🤐 🌸 🍸 Secrets and Superb Cocktails in our Nation’s Capital 🤐 🌸🍸

As our nation’s capital, Washington D.C. is full of history – politicians and businesspeople mix with tourists all day long! But at night, there are some fun and creative places to get some good cocktails - It is a big city, after all!

Here are a few things we note if you’re planning a night out in DC:

·       The district is very walkable and the Metro makes it even easier to get around.

·       Those city blocks look much smaller on a map, and you’ll spend half your time waiting for lights at crosswalks.

·       You can grab a taxi or ride share pretty easily if you don’t want to walk off your drinks.

 We’ll start with what we think are the two spots at the top of our #tipsypicks from our recent visit.

Allegory is labeled as a speakeasy inside the Eaton Hotel library. But the secret is definitely out!  We tried one evening to get in and were put on a wait list just so we could get a table to wait in the library to get in!  We came back the next night before dinner and managed to get in after a short wait (and a small welcome cocktail) in the library. And was it worth the wait for sure! This is one of the most creative spaces we’ve seen… and the menus take it to another level. We won’t spoil it all for you… but let’s say the menu is a storybook featuring Ruby Bridges, the courageous six-year-old who helped integrate New Orleans public schools, but with illustrations set in Alice in Wonderland. We were having so much fun reading the menu we almost forgot to order drinks! The menu changes often but the two we ordered were creative and delicious. A #tipsypick for sure! 

We should also note that the Eaton rooftop bar Wild Days is another great option if you want a cocktail while you are waiting to get on the wait list for Allegory, or just as a night out. It’s more of a club atmosphere, but the drinks are good and so is the view. We would consider staying at the Eaton for these options!

Our other #tipsypick is Off the Record – another hotel bar! This one is in the basement of the Hay Adams Hotel across the street from the White House. It has a reputation for being a “tourist bar” but we found mostly locals on a date night during our visit. The atmosphere is classy with lots of red leather seating and a classic menu. Don’t miss the political caricature drawings on both the walls and the coasters! The Maple Bacon Old Fashioned aka “Smoking Mirrors” was quite tasty!

There are a few other speakeasies worth mentioning before we move on to other spaces. The Gibson has been around for nearly a decade, even before speakeasies were suddenly everywhere. And they’ve lasted this long by doing it right – solid drinks behind an unmarked black door near the bustling U Street Corridor. We were able to make reservations, which was helpful! The Black Manhattan we ordered off menu was spot on! It’s definitely a #tipsypick for any visit to D.C.

And for a completely different experience, The Mirror is an underground bar with more of a club vibe hidden behind… (wait for it) a mirror. The music was loud with lots of heavy bass when we were there, but it was fun and the drinks were better than we expected - the Old Fashioned and Sazerac in particular! Very cool!

On our way to the Gibson, we took at walk up 14^th Street in Northwest DC to make a few other stops. 14^th reminds us of a walk up 1^st Avenue in the Lower East Side NYC. Lots of options. We tried to get into Jane Jane, which is known as an intimate cocktail bar, but there was a two hour wait. It must be good. So we went up the street to Left Door, which turned out to be a fantastic move! Our good friend Natalie, who lives in D.C., described it as “drinking in my grandmother’s attic”… with a live music venue (yes, the music was fairly loud rock from speakers above our heads). It’s a “cozy” space, very eclectic, literally in the upstairs of an old house. The drinks were fantastic and the staff was upbeat and friendly! It’s #offthetipsypath for sure.

And finally (but not least) if you are anywhere near the convention center or Chinatown, we highly recommend checking out Morris American Bar! It could easily be called Morris “Neighborhood” bar because it’s definitely full of locals, despite being around the corner from, and on the footprint of, the convention center. The décor is classic art deco and retro, with lots of cool spaces. The drinks are tasty and the staff can definitely make you something you’ll enjoy.

A couple of honorable mentions – the coconut Old Fashioned at Farmers & Distillers and the Old Fashioned flights at Immigrant Food +…  you can find those for yourself!

 

Our #tipsypicks for this trip (if we have to choose just 3):

1. Off the Record
2. Allegory
3. The Gibson