail sophistication appears to have permeated through the false wall and down the back stairs. What We Ordered Cioccementa: rye, fernet, and chocolate bitters Rum e Pera: white rum, dark rum, galliano, pear shrub Parola Finale: Scotch, green Chartreuse, Cocchi rosa, and amaro Averna What We Thought There’s a tried and true method to successfully creating a drink: start with a known pattern, and spin it in an interesting direction. You want that spin to be interesting but not wacky, to give you a fresh appreciation of the original drink while at the same time offering something different. You should be able to guess how it’s going to taste, but simultaneously be surprised by how it comes off. Acqua al 2 pulled that off masterfully with each of the three drinks we tried. The Cioccementa was a dark and bitter version of a Sazerac. We ordered it with dinner, but its rich, chocolate flavors would have been better with dessert. Rinsing the glass with it is exactly the right way to make use of fernet’s bitter menthol flavor. Just a hint of it is intriguingly medicinal; much more than that and it easily overwhelms the drink. The Cioccementa stayed in the intriguing zone. The Rum e Pera built a wintry tiki drink on the foundation of a Harvey Wallbanger. The titular rum and pear smoothed the flavors, softening the still discernible herbal kick of the Galliano. We were surprised but not disappointed by how little sour the shrub’s vinegar contributed. This was a warm and inviting drink. We found the Parola Finale to be both the boldest variation on a pattern and the most successful. The Last Word is famously adaptable, with the swapping of the base spirit being the most common change; but using Scotch as the base is more than a tweak. It’s common in Last Word variants to replace the original lime juice with lemon. We could imagine a shrub as an alternative sour element, or even taking the juice in a fruitier direction. But Parola Finale omits any sour or juice element altogether, replacing the lime juice with sweet fortified wine instead. They could have kept the lime juice and had a perfectly decent drink; sweet, sour, and smokey are a proven flavor combination. Instead, with the fortified wine and with amaro in place of maraschino, they moved the drink in the direction of herbs and spices. This was a Last Word variant that made us...
read moreEatbar Shows Us Whiskey’s Bright Side
Eatbar Shows Us Whiskey’s Bright Side Ever since our first entirely delightful visit for apps and drinks shortly after Eatbar opened, every time we pass by–which is all the time since it’s right around the corner–we say, ‘We should go back there to try their burger … and more drinks.’ Though it doesn’t seem like such a difficult thing to pull off, we’ve somehow not yet managed to eat the burger, but we did stop by recently for a quick drink. Once again, Eatbar did not disappoint. It’s as if Eatbar was created just for us. It’s stylish and hip, but not stiflingly so. It’s modern but cozy. The bar staff have the professionalism you might expect in a speakeasy, but the nonchalance of a comfortable neighborhood bar. Our second visit made us all the more feel compelled to make it there for dinner–or at least for a quick round more often. What We Ordered Loc’ed After Dark: Armagnac, rye, dry vermouth, bitters What We Thought Loc’ed After Dark reminds us of the Blackthorn in the way it steers the basic components of a Manhattan in a dry direction. The swap of dry vermouth for sweet makes the drink crisp and clear, instead of warm. The addition of brandy does bring back just enough warmth to soften the edges, but that brandy being Armagnac rather than Cognac means that the pepperiness of the drink is at the same time accentuated. If you’re in a whiskey mood, want some spice, but also want it light, head over to Eatbar for Loc’ed After Dark. If you happen to order the burger too, let us know how it...
