🤐 🌸 🍸 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

🍹 Cocktails and More in the Conch Republic 🍹

 

Key West, Florida is a popular destination, especially in the winter months when people are trying to escape to warmer weather, but not infernally hot weather like July and August.

First, we’ll set the scene by saying there is a party atmosphere in Key West all year long. And they sure love any excuse to have a parade! It’s no wonder folks like Ernest Hemingway and President Harry Truman felt drawn to this place. It’s easy to find a list of the “must do” bars for tourists in town, which includes Sloppy Joe’s, Captain Tony’s and the original Margaritaville location. And while tropical drinks are everywhere, there are also some places to get great craft beer and cocktails in the Conch Republic!

Tropical climates are great for sipping dark rum, especially if it’s locally made!  Key West has two main rum distilleries. Both are open for tours and tastings. Our favorite for both is Hemingway Rum Company, home of the Papa’s Pilar line (named for the author’s favorite boat, which was named for one of his favorite ex-wives). There is a small charge for a tour, well worth it for the experience and tasting at the end. They also offer cocktail classes separately for a small fee.

Key West First Legal Distillery is the other option in town. Yes, the name means they were the first to open once distilling became legal. They’ve been operating since 2013. They offer free tours and tastings and it’s definitely worth checking out!  They also have a bar onsite that makes tasty rum drinks like Mojitos that you can even take with you.

If you want to try lots of rum from different parts of the world, including the local brands, then the Rum Bar at the Speakeasy Inn is your place to go! They make just about every rum drink you can imagine, and you can do flights of rum and other spirits. It’s a great way to get a taste of the islands (along with wine, beer and a full bar, of course). Their front patio is a cool place to people watch on Duval Street.

And if you’re wandering up Duval Street, don’t blink or you might miss the Smallest Bar in Key West. That’s literally the name of this tiny watering hole that describes itself as “about the size of a jail cell.” But if you miss it, you’ll be missing a fun little spot for some good cocktails and lively conversation. 

As we mentioned, there are also places to get great bourbon, beer and wine in Key West.  Our “go to” spot has been The Roost. The bartenders make fantastic classic cocktails like Old Fashioneds and Manhattans but they also have a great wine selection. This is the one place we would suggest checking out for a great cocktail experience (once you’ve done the necessary stops we mentioned earlier). It’s a bit #offthetipsypath but definitely a #tipsypick!

Another excellent cocktail bar is Berlin’s. The atmosphere is about as far away from Duval Street as you can get, with lots of leather seating and jazz playing over the speakers. They have an excellent cocktail and wine selection. But in case you need reminders that you are in Key West, the bar overlooks the harbor and has a fantastic view at night.

If you prefer wine, there are several wine bars that fit the bill. Vinos on Duval Street is where we usually visit. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable. They also have charcuterie boards and other nibbles for a reasonable price. Grand Vin Wine Bar is a combination bar and wine store with a wide selection. There’s even a winery – Key West Winery. We’ll check that one out on our next visit.

And not to be left out, there are a number of craft breweries on the island (and a few others if you want to make the drive up or down Highway 1). Since we like history, First Flight Island Restaurant and Brewery is our go to stop for a “flight” of craft beers. It’s located in the old Pan-Am airways office just a few blocks from both the Hemingway House and the Little Truman White House. They have an extensive food menu as well as a full bar. That pretty much covers everything for us! Waterfront Brewery is probably the largest brewery in the Florida Keys, with an expansive space near the harbor in Key West. Their beer menu is also extensive along with their food and other beverages. It’s hard to go wrong with either of these #tipsypicks!

Speaking of food (and the island’s largest Bloody Mary bar), we recommend Ram’s Head Southernmost for brunch or great food and a patio any time of the day – not to mention drinks in buckets for sharing. They also carry a full lineup of beers from Delaware-based Fordham & Dominion brewery.

And finally, if you just want to let someone else give you the grand tour so you don’t have to decide where to start and finish, there are some great pub crawls and food tours to choose from! You can even make your own by starting around Mallory Square and seeing how far down Duval you can get before your liver gives out (with a short detour to The Roost, for sure!)

As always, let us know what you think and watch for us on our Facebook and Instagram pages!

🌎 👣 🍷 Cinque Terre – 5 Towns and So Many Choices 🌎 👣 🍷

 

This is one of those posts that is in no way meant to be all-encompassing or “the best of the best.” But this is the best of the wine, cocktails and cocktail places we found in our marvelous three days in Cinque Terre, a region on the Ligurian coast of Italy that literally means “five towns.” But for the purposes of sharing what we enjoyed we’re adding a sixth town that had a little more nightlife.

Some general thoughts on Cinque Terre:

1.       Local wine is fantastic and very inexpensive – 2 or 3 euros for a glass or about 15 euros for a bottle

2.       If you get the chance, try the cones of fried seafood. You’ll thank us.

3.       Even if you don’t hike between the towns, be ready to walk everywhere

4.       The train is an easy way to get to all five towns in a day

The five towns that make up Cinque Terre are each small and charming in their own way, each has a main square and at least one main street with shops and restaurants, and all but one has a harbor or dock with access to the sea (and lots of fresh seafood!) We would highly recommend a sunset cruise with a local captain – including local wine, of course. All the towns have places to get great local wine! But not all of them have places you can get a cocktail after dark.

