I liked going there for dates because the dates were usually terrible and Alex, Julia, Jade, and K. Clare would help me figure out how it went (wrong).

I’ve never really had a date or a girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. A few years ago I was dating someone over Valentine’s Day, but she was in Kentucky for the holiday and didn’t like flowers. That’s why we broke up, in the end, I tried to send her flowers, they called her cell phone for delivery (which she hadn’t turned off during a meeting), and she called me up screaming at me to dump me.

Let me get your jacket for you…

Back in October, I got an email about a Canadian whisky called Pendleton Midnight. I said, why, yes, I would like some, and they said, sure, here you go. I got the box for it and put it on my coffee table and let it box age* ( * – not a thing) until, uhhh, last night.

But then the other day they told me about a cocktail competition they’re hosting and I was like, oh, I should try this whisky. And write about it, obvs. And take pictures of it because PR/marketing folks are always like “we have hi-res images” and I’m always like “ha I got a cell phone and shaky hands” which is WAY realer than hi-res promo images, right?

(That competition: it’s open to everybody! One winner per month, through June, and you might get a chance to go to their final competition and win cash and prizes. I like contests that are open to everybody. And once a month, hey guys, that’s, uh, a couple of chances? How far away is June? It’s so cold. I don’t know anymore.)

So I finally cracked her open and … wow. That’s some damn good whisky.

That’s a nice outfit you’re wearing

It’s rich, smooth, and delicious. They have tasting notes in the booklet that came with it, but I’ll put it this way: I don’t know if I’ve had another Canadian whisky with the depth of flavor I got out of this one.

It also came with some cocktail recipes, which normally I laugh at and throw away. I did the same thing here, but laughing in a good way: they’re three recipes. A Manhattan and an Old Fashioned are both listed, made in the proper ratios (IMHO) of 2-1 for the Manhattan and just a bit of sugar and bitters with the whisky in the Old Fashioned. The third is just two ounces, neat.

Let’s get you out of that dress

Pendleton is imported from Canada and bottled by Hood River in Oregon. Some Googling didn’t lead me to know who distills it in Canada (not that it really matters, to be honest, as they’re not claiming to distill it themselves – I just like to know). But with all that branding and such, it boils down to that it’s a smooth, delicious whisky even neat at 90 proof.

Oh, you look good like that

That’s why this year my date for Valentine’s Day will be Pendleton Midnight Whisky. Unlike that time I went to Estadio on a date and she told me that she was going to start a website calling out servers and bartenders by name and establishment if she didn’t get good enough service, I will probably instead drink it alone. Like the aftermath of so many bad dates, it’ll probably end the same, with me entirely too drunk, helping to donate to charity, then sleeping alone. But hey, sometimes that’s all a guy needs on a Valentine’s Day night.

The D.C. Craft Bartender?s Guild?s 2014 Rickey Competition on Sunday at Jack Rose Dining Saloon honored a new set of mix masters, tapsters and would-be sailors who successfully reinterpreted the city?s native cocktail.

When all was said and done, Lukas Smith of Daikaya beat out his fellow competitors with the ?Supafly Rickey.? Second place went to Dustin Beruta from Cashion?s Eat Place with the ?Vanilla-Key Rickey.? Third went to Casey Hristakos from Sixth Engine with the ?Rickey Del Mar.?

Supafly is a smooth blend of Half Moon Gin, sweet potato soda and rose blossom water. Sweet potato soda, you say? Yes, they used fermentation of the root vegetable to create the ingredient. A single (sometimes superfluous) blade of lemon grass served as garnish.

Lukas himself donned a soviet-era military hat and was surrounded by fellow bartenders dressed like loud, drunken sailors. ?Rum, sodomy and the lash? Winston Churchill said are the gist of British naval tradition. The handful of seamen behind the bar at Jack Rose seemed all too familiar with that grand tradition.

Guild president Owen Thomson and vice president Dan Searing were the masters of ceremonies. Searing held the trophy up for all to see as the winner and runner up were announced. Over 50 bars and restaurants participated from around the city.

It is difficult work judging that many cocktails. Guild organizers took nearly 20 days to round up participating bartenders to make their drink for the judges. The finalists were whittled down to seven for the main event.

?I had to drink 52 rickeys myself,? Thomson said.