read moreDecoding the Cocktail Menu for Cook’s Cook + Where You Should Be Drinking: Hank’s on Capitol Hill
How to Read a Cocktail Menu on Cook’s Cook We’re excited to announce that our main content for the day is actually over at Cook’s Cook, an international collection of food writers, chefs, and recipe testers. We’re excited to be in the company of such an eminent collection of food experts, where we hope to occasionally pitch in something about the right cocktail to match with your amazing dinner. In our first installment, we give a few tips on how to helpfully interpret a cocktail menu. We had fun writing it, and I hope you’re helped by reading it. For you readers of Roberts and June, we have a little bonus content. We, of course, needed some photos to accompany our article, specifically photos involving a menu. We snap photos of the menu of pretty much everywhere we drink, but those are just to remind us of what we ordered; they’re not what you would call magazine worthy. We needed a good place for a cocktail menu photo shoot. We have several good cocktail places near our apartment, but for photo shoot purposes there’s really only one option: Hank’s. All the other places are of the darker, moodier variety; but Hank’s is brightly lit and brightly painted, and they have a flair for presentation in their drinks. Sure, we’ve just written about Hank’s on the Wharf, but Hank’s on Capitol Hill is in a completely different neighborhood, and has a significantly different cocktail style, one which you should definitely come to Eastern Market to try for yourself. Where You Should Be Drinking: Hank’s on Capitol Hill What We Ordered Let’s Not Put a Label on It, Let’s Keep It Fun: mezcal, hibiscus, lemon, St. Germain foam I Know What Boys Like: bacon-washed rye, blended Scotch whiskey, burnt sugar, bitters, orange On Wednesdays We Wear Pink: vodka, watermelon, basil, ginger beer What We Thought For photo purposes, we had to order drinks in each of the three types of mixed drink glasses, and we weren’t sad about it. We ended up with three great drinks, one of which we never would have ordered otherwise. We mostly avoid vodka drinks, and we generally prefer our drinks straight up or old fashioned to highball, but On Wednesdays We Wear Pink made us think we may be overly prejudiced on both counts. This complexified mule was lovely and refreshing. Let’s Not Put a Label On it, Let’s Keep it Fun was indeed fun. Smoke and flowers is not a combination we see often, but we’ll be on the lookout for it from here. The drink was light very well- integrated. To whatever extent there was a primary flavor, it was the flowers, the mezcal blending in a gentle bitterness. The overall flavor tasted something like a lemon and hibiscus incense would smell. An especially nice touch, adding interesting texture and a dose of floral sweetness up front, was the St. Germain foam. We’ll have to try that ourselves. The aptly named I Know What Boys Like was somehow wonderfully smooth, even while it still noticeably tripled down on what we might call acrid elements. While there wasn’t any discernibly bacon flavor to the rye, the bacon somehow did draw out the flavors of the rye itself, making it more intense while, again, at the...
read moreWhere You Should Be Drinking: Hank’s on The Wharf
Where You Should Be Drinking: Hank’s on The Wharf One thing we heard again and again when we moved to DC was, ‘You’re coming here at a good time. You wouldn’t believe how much the city has changed in just the past few years.’ Now, a mere two years later, it’s something we say to people new to town. Vacant spaces become apartment buildings and abandoned warehouses become markets, distillers, and restaurants at a dizzying pace . Exhibit A is the Southwest Waterfront. When we moved here, it was just mud and a few pylons. Now, it’s the city’s ‘It’ neighborhood, completely with a fancy new name, The Wharf. We watched its progress practically on a daily basis; you get a clear view of the complex both from the highway and from the national park in the middle of the Potomac where one of us gets their daily exercise. Nonetheless, when it was finally opened a couple of weeks ago, it felt like a neighborhood sprang from the Potomac fully formed, like Athene from Zeus’ head. We decided we needed a closer look; so we met there after work for an early dinner this week. There’s something Disneyland-like about it. It’s brick and mortar–and glass and steel–and something imaginary at the same time. Just like Disneyland, that somewhat unsettling mix of fantasy and reality is nonetheless done extremely well. The Wharf is a broad boardwalk with excellent views of a picturesque part of the river, of East Potomac Park in the middle of the river, and of the sunset. The boardwalk is dotted with nice little spots for sitting, with pleasant fountains, and with public art. After dinner, we walked out a long pier into the middle of the river, and sat at comfortable modern art benches next to a firepit/sculpture hybrid to eat some ice cream and watch the bobbing lights of yachts on the river. For dinner, through a Goldilocks process–the other options being either too fancy or too pubby–we ended up at Hank’s Oyster Bar. Hank’s is great, but there’s also a Hank’s in our very own neighborhood; so it wasn’t strictly necessary to go to The Wharf for it. We were glad therefore to discover that they have different cocktail menus at the two locations. At the Wharf, the menu includes a few especially innovative options: draft cocktails, to share cocktails suitable for 2-4 people served in custom flasks, and a complete section of beer cocktails. This time around, we went with the draft. What We Ordered Figeroni: gin, figs, Bruto Americano, blackberry, vermouth What We Thought We’re guessing from the name that this drink is a Negroni, with Bruto Americano instead of Campari, somehow infused with figs and blackberries, and then again somehow served on draft. That sounds like a somewhat convoluted path, but it led to a simple, very pleasing drink. It was well-integrated, as draft, cask, or punch drinks tend to be, with a luscious fruity flavor and accent marks of bitterness. It was well worth changing neighborhoods...
