Friday, September 10, 2010

Nine Months Later

And now I am living in Washington, DC, attending a vocationally-oriented graduate program, and setting upon the rigorous path to having a title appended to my name:

e.g. The Drink Well, esquire.

DC is a lovely city. Excellent eateries and drinkeries abound. The limiting factor for tasty libations here is not availability but cash-money-dollars (as in: shallow pockets) and, of course, one’s tolerance for meeting people who see you as little more than an additional branch on their LinkedIn network (I jest! I have met so many wonderful people).

Coming up (!): Discussion of interesting bars! To start: I have already been twice to a place by the name of Passenger, DC. This is an absolutely phenomenal cocktail-specialist-establishment founded by Derek Brown, who made a name for himself by designing the cocktail program at the Gibson (his resume cites many additional reasons to revere him). Unlike the Gibson, drinks are a (more) reasonable $9, reservations are not required, and the atmosphere is a casual, detached hipster cool. Mr. Derek himself can be seen regularly strutting past, his tail-feathers fully fanned.

The cocktails I have had at Passenger have all been superb. On my first visit I asked for something with All-Spice Dram and received the Lion’s Mane (rye whiskey, ASD, lime, bitters), a drink that tastes of liquid Christmas. I have had the Last Word there a few times, and am delighted with their regular ability to make excellent things despite being inundated with customers.

Also coming up (!): Bitters! I want to make my own bitters sometime soon. I have already ordered the quassia wood.