2014 Rickey Competition Finalists

• Lukas Smith from Daikaya with ?Supafly Rickey?
• Dustin Beruta from Cashion?s Eat Place with ?Vanilla-Key Rickey?
• Casey Hristakos from Sixth Engine with ?Rickey Del Mar?
• Jo-Jo Valenzuela from Sixth Engine with ?Asian Wickey?
• Eve Maier from Hank?s Oyster Bar with ?Yabba Dabba Dorickey?
• Galen Odell-Smedley from Mockingbird Hill with ?High Rock Rickey?
• Brian Nixon from Rose?s Luxury with ?Rickey #7?

D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild President, Owen Thomson, holds up to the crowd a rectangular can the size of a deck of cards. A grin spills across his face. Thomson is about to reveal the next ingredient for the contest.

?Smoked sardines,? he says. The crowd collectively cringes.

That’s the kind of curveballs participants faced at last Sunday afternoon?s Negroni Throwdown at The Gibson. The winner, Chris Martino of Barrel, faced strong competition. In the end, he emerged the champion winning a bartending spot at this year?s Repeal Day Ball and all the shit-talking privileges thereto appertaining.

E.J. Apaga of Pearl Dive, Dave Lanzalone of Iron Gate and Julien Bourgon of TNT each fell to Martino despite the various obstacles thrown his way. Apaga certainly gave the crowd their ?money?s worth? (the event was free) in the Ramos Gin Fizz round when he opened a fully charged soda syphon sending streams of cream, egg whites and gin into the air.

Jack Rose bartender and Tiki Throwdown winner, Justin Hampton, judged the final products. The barman sampled each cocktail, looking pleased with some and wincing a little from others. Guild members Jamie McBain and Jo-Jo Valenzuela hosted the show. Valenzuela pulled the event together with sponsorship from Plymouth and Beefeater.

Each contestant went through a vigorous competition structured similarly to Cutthroat Kitchen. The Throwdown?s contestants used poker chips to bid on various sabotages against one another. One participant was handicapped by having no ice for his cocktail while another was denied use of his arm and a leg.

The back patio of the RAMMY nominated bar served as a serene setting for the raucous competition. Audience members filled up on bar-b-que ribs, sliders and mushroom fritters while sloshing around frozen ?Negronis and Cream? cocktails spun by Gibson general manager, Frank Jones.

When the jigger was eliminated from Bourgon?s use, he could be seen swiftly dumping spoonfuls of spirit into his mixing glass as time ticked away. Lanzalone made use of a reusable, refrigerated ice pack to chill down his drink since he was handicapped with no ice. No one was safe from the crippling obstacles thrown at them at the event.

Apaga dove right into the smoked sardines. He muddled a poor little fish into the concoction and scooped fingerfuls of oily red sauce out of the can and into his shaker. When asked what his bloody mary-like, sardine cocktail was called, Apaga smiled.

?Fish 75.?

Washington, D.C. — Bartender, Jo-Jo Valenzuela, pours the winning cocktail during the finals of the D.C. Craft Bartender’s Guild (DCBG) at Cafe Saint Ex in northwest.

“Jo-Jo! Jo-Jo! Jo-Jo!” chants the crowd. They had their champion.

City Tap House and Old Glory barman Jo-Jo Valenzuela won the D.C. Craft Bartender?s Guild?s (DCBG) Budget Booze Build-Off competition at Cafe Saint Ex Tuesday night. Valenzuela toppled opponents throughout the event on his way to the finals where he defeated Dane Nakamura of Range. City Paper?s Jessica Sidman, Washington Post?s Fritz Hahn and DCBG?s Jason Strich, declared quickly and decidedly that Valenzuela’s cocktail was the winner.

Could you make a drink with this? @cafesaintex tonight at 7pm pic.twitter.com/xqKjKQw7F0

— DC Craft Bartenders (@DCCraftBarGuild) February 25, 2014

The light-hearted contest was filled with several talented bartenders attempting to incorporate “cheap” products into the most palatable cocktails possible. The champion won a coveted bar-table spot at the 2014 Repeal Day Ball. There were plenty of oohs and ahhs during the event and certainly moments of all-out laughter.

While both finalist could barely recall the ingredients at the end of the round due to the excitement, Valenzuela managed to remember the recipe Wednesday morning. This little sipper, he calls the Mexican Slurpee, consisted of:

1 1/2 oz Absolut Cilantro
1/2 oz Southern Comfort Fiery Pepper
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz grapefruit syrup
Shake ingredients. Double strain into a highball glass over crushed ice. Express lemon, lime and orange zest over the top and leave peels as garnish.

