I’m not talking about the eponymous martini variation that utilizes the cocktail onion but rather the new bar not far from Cork and Marvin.? The Gibson only opened this past Wednesday.

It was one of those random Saturdays – I had absolutely nothing planned to do.? It was kind of weird, in fact.? I mentioned such a fact on Facebook and heard from Jake.? After a while we decided to head down to The Gibson, but since it didn’t open until 6 PM we swung by Cork to visit Tom Brown.? I’d only been there once, but Tom had left early that time.

Jake had him make me his variation of an Aviation that he’s calling a “Piper Cub”.? Instead of gin, the Piper Cub uses Manzanilla sherry.? It’s an interesting idea – not one that I would’ve thought of, but then again, I don’t know a lot about sherry.? Tom and Jake tried to help me a bit with that, too, giving me a bit of a taste of the Manzanilla and some Amontillado.? (And I’m guessing I might be misspelling that last one, but I need more energy to figure that out…)

I also got a chance to try some of the orange bitters that Tom has cooked up.? Tasty stuff.? It reminded me that I always want to make bitters but I’m a lazy, lazy man…

Around 6 PM we headed up the street to The Gibson.? If you didn’t know where it was you’d probably never know, and even if you do know where it is you might not know where it is.? That makes no sense, but trust me on that one.

Right now The Gibson is taking reservations for half of their capacity and the other half is first come, first served.? They can take up to 6 people in one reservation and they even have a flaming table in the back.? There’s no food yet, but they’re hoping to have a patio (with heaters, natch) up by this weekend, and maybe food down the road.? The decor was very cool…but we weren’t here for that, we were here for the drinks.

A note on the place though: to me, it had a much different feel than its spiritual predecessors here in the DC area.? To me, it felt much more relaxed and able to handle a larger crowd than PX – for instance, there’s no jacket requirement for men, and there were more bartenders than the standard one at PX.? And unlike Hummingbird to Mars, The Gibson isn’t trying to be secret – it’s just not marked.

It was pretty quiet when we showed up which was cool, it gave me time to meet our kick ass bartender, Tiff, as well as some of the other people there such as Chris, and also for us to be able to sit back and hang out with Tiff and Derek.

I’d read the Going Out Gurus blog last week and Fritz had mentioned The Gibson along with a couple of its drinks, notably (to me) the Salad Days Sour.? I grabbed that while Jake grabbed the other drink mentioned by Fritz – the London Special Variation.

The Salad Days Sour ($12) is, according to the menu, celery-infused Macchu Pisco, Lemon, The Bitter Truth Celery Bitters, and Burnt Cinnamon.? The burnt cinnamon is put in a line across the frothy top (I didn’t see exactly but with how frothy it is, I’m guessing there might be egg white in it) along with a “bow tie” made of carrot.? This drink was awesome and it was all I could do to avoid a) chugging it, b) just ordering it over and over again, and c) immediately proposing to Tiff after trying it.

The London Special Variation ($12) is a mixture of Beefeater dry gin, Ramos Pinto white port, a champagne float, and Bergamot syrup.? I’m still not completely certain what bergamot is, but the combination of flavors in the drink were very smooth and very tasty.

Over the course of the night I tried several other drinks and when my friend Roy came he tried a few more.? Another advantage that The Gibson has over PX is a larger bar; you’re not restricted to the menu (which Derek says may climb to six pages), but can order other things, too.? I would not recommend asking for a rum and coke, but Jake asked for (and got) a very tasty absinthe frappe.

One of the big surprise drinks for me was the Whiskey Skin ($8), a hot drink that Derek insisted I try.? It’s made with Famous Grouse Blended Scotch, lemon peel, demerara sugar, and hot water.? I was completely surprised by how good it was and now I can’t wait to try making it at home, though I’ll be using a different blended Scotch (Jake did, however, think it’d work well with it too).

Another drink that seemed almost simple in idea but gave a big “Wow!” to my taste buds was the Brunswick Sour ($10).? Basically, this is a dacquiri made with Appleton Estate white rum, but it has a cab-merlot wine float on top of it.? It’s a small addition but it brought up a whole new level of flavor in the drink.

There were other drinks tried while we were there.? Roy started off with the basic Sazerac ($8) made with Old Overholt, Peychaud bitters, and Kubler absinthe.? We both had the Jackelope ($10) which used Weller Antique 107 proof bourbon, American oak-infused maple syrup, lemon and orange.? I tried my first Japanese Cocktail ($8), which I basically got because I know Drinkboy is a big fan of them, made with St. Remy VSOP brandy, Fee’s orgeat syrup, and Angostura bitters.? It was good, but Derek thinks it will be much better when they start making their own orgeat, and Jake thought it’d be better with a better brandy.

The last drink I had there was the Tequila Orchard ($12), a mix of Partida Reposado tequila, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, organic apple juice, lime, and The Bitter Truth aromatic bitters.? It was a rich, complex drink and by that point in the night perhaps a bit past me, but I still enjoyed it.

After leaving there, Roy and I headed over to CommonWealth, as he hadn’t been there before.? We had a good time hanging out at the bar and I even got a chance to try Singleton Scotch, the Scotch I’d bought for a coworker of mine, and oh wow, was it a good Scotch!? I’m going to have to buy some for myself.? Mostly, though, we drank beer, talked to the people around us, and ate some stupendously good (and probably stupendously bad for us) food such as Scotch eggs, fish and chips, and a Butcher’s Plate dinner.? I also got a chance to say hi to Antonio who I hadn’t seen since a recent DR.com picnic.

Basically, to sum up:

• Go to Cork.? Say hi to Tom.? Ask to try one of his Aviation variations, especially the Piper Cub.
• Go to The Gibson.? Go go go.? Enjoy.? Try everything.? Say hi to Tiff and Derek.
• Go to CommonWealth.? Eat Scotch eggs.? Say hi to Antonio.
• Don’t forget Repeal Day is coming up!

Now back to strategerizing when I’ll be going back to The Gibson…