read moreWhereYou Should Be Drinking: All Purpose + Primavera Cocktail Recipe
WhereYou Should Be Drinking: All Purpose DC doesn’t really do pizza. This was an adjustment for us. One of us was raised in Chicago, which is, of course, famous for its pizza. That same one spent a few years in New Haven, which claims to be the birthplace of American pizza. Then both of us spent almost all of our adult lives in Boston, where the pizza isn’t necessarily distinctive or special, but it’s decent and omnipresent. So, we’ve never really lived in a place where pizza–especially good pizza–is hard to find. We were therefore disproportionately excited when All Purpose Pizzeria opened. It’s quite good pizza, in an atypical pizza place. Perhaps not being familiar with how pizza joints are supposed to work, All Purpose fills out its menu with items that you might rather expect to find in a farm to table, New American place. Since we tend to prefer roasted Brussels sprouts to mozzarella sticks, that’s okay with us. The bar is pretty decent as well. They have a number of interesting beers on tap, which were tempting; but we went with a cocktail instead. What We Ordered Primavera: gin, Cocchi di Torino, Cocchi Americano, lemon juice, orange bitters What We Thought We weren’t expecting lemon to take the lead, but we were glad it does. The drink is wonderfully tart, with the blend of fortified wines giving it greater depth and balance than a sour drink usually has. Citrus-forward and complex, it went great with pizza. Primavera Cocktail Recipe This is our guess, but it comes pretty close. Ingredients 1 1/2 oz dry gin 1/2 oz Cocchi di Torino 1/2 oz Cocchi Americano 1/2 oz lemon juice 2 dashes bitters Instructions Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Add ice to above the level of the liquid. Shake for twenty seconds. Strain into a cocktail...