That’s why we are including La Spezia. It’s a fairly metropolitan city just outside the Cinque Terre with a respectable cocktail scene!  We’ll start there. La Spezia is a port city with a central train station which makes it a great “home base” to explore the area. It’s also home to one of the largest navy bases in Italy. So there are plenty of places to get a drink (or three).

We first stopped at Doria – a cool little wine bar with a small indoor seating area underground but plenty of tables on the side street, including a window bar space where we enjoyed a couple of very nice charcuterie boards and local wine as well as a cocktail. This was popular with the locals, but less crowded than some of the spots we saw. Definitely a #tipsypick.

Just down the street, J Gatsby is a very metropolitan cocktail bar with an expansive patio area – perfect for enjoying a great cocktail and wine. They even had several inventive bourbon cocktails on their menu, which at the time was themed around Tarantino movies! That definitely caught our attention given the fact that the director is from Knoxville.

You know we are fans of local breweries, so we took a detour #offthetipsypath to find the La Spezia Brewing Company … and we’re very glad we did! It’s a small operation with a lineup of tasty brews that hit the spot for us! Check them out!

And we rounded out our night at Eclettica Cocktail Lab - a cocktail bar that with a vibe that was trying to be a little bit of everything – the drink menus were found inside plastic CD containers!  It was definitely another locals hangout, which makes it all the more appealing. The drinks were excellent. Another #tipsypick if you are in La Spezia!

Bottom line, we definitely could have spent more than one night exploring the scene here.

In Cinque Terre itself, of the five towns within the UNESCO borders, we chose to stay in Riomaggiore. On our first night, we had excellent food at Bar Centrale in the heart of town and cocktails (and local wine) with a great patio view overlooking the town at Old School! They are on one of the streets above the town, so it’s a nice walk!

On our last day, we had one of the best meals of our trip at Rio Bistrot! This upscale spot overlooks the harbor. The food was excellent – mostly local seafood paired with local wines, including some “Vin Santo” – a sweet dessert wine served with sponge cake.

Elsewhere, we did some hiking and took the trains to see all five towns. We had a nice lunch in the middle of Vernazza at Osteria il Baretto that included an excellent Limoncello Spritz and a view of the tiny Chapel of Santa Marta. In Corniglia, we enjoyed some local wines and bites with a view of the sea at La Scuna.

But the #tipsypick for the other towns would have to be watching the sunset at Nessun Dorma in Manarola. This outdoor patio establishment overlooks the town and the harbor facing the west, making for a spectacular sunset experience every evening. They do book up fairly quickly, so plan accordingly, but do plan for it!

Cinque Terre was one of our bucket list destinations, so we are happy to be able to share some of our #tipsypicks!

🛥️🍷🍾 Venice – Cocktails and Canals Around Every Corner 🛥️🍷🍾

 

The best advice we read as we were preparing for our trip to Venice was to go #offthetipsypath and “just let yourself get lost” So we did!  And what we found in the maze of alleys and plazas (or campos) were lovely neighborhoods full of shops, restaurants, and of course wine and cocktail bars.

We learned new terms like “aperitivo” and “cicchetti.”  The first is a term that means “pre-meal drink,” kind of like a happy hour (which we love) but in Italy, it’s an entire experience of getting ready for a meal. It usually includes small appetizers and wine or spritz – sparkling prosecco mixed with an aperitif liquor. In Venice, the appetizers are called cicchetti, and we made more than one entire meal out of them!

We also learned pretty quickly how to tell a tourist from a local in Venice just by looking at what they were drinking. One of our tour guides pointed out that the orange drinks were mostly Aperol Spritz, which is said to be the “official” drink of Venice. However, she also pointed to the darker red drinks, noting that most locals drink Select Spritz. So from then on, that was our aperitivo of choice in Venice. The difference is that Aperol is sweeter, while Select is a little more bitter, which pairs well with the prosecco. Both are garnished with olives. You can’t get much more Italian than that!

On our recent visit, we stayed in the Cannaregio neighborhood, which is north of the Grand Canal. It was a great home base to explore the entire city but also get away from the highly tourist areas. We found several spots that we kept coming back to for their food, drinks and service. That includes a great little kiosk selling snacks, wine and spritzes into the wee hours called Chioschetto TiroVino. And yes, that means you can get drinks to go on the street!

Our favorite place was also closest to our hotel. El Sbarlefo bills itself as a cicchetteria featuring great wine, food and music. We agree! This was a perfect example of a neighborhood spot with a wide variety of cicchetti and fantastic local wine. (Hint: we always ordered a “house” red or white or sparkling wine – inexpensive, local and delicious every time) The staff was welcoming and friendly – and patient with us! Definitely a #tipsypick!

