Old Ebbitt Grill

Well it was our first night launching the 75 bars experience and Doug and I thought what a better place to start than the Old Ebbitt Grill.

The Old Ebbitt opened in 1856 and if you believe the lore it is the oldest bar in Washington DC. In the 1970's the Ebbitt was in some serious financial issues and the owners of Clyde's or Georgetown ended up being the largest bidder for this historic landmark at auction. The Ebbitt was bought lock, stock and antique steins (which is what they were originally bidding on) for a little over $11,000.

But enough history... how about some present. Well after coming in from a light rain Doug and I made our way to a smaller bar on the left side of the restaurant. One small set of stairs later and we were in a different world. On the other side of the doorway was what looked like DC own hunting club. The walls were adorned with duck decoys, images of flying birds, a nice selection of shotguns. I have to say... not what I expected. But what really stood out, was that I seemed to be the only one to take any notice. This must be the bar version of not seeing the forest for the trees.

Well it was about 8:30ish when we arrived and the crowd was lively and talkative. The ages of the drinkers raged a little (let's say late 20's to early 50's). But Doug was the one to note that these people looked as if they came straight from the office. And I agreed with him, my best guess is that we were looking at the tail end of the happy hour crowd.

Well we manage to make our way up to the bar and I am ready to order my first 75 Bars drink ( I was very excited). This is when I learned something about DC... Don't ask what your speciality of the bar is. As you probably read in the prior post we had set up a rule that one of our drinks at each bar needed to be a "speciality of the house" well I am quickly learning that bartenders don't like to be asked "What's the speciality of the bar" but back tot he story.

So our bartender... let's call him Joe (he didn't offer his name) was a late 50's gentleman with a white crew cut that spoke of a most likely once great and proud military career, wanders over and asks what I want...
Me: "What's the speciality of the bar?"
Joe: "What? What do you want to drink?"
Me: "Well what's a drink your known for? One you do really well."
Joe: "Anything you want to drink."
Me: "Ok... bartenders choice, anything you want to make me."
Joe: "Give me somewhere to start. Beer, cocktail..."
Me: "Cocktail would be great."
Joe: "Whiskey, Gin..."
Me: "Vodka would be fine."
Joe: "You want is sweet?"
Me: (with a big stupid grin) "I'm sweet as it is" (then noticing he didn't find the humor in that) "Sweet is fine."

So after this rater painful exchange I was handed an up glass with a twist. And I had noticed a packet of sugar being dumped into it... so my thought was lemon drop. Ok... I can do that. WRONG. I think I may have made Joe a little testy because what I got in the glass was nothing but chilled Citron Vodka straight up, with a lump of sugar in the bottom of the glass.

Now don't take this wrong... I like vodka. It's my liquor of choice... but after the first sip I think my breath could have peeled paint off. So Doug asks how the drink was and I say... well it's the biggest shot of chilled vodka I have ever seen. So what do I do... I drink it... yep the whole thing. Doug wanted to tell the bartender what we were doing in the hopes that we could get the bartenders best effort on the drinks. Which makes great sense... but that's not us. I wanted this to be the "everyman's" version of the top bars. To find out what happens at these amazing establishments if they don't know you, what kind of service or drink will you get. And boy did I learn that.

After that it was a rather dull experience. The last of the happy hour crowd filtered out. We grabbed a bit to eat. I will recommend the empanadas if you go there, very good and a nice filler if your drinking a big glass of chilled vodka.

After the vodka experience I ordered a Blue Moon. A nice Belgian style wheat beer was a smooth respite after the vodka shocker. And that was that. The bar was quite and it was time to move on to the second bar.

Overall opinion? The food is decent, the decor is warm and very cozy (well as cozy as you get get with a shotgun) and the drinks, if your not careful, will strip your throat to the bone. So will I come back? Happy Hour for a beer with a tourist friend from Utah or South Dakota sure I'll go back.

The Rules

As promised Doug and I have developed the rules. Because without the rules this adventure into really finding out about these "Best Bars" just becomes a tale of drinking and laughter. Ok that doesn't sound that bad either, but anything worth doing should involve some work and planning.

So what are the rules already...

1. Doug and I must both be at the bar.
2. We must have at least 2 drinks at each bar.
3. One of the drinks must be a "specialty" of the bar. Wine at a wine bar, Martini at a martini bar... you get the picture.

That's it those are the rules. I know it's not a long list, but I said it should involve "some work and planning" not a a laundry list.

There you have it the rules are set and we are ready to go!!! But first... a bit of a Warm Up.

Welcome to the beginning of a DC Drinking Experience

So not long ago a movie called Julie & Julia came out. The premise is that a woman trying to find her place in the world... and a little money. And she believes that she can accomplish both by cooking her way through the Julia Child cook book and blog about it.

Then the other day I'm talking to a woman in DC who had decide that she was going to eat at each of the Washingtonians 100 Best Restaurants in DC. Well this got me thinking. I have had a copy of the Washingtonians 75 Best Bars in DC gathering dust on my coffee table since it hit the stands on March 1st. So the idea hit me why don't I check out all these "Best Bars" and tell people about the experience. I can visit 75 bars and have drinks, not a problem, but how to make this more interesting? That's easy I have to complete this before March 1st 2010 when the next Best Bars issue comes out. Now this is getting interesting. So 15 bars a month... 30 days in a month... 1 bar every 2 days. PHEW! My liver is going to get a workout on this one.

But I can't do this alone. What happens if the bar is dead? What if there is nothing interesting to write about? I need a partner in crime!! Luckily I have one. My friend Doug who writes the blog Urban.Marinade on his site Dougvansant.com. SO our first challenge is to work out the details.

• What counts as a visit?
• Do we both need to be there?
• How many drinks to we have to have to count as "being there"

Well... we will work this out quickly and be back with those answers... our first experiences... pictures, jokes, stories and much more cheese from the Irishman with a new Purpose. 75 Bars!