read moreWhere to Drink in DC: Iron Gate for Brunch + Nicolaki Cocktail Recipe + Mockolaki Mocktail Recipe
Where to Drink in DC: Iron Gate for Brunch Veteran’s Day 2015 was a happy day for us. We’d moved to DC at the end of that summer, and after a couple of months of settling in, making our way through the government HR and clearance process (for one of us), and searching for a job (for the other), we had both started our new jobs. Veteran’s Day was our first holiday as DC workers. Back in Boston, Veteran’s Day is when you start to settle in for a long winter. In DC, it was a beautiful, crisp fall day, cool enough for a comfy sweater, warm enough to sit outside, which we did, in the courtyard of Iron Gate restaurant for a lovely, leisurely lunch with Wigle Whiskey. We’ll be forever fond of Iron Gate as the place we first met the creative and kind people behind Wigle. Plus, the food is great and the drinks are awesome. In their cozy dining room, Iron Gate offers an excellent fixed course menu; it was perfect for a Christmas dinner. Out in the open air courtyard and in the enclosed carriageway that serves as their bar, they serve Mediterranean-inspired small plates a la carte. The dishes are perfectly balanced between familiar and fresh–comfort food with a pleasing little twists. When we had some family visiting town a few weeks ago, we could think of nowhere we’d rather take them for brunch than Iron Gate. What We Ordered Summertime in Sardegna … or DC: Ivy City gin, mirto, pomegranate, house summer sumac tonic Mockolaki: pineapple juice, water, honey, lemon, Greek yogurt What We Thought With one of us pregnant and therefore not drinking right now, we have a little routine when we order drinks. She takes a drink of her mocktail, and says, ‘Oh, that’s pretty good.’ Then she takes a small sip of the cocktail and immediately regrets it; with comparison, the mocktail she’ll be drinking pales. Well, at Iron Gate the mocktail finally got its win. The rest of us ordered Summertime in Sardegna, and it was a really nice, refreshing highball. It was round and fruity with just the right tart and herbal notes. There weren’t any mocktails on the menu, but the server said he would ask the bartender to put something together. What arrived was marvelous. There was a nice balance of sweet and sour, but what really put it over the top was the blend of two kinds of sour, from the lemon and the yogurt. The Mockolaki won the round easily–over a very good brunch cocktail. The bartender was kind enough to come out to our table to check on how the mocktail went over, and she shared the recipe with us as well. If you’re looking for a good mocktail, make your way to Iron Gate immediately. We also give Iron Gate points for using unusual and intriguing ingredients well in their drinks. We encountered mirto (a Sardinian evergreen liqueur) at Monteverde in Chicago, and enjoyed. We hadn’t seen it again until Iron Gate, when we were reminded we really need to find out more about it. And we loved the yogurt-based drinks we tried in France, but we haven’t been able to replicate them entirely successfully. It’s nice now to have a...
read moreWhere You Should Be Drinking on U Street: Service Bar DC
Where You Should Be Drinking on U Street: Service Bar DC Our first encounter with Service Bar was at the Glendalough Pop-Up. We were impressed by how they handled the Irish Whiskey in their Glendalough specialty menu, and delightedly to find that it’s just a short walk away from the office for one of us. We knew we’d make it back there again, sooner rather than later. The perfect opportunity arose last week. One of us works for the federal government; the other works with a small team of people in a very decentralized office spread around the country. There’s only one day a year when the entire team gathers in one place for a day of in-person meetings in DC. Last week, we had that day, and thought it would be nice to cap it off with happy hour. We wanted a place that was close to the office, not too crazy, and had a wide selection of drinks available to suit the varied tastes of our team. Service Bar checked all the marks. It opens at 4pm. We were there at 5, and initially had the place to ourselves, though it filled up over the time we were there. Service Bar is an interesting combination of cheeky and no-nonsense. Their theme of fried chicken and cocktails and their slogan, ‘Welcome to the wonderful world of Cocktailery and Tom Foolery,’ show that they don’t take themselves too seriously. That’s juxtaposed by no-frills, almost severe decorating of concrete and metal, and a low-key and hands-off approach to service. There’s not too much hand-holding or entertaining here. They basically leave you to yourself, mind their own business, and make sure you get a good cocktail when you ask for one–and maybe some fried chicken too. While the decor is minimalist, the cocktail menu is quite extensive. When we went, they had not one, but two special seasonal menus going, as well as several pages of permanent house specials broken down by base spirit. Best of all, they have a small list of $7 Specials. Coming from a place where happy hours are illegal to DC where they’re omnipresent, we were extremely enthusiastic about the concept of Happy Hour, and then crestfallen to discover just how rare happy hour mixed drinks are. So, we’re extremely gratified to see Service Bar do their part to make up for the lack, not just by having a discount cocktail menu, but by offering it ALL DAY. There’s nothing fancy about these All-Day $7 drinks; it’s just a few of the standards, solidly made with basic, decent ingredients. They’re the cocktail equivalent of comfort food; we’re glad we know where we can find them, and even gladder that it’s just around the corner from the office. What We Ordered Champs-Elysees: Armagnac, green Chartreuse, lemon, bitters What We Thought Our drink was from one of the seasonal menus, ‘Regional: France,’ and it tasted just like something we might have been served at Le Syndicat. It had a higher alcohol content than what we might have been served in France itself, but the same smooth flavor, light palate, and fresh from the garden feel. There was just enough Chartreuse to bring complexity, but not enough to make the drink noisy or overwhelming. It’s a drink that showed...
