IntoxiKatie’s 2nd Drinkaversary!

Happy Drinkaversary, IntoxiKatie!

I know I didn’t really make a large public announcement this year or make a big deal about it. Another year older, another year wiser is what they say, right?? Well, another year older is definitely true…wiser is somewhat debatable, haha.

Celebrating a few Fridays ago, there was some poor foreshadowing at work when a Dove chocolate offered me the advice of ‘Have no limits today.’ Damn you, Dove. Similar to last year, I selected U Street as the neighborhood of choice for celebration. This year I wanted a new story to share though, rather than just a story of all my regular places.

First stop – Dodge City!

Dodge City was actually one of the first bars I went to in DC. I went there the first night I ever got drunk. Having been there a few more times since, I feel comfortable giving this bar a more complete review. We arrived around 11pm to a fairly crowded downstairs bar with people dancing to a solid DJ mixing R&B/rap music. With no alcohol, my guy buddies weren’t quite ready to cut a rug on the dance floor. (I’m always ready to dance, as awkward as it might be, haha). The alternative to dancing was heading upstairs to the much more subdued bar and patio. While there was also a DJ and a few musicians performing upstairs (more electronic/top 40/indie music), people didn’t have quite the same spirit….yeah, spirit is what I will call it. The general aesthetic of Dodge City is chill. It’s large enough to bring a group of friends, but the interior darkness still allows for the flexibility of a more intimate setting if you find yourself in a nook closer to either of the bars. Overall, I would suggest this bar for the middle or later in the evening rather than a first stop. Dodge City has also provided a relaxing drinking atmosphere for me post 9:30 Club shows on a few occasions

With easy access to the chill upstairs bar, I started with a Crispin cider ($7). Doing a lap around the place that included the upstairs and downstairs patio space, a few more buddies showed up and I went for round 2 (screwdriver – $6). Both the upstairs and downstairs patios aren’t very glamourous – mostly sparse with a few small tall tables to just rest your drink, but great for those looking for some fresh air or to just chat with friends instead of grinding up on them. Less than five minutes after ordering the screwdriver came a round of Jameson and a toast to getting ‘white girl drunk.’ For the record, I adamantly denied that such a thing would happen. Oy. Venturing back outside to the patio to chat, I wandered off (as I tend to do at bars with multiple floors) to get a shot (kamikaze – $6)…this was going to be an expensive night. Heading back outside to meet my buddies, somehowwwwww I ended up making a bet.

The bet/drinking challenge: That I could drink more than one of my guy buddies. Whoever drank water or ate first was the loser (assuming the number of drinks stayed the same). Seems like nothing could go wrong, right? To my disadvantage, other than height and weight, haha, I was already 4 drinks in when this bet was made while my competition only had 3 drinks. With 4 drinks worth of liquid courage/confidence, I was sure I could win though!

Making our way down U Street, for some reason we felt the need to stop at our normal trivia bar, Touchdown. After getting distracted by a few texts, I arrived a minute or so after my friends to find that I was already losing the bet. Two drinks down. To combat this, I ordered a shot and a cider (what a winning combination). Drinking quite aggressively, I finished those within a couple minutes. Having evened the playing field, another friend encouraged me to go for two more to screw over my competition. Great idea, clearly. I ordered two more. Yes, that was 4 drinks in 10 minutes. This is the point of the night where details get a little fuzzy.

Facts: We went to Saint Ex next. I ran there. I went MIA for a little bit. I left. I ended up with a battle scar from the evening on my forehead. Some details may be excluded for self-preservation/pride. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, haha. This drinkaversary was a little rough…not as bad as last year, but bad enough for me to make the executive decision that I do not need to celebrate my 3rd drinkaversary next year, haha.