The base spirits were a little insane but somehow Valenzuela made it work and walked away the champ.

Guild president, Owen Thomson, revealed the secret ingredients at the start of each round. Any opinions about these brands and their quirky flavors could be heard in a low hum throughout the audience once announced. Some speculated about which bottles would end up being used.

The notorious Pinnacle products made a strong appearance. A bottle of cinnamon roll vodka and peachberry cobbler vodka could be found among the bunch. Fresh juices were used and appreciated. And eggs, interestingly enough, were popular choices for the contestants.

Anyone looking for a more serious drink could find Dan Searing mixing up punches and passing out glasses of the stuff. He jovially answered questions about the concoction, pointing it out as a variation on a recipe detailed in his book The Punch Bowl.

Washington, D.C. — Author and bar owner, Dan Searing Jr., pours punch at Cafe Saint Ex.

Washington, D.C. — Jo-Jo Valenzuela garnishes the cocktail that won him the cocktail competition.

Valenzuela always has a smile on his face but last night he was ear-to-ear. He came out from behind the bar clutching his bar tools. Nodding his head as the crowd chanted…

“Jo-Jo!”

RT @AnthonyJRivera Congrats to @jojothebarkeep for winning the @DCCraftBarGuild #cocktail competition @cafesaintex! http://t.co/S7LvB61LPS

— DLDGLG (@DLDGLG) February 26, 2014

Pippali Pineapple

A few weeks ago, folks started sending me this link via Twitter regarding? a cocktail and mocktail competition hosted by the folks at Marx Foods. The rules were pretty simple. Once you sign up, they send you a sample of some of their spices. Using at least one of the samples per drink,you had to come up with an original cocktail and an original mocktail. It sounded like an interesting exercise, so I thought, what they hey, let’s enter this thing.

About two weeks after emailing my interest, I received a package containing my samples. It included dried pineapple, juniper berries, saffron, (Indian) long pepper, fennel pollen and dill pollen. I was super excited about the long pepper because I’ve always wanted to experiment with it in cocktails.

Long pepper is a little hotter than regular black pepper but has this beguiling aroma that is hard to explain. It’s almost sensual and velvety. And it just screamed TEQUILA! But I didn’t want to infuse tequila with the long pepper because I wanted to be able to control the overall long pepper use. Instead, I created a long pepper syrup.

Long Pepper Syrup
Take 8 long peppers and crush them in a mortal & pestle, a meat mallet or some other heavy object.
Add 1.5 cups of sugar, 1 cup of water and the crushed pepper to a sauce pan.
Bring everything to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Allow to cool to room temperature.
Using a fine mesh strainer and some cheese clothe, strain out the solids.*
Add half an ounce of vodka to the syrup for preservative purposes.
Bottle. It will keep in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.
*If after using the fine mesh strainer and cheese clothe there are still particles floating in your syrup, bottle the syrup and allow to settle for a few hours. Then carefully transfer the syrup into a new bottle keeping the sediment in the first bottle.

So now I had some damn tasty long pepper syrup. What else did I want to do? For the heck of it, I diced the dried pineapple and added it to 2 cups of tequila. A let it set for two days, shaking the jar twice a day, then strained out the solids. The drink I then came up with is:

Pippali Pineapple
1.5 ounces Pineapple-infused tequila
.5 ounce fresh lime juice
.5 ounce long pepper syrup
.25 ounce fresh pineapple juice

-Combine all ingredients into an iced filled shaker. Shake vigorously for a slow 10 count and double strain (using a Hawthorne and fine mesh strainer) into a chilled couple glass. Pour one drop of Peychaud’s bitters on the foam and run a pick through it for a quick design. See the photo above.

Now that we have the cocktail, time to turn our attention to the mocktail. There could be any number of reasons people don’t want to have an alcoholic beverage including religious, medical or moral. I’m sure some of these folks still want to head out to a bar with their friends or experience the scene at the hot new cocktail bar in town. Regardless, they shouldn’t be subjected to soda and a squeeze of lemon or soft drinks or fruit juice and soda water. They should still be able to enjoy all the complexity and balance that a proper cocktail provides. The mocktail should also be visually appealing, not just fruit juice and soda water.? So the first think I did was decide how to make it visually impressive without relying solely on run-of-the-mill fruit juices. After some thought, I went with beet juice. The bright red-purple juice is both earthy and sweet. Not as sweet as fruit juice, but I know it would provide a great flavor and a great color. In to the juicer four beets went.