read moreWhere You Should Be Drinking: Hill Prince on H + Beaming Beauty Cocktail Recipe
Where You Should Be Drinking: Hill Prince on H We were grabbing drinks with our friend Dan, who was in town for a convention.We usually have a a little list of places to hit when he’s in town, but he’s been in DC quite a bit recently; so, we’ve already hit quite a few of them, some new ones and some favorites. But there’s one quite new bar we’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about but hadn’t gotten to yet: Hill Prince, on H Street. Hill Prince is a small bar in a typical DC row house that has retained more of the feel of a residence than many converted row houses do. It’s named after the 1950 winner of the Preakness Stakes, and the decor has something of a horsey theme. The place was comfortably quiet when we arrived, about 7pm on a weeknight. We grabbed stools at the small bar and took a look at the menu. They keep it tight, and focused on the classics, with six old standards and a few seasonal creations. What We Ordered French 75: dry gin, barrel-aged genever, prosecco, lemon Beaming Beauty: rum, cointreau, lime, dark rum float Fancy Racket: Bourbon, homemade peach shrub, basil, lemon Prince Palatine: mezcal, Sugar Island coconut rum, pineapple, turmeric What We Thought Since standards are their thing, we wanted to make sure we ordered one. We went with the French 75, curious about the addition of genever to the drink’s usual dry gin. While the genever didn’t come through quite as strongly as we thought (perhaps because of the barrel aging), the drink was well-made and nicely balanced. French 75s can often be too sweet and light for us, but they restrained the sugar and boosted the gin just right to give it some depth but keep it refreshing. Given their focus on the standards, we were quite impressed by all three of their summer season originals. The dark rum float on the Beaming Beauty not only made for a good presentation, but also brought a nice bittersweet touch of molasses to what’s otherwise quite similar to a Daiquiri. With its turmeric coloring, Prince Palatine was also visually interesting, with a nice sweet, smokey, and savory mix. The Fancy Racket was our favorite of all, complex, softly sweet and sour. We’re looking forward to what the next seasonal menu will be bring. Beaming Beauty Cocktail Recipe this is our guess at what they did. Ingredients 2 oz silver rum 3/4 oz lime juice 1/2 oz orange liqueur 1/2 oz or so dark rum lime wheel, for garnish Instructions Add silver rum, lime juice, and orange liqueur to a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice to above the level of the liquid. Shake for about 20 seconds. Pour into a rocks glass. Add more ice if necessary. Gently float a small amount of dark rum on...