Drink-aversary! – The Gibson, Desperados, Lost Society, El Centro, Policy

Thank you to all who came out for my Drinkaversary!  A little rain didn’t stop us from parading around U Street…some in more coherent states than others.  While the timing was not what I had anticipated, I still managed to make the rounds to 5 different bars – The Gibson, Desperados, Lost Society, El Centro, and Policy.  Starting at approximately 7:30pm, The Gibson was quite welcoming.  Yes, I’ve previously reviewed The Gibson and opinions have not changed of the awesomeness that this establishment has to offer.  I met a former coworker and classmate here and do believe that their introduction to the place was quite positive.  Sitting at the bar, the bartender was quite engaging and willing to show off his mastery by offering to make off-the-menu cocktails.  For the first drink I stuck to the menu and ordered a drink something along the lines of ‘Women, Wine and Hookah.’  The second drink though, I decided to challenge the bartender.  With a simple statement of “I like vodka,” he quickly got to work and offered up a tasty citrusy drink.  I was quite pleased.  Prior to the third drink after specifying my tree nut allergy, I was met with the question, “Would you mind champagne?”  “Of course not.,” being my response and my treat was quickly placed before me.  Having no reservation proved to be no problem.  This is probably due to the early arrival.  By the time we exited at about 9:30pm, the downstairs bar was filled and people were waiting to enter.  I may have entered dry, but certainly left The Gibson filled with three tasty drinks.

Next stop – Desperados.  I was long overdue for some food at this point.  Intoxikatied has been training for a half marathon and decided to go for an 11-miler just prior to going out for the night…probably not the wisest decision.  I’ve been to Desperados about 4 times prior to Saturday – mostly in small groups of people, but last Tuesday I even decided to fly solo for happy hour prior to a concert.  This really is a great place.  It’s relaxed, has reasonable prices, and an engaging staff.  The happy hour prices are particularly impressive for the quality ($4 rails and $5.50 BBQ or buffalo chicken quesadillas).  One time, I came here with a group of friends and we ordered (almost) all the happy hour special appetizers – split between 4.5 people plus drinks, it was the perfect amount ($20).  They have a small outdoor seating area right in front of the bar too, if that’s your preference.  Desperados may not be as flashy (yuppie or hipster) as other bars on U Street, but it is certainly not lacking in quality. It’s a no BS bar and sometimes, you just need that available in your back pocket.

After finishing our round of drinks and food at Desperados, we made our way to Lost Society.  Conveniently located across the street from Desperados and in the central intersection of 14^th and U Street, Lost Society offers great views overtop this juncture.  You enter Lost Society on the ground floor and then proceeding up the stairs you find two additional floors with different atmospheres.  For the purpose of Saturday night, my group of friends kept to the initial floor, but I did wander upstairs to explore a bit…typical Intoxikatie ;-).  The top floor offers a DJ and another bar.  While it was raining that night and the area was covered, I believe this opens up to be rooftop space on nice nights.  The floor that we spent the majority of time did have a lot to offer: a fairly large rectangular bar, large TVs for sports viewing, purple velvet couches, and some normal tables for dining.  Be prepared though, these couches and tables are not first come-first served.  The staff will promptly ask you for your reservation if you attempt otherwise.  So what, we tried to steal a table?  My friends and I were in a good state by this point, so it seemed like harmless fun.  Don’t worry, the stick wasn’t too far up the waitress’s butt that she asked us to leave.  Now this bar was quite crowded, so after I bought a round of drinks (2 miller lites – $6 each, 1 bourbon and coke – $9, and a screwdriver – $8), we tried to settle into a different nook as we waited for a few more friends to join us. 

Naturally, we made our way over to the two purple velvet couches.  Yes, the small tables in front of said couches were marked with a reserved sign…but as they say ‘the early bird catches the worm.’  Don’t worry, we were eventually kicked off them…and moved onto our next bar.  Overall, Lost Society seemed like a pretty cool bar to mingle with people.  It would have been better with a small group and a reservation.  I definitely would not mind coming back for a girls’ night on the rooftop or to start an outing.

The next stop was El Centro, down a few blocks on 14^th Street.  El Centro has a few offerings.  Not only is it a restaurant, there’s a downstairs dancing/DJ area and a rooftop bar.  Unfortunately, I can only speak to the rooftop – which remains open during the winter with some fairly strong heat lamps.  I have been here a handful of times and will say it offers some great margaritas and mojitos…as any reputable Mexican restaurant should.  If you time it right, they do offer $5 classic margaritas and mojitos (probably certain happy hours, but the last time I cashed in on this offer was on New Years).  As you can see from the pictures, there were a fair number of people present when we arrived between 11 and 11:30pm.  This place can definitely hold a fair amount of people, so it’s good for groups.  This isn’t the type of place I would go if I were looking to mingle with new people though.  After ‘sipping’ down my mojito and posing for a few pictures with friends, we decided it was time for our final stop.