So how do you get this complexity in a beverage without all the things the spirits bring to the table? I’ve found that if not using spirits to add the complexity, you have to turn to more labor intensive culinary tricks.? One of my favorite spirits, and one of the most complex, is gin. With it’s various botanicals and styles, gin adds so much to a cocktail other than alcohol. I knew I wanted to replicate the complexity of gin in my mocktail.

Here is where you need some special tools for this mocktail. First, think about botanicals that are commonly found in gin. Juniper berries (hey! I got some of these in my samples!), lemon, orange and coriander are common gin botanicals. Then you need a cream whipper. This iSi Whip Plus is the one I used, but whatever the brand you want to make sure it is charged using N2O gas.

Non-Alcoholic Gin
.75 ounces, by weight, juniper berries
.5 teaspoon dried lemon peel
.5 teaspoon dried orange peel
8 cardamom seeds
2 allspice berries
25 coriander seeds
3 black peppercorns
25 fennel seeds
8 saffron fronds (also included in sample box)

Take all of these botanicals and crush them in a mortal & pestle or with some other heavy tool. Add the crushed botanicals to the whip cream canister. Add three cups of filtered water. Apply the lid and charge using a N2O. Gently swirl the canister for 30 seconds and then allow to set for 30 seconds. After that, quickly release the gas from the canister.? For a more detailed set of instructions and explanation of the science, check out this article. Once you’ve vented the gas, strain out the solids. What you’re left with is water flavored with traditional gin botanicals, or, non-alcoholic gin!

Beet Me to It
1.5 ounces non-alcoholic gin
.5 ounce fresh lemon juice
.5 ounce simple syrup
.25 ounce fresh beet juice
soda water

-Combine 1 tablespoon granulated sugar with 1 teaspoon fennel pollen.
-Prepare rocks glass by rubbing one-half of the outside rim glass with a slice of lemon. Using a spoon, dust this part of the glass with the sugar-fennel pollen mixture. Fill the glass with ice and place? in the freezer while preparing the rest of the drink.
-In an ice filled shaker, combine the non-alcoholic gin, lemon juice, simple syrup and beet juice. Shake vigorously for a slow ten count.
-Strain into your prepared rocks glass and fill the rest of the way with soda water. Gently stir.
-Garnish with a fresh mint sprig.

There you have it. A beverage containing the complexity of gin, the flavor and visual appeal of a great cocktail without the alcohol!

Thanks to Marx Foods for letting me compete in this contest. If you try either of these drinks, please let me know in the comments what you think.

Cheers!

Of special note to cocktail fans is the “Cupid’s Not Stupid” cocktail competition on Friday featuring Rachel Sergi, Gina Chersevani, Ben Wiley, Youssef, and Dennis Burns, along with Dan Searing signing his new book (which I recommend!) The Punch Bowl.

Check out a hint of what Rachel will be doing in this video clip:

International Wine and Food Festival Comes to DC: MyFoxDC.com

It is manly for I am manly!

Monday night we celebrated the end of Rickey Month.? Over two hundred people gathered at The Passenger for rickeys, food, and fun.

I’d managed to try ten of the rickeys, most of those multiple times.? I have tons of notes and pictures (well, one picture per) of all of those, but this night we could try the five finalists or have a traditional gin or bourbon rickey.

The five finalists were:

• Adam Bernbach, Proof
• Dan Searing, Room 11
• Alex Bookless, The Passenger
• Gina Chersevani, PS7
• David Fritzler, Tryst

There were a number of judges, including Charlotte Voissey, Tad Carducci, Jenn Larsen of We Love DC, Ana Marie Cox of GQ, and Jim Hewes of the Round Robin Bar at the Willard Hotel (and a very nice guy).

Adam and Frank, right at the beginning

It was an interesting setup to the place.? Adam and Frank (from PS7, since Gina was in Miami or some place) were up front, right by the door.? Alex, David, and Dan shared the main bar, along with a couple of other bartenders.? JP Carceres, JP Featherston, Julia Hurst, and others helped in the far back in the theater area for the traditional rickeys.? All the rickeys were $10 (you got a free one with your $10 admission, or free admission and one free drink if you had a passport with ten stamps), and you just bought tickets from some of the ladies of the Passenger who walked around with rolls of them.