read moreWhere You Should Be Drinking: Nido
Where You Should Be Drinking: Nido Per the usual in these times, we met fortified wine importer Leith Shenstone online. We’ve corresponded for months, swapping our thoughts on the things that interest us, like vermouths, production methods, and drinking styles. We consider him a friend, because what better mark of friendship is there than filling a person’s refrigerator with excellent vermouth? But we had no idea what he looks like or sounds like, not even a guess as to his personal life or how old he is. When Leith was on a DC promotional swing, we felt like it was time for that first face-to-face meeting. Our friend Leith is always introducing us to new things. He clued us in, for instance, to the fact that Spaniards have been making eminently drinkable vermouths pretty much since vermouths were first conceived. This time, he introduced us to the existence of a neighborhood in our very own city. As we’ve told you over and over again, we tend to stick close to home. And when we venture out, it’s to the bar-heavy neighborhoods of 14th Street, Shaw, or U Street. We don’t think we would have even been able to name Woodbridge as a DC neighborhood. And we don’t feel bad about that; on Family Feud, among 100 DC residents surveyed, we don’t think Woodbridge would have made the board. But Woodbridge is where we found ourselves, in a bright and friendly oasis called Nido. It’s an excellent little restaurant and bar. Naturally it has one of the most fortified-wine-leaning bars in the city, with a particular emphasis on vermouth. Over a few rounds of fortified-wine heavy drinks, we swapped recipes and recommendations with our friend Leith. If you find yourself in Woodbridge, stop by Nido for a drink. If you’re not in Woodbridge but want to taste some good fortified wines employed skillfully in cocktails, make your way to Woodbridge. It’s where all the vermouth action is. What We Ordered Bitter Honey: Green Hat Navy Strength gin, Salers, Lime, Amargo-Vallet Angostura, honey, egg white House Manhattan: Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon whiskey, Capitoline Rose vermouth, grapefruit bitters Bamboo: Atxa Blanco vermouth, Amontillado sherry, orange bitters, angostura bitters What We Thought As both the name and the ingredients would suggest, we expected Bitter Honey to taste, well, bitter. Instead it had a light lemon front taste, with a hot, spicy aftertaste. The honey kept things easygoing, and the egg white kept it light. It was a beautiful looking drink that was equally enjoyable to drink. The Bamboo was perfectly pleasant, though a bit sweeter than we’d expect a Bamboo to be. It was a perfectly companionable drink, though our least favorite of the night. The House Manhattan was a pleasant surprise. It was a perfect example of our good friend Leith’s theory that it’s better to use cheaper spirits and a good vermouth than the other way around. They used quite a basic whiskey, with a very interesting local vermouth to make a crisp and utterly satisfying version of a Manhattan, with noticeable notes of the red wine used as the base for Capitoline’s rose vermouth. Nido knows what they’re doing with fortified...
read moreWhere you should be drinking: Red Hen
Where you should be drinking: Red Hen Red Hen is our place for special occasions. We have a soft spot for it, because it’s the place that assured us that DC would treat us well. Our scouting trip to DC happened over our second anniversary, and by sheer luck we made reservations for our anniversary dinner at Red Hen. Little did we know just how lucky we were; we’ve discovered since that you usually have to make reservations much earlier than we did to get a table. And it’s no wonder. It’s the rare place that leaves you in the delightful quandary of being unable to decide whether the food or the drinks are more the highlight of the evening. The food is Italian-influenced New American, or New-American-influenced Italian–it’s partway between Italian and New American, and all the way scrumptious. The drinks menu is short and carefully curated, with an eye to seasonality and creativity. The names can be a little over the top, but the drinks are solid, employing unusual ingredients in pleasing ways. Just like we did last year, we visited Red Hen for one of our birthdays. Like we said, it’s our place for special occasions. What We Ordered Midnight in Paris: apricot eau de vie, pale sherry, Cocchi Americano, white verjus, hopped-grapefruit bitters In the Heat of the Night: Illegal mezcal, red pepper shrub, lemon, grapefruit What We Thought It’s always a good sign when we eagerly pass our drinks back and forth, and this was definitely one of those nights: ‘Oh, you need to sip this,’ ‘Can I have that one for a while?’ Midnight in Paris uses a staggering array of flavors: fruity, dry, aromatic, sour (the verjus is a sour grape juice), bitter. Somehow, though, they took all of those different flavors and created a harmonious, smooth, complexly and softly sweet cocktail. It was the kind of drink that goes easily with dinner. In the Heat of the Night was a little more of a standout. The red pepper shrub was strongly peppery and surprisingly spicy, with all of the flavor of a strong hot sauce but none of the pain. It blended wonderfully with the smoky mezcal and the sour lemon to create a kick that made you want to ask for more. We can’t wait to see what’s on the menu next...
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