It's safe to say that wine is everywhere in Italy, but a good wine bar can elevate the experience, especially if they have good cocktails too! That’s why we fell in love with Retro Wine Bar – the drinks (a fantastic Manhattan among them), the wine, the décor and the jazz soundtrack combined to make this a fantastic experience each time we went. They also had a menu of small bites to complete a date night. A #tipsypick for sure!

It’s hard to beat the experience of sipping wine next to one of the famous canals in Venice. That’s what Vino Vero offers – along with a knowledgeable staff who can help you navigate all their selections by the drink or by the bottle. This is definitely a locals’ spot, but we found some fellow Americans hanging around each time as well. They also have some cicchetti to complete the experience. We could have spent a few more evenings here!

And just across the canal, the #tipsyhubs got his fill of good craft beer at Il Santo Bevitore, a craft beer bar that was also definitely a locals’ hangout. If we lived here, we would be regulars too! A #tipsypick if you want a break from wine during your visit to Venice.

There are some “must do” cocktail spots in Venice, with Harry’s on the top of the list. This classic restaurant and cocktail bar just off St. Mark’s Square is in fact where the bellini was invented, and they still crank out hundreds of these tasty peach drinks every day. If you just show up, you may have to stand at or around the small bar area. It was good enough for the likes of Hemingway and Hepburn. We still managed to get two seats at the bar the night we went, and it was totally worth it.

Another one on the “must try” list is Il Mercante. It’s a bit of a walk from where we stayed, but the reward was fantastic classic cocktails at a bar that’s been around since 1870. We sat on the upstairs mezzanine at the suggestion of the host. Maybe we were missing a taste of home, but we tried a pulled pork old fashioned that turned out to be delicious. The cicchetti was also top notch. It was a great way to top off a fantastic adventure!

The bottom line for us – while we came to Venice with a list of places we thought we “had” to try, we found just as much joy in checking out the local places that aren’t usually on any list but offer wonderful food, wine and friendships. And the difference between Aperol and Select for a true Venetian aperitivo!

 

🍷 Florence – Wine Windows and More 🍷

 

Have you ever heard of a wine window?  It’s exactly what it sounds like … and we visited one in Florence, Italy.

First, a few overall impressions of the cocktail scene in Florence:

• Florence is fairly compact and definitely walkable, which makes for a safe and easy cocktail tour
• Art is everywhere! No boring scenery here.
• Surprisingly, after a night of cocktails there aren’t many places to grab a late-night bite to sober up

No more suspense… let’s talk about wine windows – or “buchetta del vino” in Italian! These are small windows that were invented in the Middle Ages to allow people to pass wine and other items from inside establishments to people in the streets without direct contact (you know, that whole Black Plague thing) and as a way for thirsty patrons to avoid paying taxes to fill their personal bottles. Fast forward to 2020 and our own pandemic – some of these windows in Florence began operating again! We visited one at a bar called Babae in a neighborhood across the river from the tourist area. It was pretty simple – ring the bell, order the wine, wine gets passed and we drank in the street. Definitely one of the most unique experiences of our trip. The wine was excellent too!

Just like in Verona, Florence has a beautiful mountaintop park called Piazzale Michelangelo where you can enjoy wine or a cocktail and see the sunset. It’s a bit of a hike if you choose to walk (which we did) but totally worth it! Many people bring their own libations to the park and there are several vendors to grab some. But we chose the terrace at a lovely restaurant called La Loggia to enjoy our sunset cocktails. It’s hard to take a bad photo in Italy, but this evening was particularly spectacular. No matter how you choose to enjoy it, this view is definitely a #tipsypick.

One of the most unique cocktail bars we’ve maybe ever visited is here in Florence. The Arts Inn started as an art gallery, but the owner needed income to allow artists to have space at low or no cost – so The Arts Inn was born! The space is intimate and filled with little cozy spaces for some excellent cocktails and wine! The bartender took the time to talk to us about the concept and if you ask nicely you can climb the staircase to see the artist studio upstairs. We highly recommend this as a #tipsypick for Florence!

We enjoy tracking the World’s Top 50 Bars list and have been able to visit some in places like New York and Miami. We were pleasantly surprised to find a cocktail bar in Florence on the list this year! So you know we had to visit Locale Firenze! The décor is upscale modern and the cocktail menu was fairly extensive. They found out we were celebrating our wedding anniversary (well, we told them) and they offered us some complimentary nibbles – with a sparkler - and shots as well. The signature cocktails and wine were excellent!

We love a good speakeasy, and Rasputin did not disappoint us! As you might expect for a bar named for a mad Russian monk, the décor is moody and classic (right down to the animal skull and candles) … and we were led down a dark staircase to the underground space. They had jazz music playing softly (always a winner in our book) and we enjoyed the craft cocktails. This is definitely a date night place and a #tipsypick.

We think Florence is an excellent place for “home base” for further adventures into the Tuscan countryside, so we’ll definitely be back!  Up next, Venice!