After the floor was anointed

Finally the winners were announced.? Dan Searing came in second place for his balmy rickey.

First place was the photogenic Alex Bookless for her “Root of all Rickey”.? She was so photogenic I couldn’t get a picture of her, so you’ll have to live with the fuzzy pictures I took of other people.

Or I might have been drinking more rickeys.

Really, though, if you went out and tried the rickeys, there were SO MANY excellent rickeys out there this month!? There were, if I remember correctly, 27 bartenders competing just to make those five last spots.

I didn’t get to try as many as I would’ve liked, partly because I spent nearly half the month out of town.? But I tried a lot of good ones, and I’m hoping I can make out to try at least one or two more before they go off the menu…

Congratulations again, Alex, and thank you to everyone who competed!

It’s so hot, if you made a Ramos Gin Fizz outside, you would end up with Ramos Gin Scrambled Eggs. It’s so hot, my cigars catch themselves on fire and, much like a Bugs Bunny cartoon, turns to ash immediately. It’s so hot …

Okay, enough of that, you get the picture. One thing that always makes me feel cooler is a tall ice & booze filled beverage. And here in DC, especially in July, that drink is the Rickey.

For those who don’t know, Derek Brown explains the history of the Rickey thusly; “The Rickey is a category of mixed drinks closely resembling a highball made from a base spirit, half of a lime squeezed and dropped in the glass and carbonated water. Little or no sugar is added to the Rickey. Originally created with Bourbon whiskey in Washington, D.C. at Shoomaker?s bar by bartender George A. Williamson, purportedly in collaboration with Democratic lobbyist Colonel Joe Rickey, it became a worldwide sensation when mixed with gin.”

And because the Rickey is DC’s only native drink, the DC Craft Bartenders Guild has designated July as “Rickey Month.”

And what does this mean to you? Well, for starters, some of the best bartenders & restaurants are creating their very own version of the rickey. Those intrepid souls participating are:

Owen Thompson of Caf? Atlantico
Gina Chersevani of PS7′s
Chantal Tseng of Tabard Inn
Adam Bernbach of Proof
Dan Searing of Room 11
Clinton Terry of PX
Jayson Smith of PX
Justin Owens of PX
Rico Wisner of Poste Brasserie
David Fritzler of Tryst
Joey Ambrose of W Hotel
J.P. Caceres of Againn
Duane Sylvestre of Bourbon Steak
Laura Secker of Vermillion
Elli Benchimol of Chef Geoff?s (both locations)
Amy Troutmiller of Urbana
Joseph David Cleveland of Oyamel
Mike Cherner of Mie N Yu
Milton Hernandez of Bibiana
Rachel Sergi of 701
Jessica Crandall of Bourbon (Glover Park)
Theo Rutherford of Ripple Wine Bar
Alex Bookless of the Passenger
Julia Hurst of the Passenger
Alex Nichols of the Passenger
J.P. Fetherston of the Passenger and Columbia Room
Patrick Owens of Jaleo

Damn, that’s a lot of rickeys! So, other than a damn fine drink & inebriation, what else do I get from this, you may be thinking.

SHUT IT!

How about a party? Yeah! How do like them rickeys now?!?!

On August 2nd beginning at 6:30pm at The Passenger in Mt. Vernon Square (1021 7th Street, NW) there will be a Rickey party sponsored by Hendrick?s Gin and Woodford Reserve Bourbon.

What? That’s not good enough? Geez, you youngins and your whatnots . . .

Okay then, go to one of the participating establishments to sample a Rickey and get you a Rickey passport. If you visit ten contestants during the month of July, and get your Rickey Passport stamped, entrance to the finals of the contest is free. Otherwise, the event will be $10 at the door and include one free classic Rickey.

Finalists will be serving their drinks to attendees at a cash bar and competing for the grand prize of $1,000 chosen by special guest judges Ana Maria Cox of GQ, Jim Hewes of the Round Robin Bar at the Willard, Tad Carducci of Tippling Bros., Peter Smith of PS7?s and Jenn Larsen of WeLoveDC.com.

Even more important, The Scofflaws themselves will be in attendance!

Now THAT sounds like a party!

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and have a Rickey or ten.

Cheers!