Venturing out into the rain, we ran across the street to Policy. Yes, it really was a quick jaunt across the street because upon arrival I realized that we left about half of our group at El Centro.  Don’t worry, they are a smart bunch and caught up :-). This was my first time attending Policy.  As a group, we decided that our night was distinctly lacking some good ole fashioned dancing…and by this I obviously mean club music and dancing in a crowded room of strangers, haha.  As negative as that comment sounds, I actually really enjoyed our time there.  It did have multiple floors, but we only investigated the dancing area.  The DJ was okay, not the best, but workable and there was quite the crowd there at about 12am so I will not complain about there being a lack of interest.  Overall, I will hold off from making any major evaluations of Policy though at this point.  It looks like it may be on the itinerary again this weekend and hopefully I can give it a more justified review.  By this time of the night, the alcohol had caught up with me and I unfortunately lost my trusty 4 year-old pink umbrella somewhere on the dance floor (as only the classiest girls do).

Leaving the bar at about 1:30am, this night quickly turned into an embarrassment and I would like to send another apology someone’s way for dealing with that (if you even read this, haha).  Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll add that to my humorous collection of self-deprecating stories that I tell in a few months.  Overall, I’d like to send a big thank you to all my friends who made it out last Saturday despite the rain.  It has been quite the year – many stories have come of it and I’m sure many more will too.  *Corny moment of the blog post warning* Those of you who choose to be part of all these stories are what really make them memorable experiences…and of course my sometimes mischievous antics :-).  Here’s to another year of stories.

Third Edition

*PSA*

Just because a song lyric instructs you to do so, does not mean you should carry this out on the dance floor and/or use it as a pickup line.  For example, if a song tells a male to grab a certain piece of his anatomy with one hand and a explicative describing a female with the other…do not grab a girl dancing and expect her to dance up on you with the explanation “I’m just doing what the song told me to do.”  Stay classy, DC, haha.  Now on to the real reason you’re here, the review of Third Edition.

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I will warn, I decided to take the night off from drinking last night so this review might be slightly different from others (perhaps more detailed oriented, haha).  Last night was an acquaintance’s birthday party and it was decided the after party would take us to Georgetown for some dancing.  Arriving around or just after midnight, this establishment was filled, but definitely not packed like the last time I came there mid-summer. There was no line to get in, but there was a $5 cover and some slight door drama when a drunken floozy tried to skip the cover.  The first floor was fairly lit and had a DJ spinning top 40 hits.  There was some dancing, but a little too light downstairs and not enough people really dancing to feel very comfortable. The upstairs dance floor had a more technically skilled DJ (read: played more than just top 40, with some hits and misses) if that is of importance to you.  Overall the downstairs area seemed more like a regular bar containing some booths, a long bar, and open space in between for people to intermingle. In terms of music, my personal preference would have been downstairs, but we ventured upstairs.  Upstairs definitely has more of a typical club feeling.  It’s dark, but not in a terribly creepy sense.  The first area is more relaxed.  There were few people dancing there and there is a relatively calm bar.  Following this staging area comes in this order: a dance floor, another room to chill/mingle, and then the outside tiki bar.  Each of these areas has it’s own bar to make drink accessibility very high.  When I first attended back in the summer, we probably waited 15 minutes to get served at a packed downstairs bar.  Upon learning that there are a total of 5 bars at Third Edition, it seems quite silly to not find one with a quicker turn around.

Last night was spent mostly on the dance floor, but I did enjoy scoping out the other areas.  I was slightly disappointed that they were restricting people from entering the tiki bar by 1 AM, but still enjoyed people watching throughout this place (#notacreeper).

As I was not drinking last night I can’t comment specifically on drink prices.  I did notice a sign indicating a $20 drink tab minimum and it is Georgetown, so expect drinks to be on the expensive side.  Last time I was here with a date and I believe he mentioned drinks (my vodka tonics anyway) being about $10.

The clientele here is …interesting.  It’s definitely not my normal crowd of people (Georgetown, if you couldn’t tell is not my normal stomping grounds).  Third Edition is really a pretty decent place if you come here with a group of friends (either for mingling, dancing, or some combination of the two).  For females, this is not the type of place I’d recommend for legitimately trying to meet someone (I think you know what I mean by that, haha).  For males, you might have better luck with the females given the typical number of girls in short dresses in Georgetown, haha.

As I say about many bars/clubs, Third Edition definitely has a purpose.  It is fairly good for handling large groups of people; has dancing, but also places to chill; and contains plenty of bars inside.  Overall, I enjoyed Third Edition for its diversity in atmosphere amongst the different spaces and being able to bust a move on the dance floor with my friends.