The rules were pretty simple.? We had to create an infusion using Oval and come up with a unique cocktail using at least 1.5 oz of the infusion.? The infusions were to be judged during Tales of the Cocktail by Rick Stutz, Gabriel Szaszko and Chantal Tseng.? The judging criteria was based on infusion aroma, infusion taste, infusion creativity, cocktail taste, cocktail balance and cocktail creativity.? The winner of the contest would have two nights of their stay paid for by Oval.

It sounded like a lot of fun and I jumped at the opportunity.? But then came the “what-the-hell-do-I-make” panic.? I ended up with two infusions.? The first was a clementine infusion using fresh clementines.? The aroma and color was redolent of fresh clementine.? But, a basic orange infusion wouldn’t win on creativity and seemed to run of the mill.? I had been playing with coconut water lately as a cocktail ingredient and decided I wanted to use it as a mixer.

When I think of coconut, I think of tiki drinks, frozen slushy drinks, islands, the sea and Thai food.? Ohhhh . . . thai food.? That would certainly be original!? Next was to think of the flavors associated with thai food and island/Polynesian-type drinks.? Lime?? Ginger?? Spices?? Check, check, check.? But I wanted something a little more obscure.? Lemongrass!

So here is my infusion:

Thai-Spiced Oval Vodka
16 oz Oval Vodka
1 9-inch stalk of lemongrass, cut into small rounds
2 quarter-sized rounds of fresh ginger
peel of 2 limes
1 2-inch piece of cinnamon*
4 cloves

-Place everything in a container and infuse for one week shaking once a day. After a week strain all the solids and re-bottle.

*After the contest, I was speaking with Chantal looking for critiques and her main thought on my infusion was that the cinnamon was too strong.? I tend to agree with that assessment.? In the future, and if you’re making this yourself, I would remove the cinnamon and cloves after three days.

For the cocktail, I came up with:

Andaman Sun
1.5 oz Thai-spiced Oval Vodka
1.5 oz coconut water
1 oz Piloncillo** syrup (1.5:1 strength)
.5 oz fresh lime juice
.25 oz coconut cream

-Shake everything with ice and strain into a chilled glass.? Garnish with a lime wheel.
**Piloncillo is South American unrefined brown sugar.? You can find it in ethnic markets.? If you can’t find it, you can substitute simple syrup made from dark brown sugar (1.5:1 strength) or you can substitute .75 oz simple and .25 oz molasses.? It won’t be exactly the same with the substitutions but you’ll still have a tasty drink.

The contest judging occurred at the Mixoloseum house in New Orleans.? Each of the entries were made by Chris Stanley, a very talented mixologist at the Clover Club in New York City.? Chris worked behind the bar at the Mixo house several nights during Tales.? His drinks were some of the best I had during the entire week.

And the results of the contest?? I WON!!!!

Woot!? Thanks go out to Sam, Chantal, Gabe, and Rick!? And thanks to Oval Vodka for the opportunity! And a special thanks to Steve Raye who offered to pay for the entire cost of two nights at the condo, rather than just my half of two nights.? You can read Sam’s write-up of the contest here.

What a great event and a great surprise during Tales!? Cheers!

Tonight is Thursday Drink Night (TDN) starting at 7 PM EDT over at the Mixoloseum.? Tonight people will be trying out drinks made with honey syrup, so I’ve got to remember to make some!? Which means I’ve got to remember to buy some honey…the syrup is 1:1 honey and water.? The best drink of the night will get a bottle of St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram thanks to Kaiser Penguin.

Tomorrow night is our night out to celebrate an entire year – and a long year at that, the whole 366 days – of Scofflaw’s Den, from our humble origins on LiveJournal (which we imported here, but I implore you not to look at my first post, I’m embarrassed by it) to having our own domain and everything else that’s happened.

Right now, it looks like our plan is to be out at Bourbon in Adams Morgan around 5:30 – 6:00 time frame for a couple of drinks and maybe a bite or two.? From there, we’ll head over to Central Michel Richard to harass say hi to Justin and maybe have more food…

From there we don’t have any plans, but depending on who is around and what time it is we’ll be looking to see what is up.? Urbana, Tabard Inn, Bar Pilar, Cork, there are so many choices.

If you’re around and want to join us, just show up!? If you need to get ahold, feel free to e-mail us – I, for instance, will be checking my e-mail on a regular basis while we’re out.? And if you contact us ahead of time, I’ll be hooking people up with a phone number or two.