NYE menu

5:30 PM New Year’s Eve. I’m standing in the courtyard at 800 K St NW, sipping a venti dark roast from Starbucks and nibbling on some pumpkin bread. I’d tried to find a seat at the Starbucks at 7th St across from the Chinatown gate, but it was too crowded. When I got into this little area of solitude, I relaxed, then realized there was another Starbucks right here. Sigh.

Why the solitude? Because The Passenger opened at 6, I was supposed to be there by 7 to help set up, and at 9 PM the doors would open at the old Hogo location for what I was there to do – bartend at Dan Searing’s pop-up Punch Club over there.

Let’s be honest about all this: I have never bartended before. Since starting this here site with Marshall, I’ve always proclaimed my side of the bar was the one where I was drinking, not serving. Sure, I’d done some parties, and made one (1!) drink behind the bar at Room 11 for some bartenders at a Compass Box event (and boy howdy did that terrify me, too) but this was all new to me.

Punch Club menu

Anyways, I knew I’d have lots of work to do, so away I went. I got there, I grabbed ingredients, I filled the wells with ice, I helped pour some stuff. I took a few minutes to visit some friends and have a drink or two over at an increasingly-insane Passenger, then it was back to work.

Occasionally people wandered back. “9 PM!” we’d tell them. We stacked champagne in the fridges. Alexis dusted the whole place and swept. We unloaded Dan’s car and put punch menus into laminate sheets.

Tom came by to ask how much longer. “Ten minutes!” “Make it five!” Wow. People actually talk like that! 200 people in line, I’m told. All punches are $9. Glass of champagne is $9. Can of Schlitz is $4, but those run out so quickly as to be basically a null factor.

Dan is mixing punch. Lukas is handling the credit card machine and money. The music is blasting. The initial thought is I start pouring, Alexis takes orders from the tables. The doors open and in pour the thirsty hordes.

Post-party, the DJ stand

WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING.

We’re immediately killed. I just start taking orders as fast as I can and trying to pour them. I mistake one woman for a friend of mine and say before I realize that a) she isn’t her and b) I don’t have time to embarrassed. Alexis takes some orders, realizes I’m swamped, and jumps in behind the bar to start pouring (THANK GOD).

My first complaint comes almost right away – “why aren’t our punches at the same level? Fill this one up more.” NO. Ain’t nobody got time or the desire to do that. They’re as close as even as you’re ever going to get.

The other complaint is pretty typical for those first three hours: “Can you take my order? I’ve been waiting soooo long!” I try my best to keep it fair and rotate through but it’s never going to be perfect, especially when it’s my first time doing this.

(And I will be completely honest: people I know got quicker service. I’d say sorry but I’m not, really.)

Hogo post-party

For the next 2.5 hours I have no idea what time it is or really what’s going on except right immediately in front of me. Cups and ice run low then Santos and Alexis save us. Punches run out, get remade or different ones made, and menus go further out of date. We explain over and over again: “No, we don’t have anything except punch and champagne. No, the Schlitz ran out. There are two other bars in this building.”

A woman almost throws her iPhone and charger at us demanding we charge it behind the bar. Lady, we don’t even know if we have outlets back here, much less where they are. She’s infuriated when we refuse.

There are no tabs. Everything is pass and go. I manage to only make one money mistake all night, when I forget to hand someone their change while making someone else’s drinks, but he got my attention and I took care of him.

Midnight draws near. We start handing out champagne bottles. No more orders, just champagne. One woman is desperate for punch despite free champagne. Later, she screams at us for not having Sprite.

To be honest, we didn’t have many problems. One large group got drunk, we cut them off, no worries. Another guy got really drunk, didn’t want water, left without a problem. Someone else was more persistent, but never got served.

Me & Jade at the afterparty

I stopped outside for a breath of fresh air around 1 AM or so. The sidewalk is full of chain smokers, taxi and Uber fumes, people screaming, yelling, making out, puking. I go back inside to the steadily diminishing crowd.

Next thing you know it’s 4 AM. Lukas has cleared everyone out. We clean up a bunch of stuff, then head into the theater for a toast to the Passenger and all the fine folks in it.

My mom had asked me to drop her a line when I got home so she wouldn’t worry. I warned her it’d be when she was already up in the morning, feeding the horses and taking care of the dogs. Soon enough you start to see light out the ceiling window.

I look around a bit. This is it, after all.

A bit earlier than dawn

Like all of us, there’s a lot of memories in those walls. Scofflaws Den started in 2007, but a lot of our time – and our five year anniversary party, for that matter – was spent at the Passenger. It was somewhere that I knew all my friends could get a drink they’d like. It was somewhere that I’d meet up – and heck, where I?met, many of my friends. It’s where on special days you might find the special boards had drinks named after you or something you loved.

Marshall’s bitters

Hell it was a place where people would give away the stuff they liked to make, like Marshall’s bitters, and they’d have a shelf for them.

It’s where I had my first taste of the bartending bug and holy hell, it was?exhilarating. I know not every night could be like that, and that there’s lots of work I didn’t have to do (like, say, garnishing past some scraped nutmeg) but I also knew right away that I’d want to do it more and more and again and again, kind of like the first time you get laid. “OHHHH! That’s what the big deal is!”

It’s 8:30 AM on New Year’s Day at 1021 7th St. NW. Everyone else is piling into cabs or Ubers. It’s a nice morning, so I start walking to the Metro station. On the way, I pick up the phone and call my mom. I knew she’d be glad to hear from me.

I should probably keep away from any metaphors involving virginity with her. Given my family’s sense of humor, I’d never hear the end of it, or I’d hear too much.

sniff sniff sniff

Well, I know what you should do: come to the Passenger for the New Year’s Eve party! $20 after 9 PM until 4 AM, with classic Passenger and such in their space, DJ and cash bar in the Warehouse theater, and Punch Club with vintage afro/reggae in the old Hogo space. Bartending back there will be Dan Searing, Lukas Smith, and …

Me.

I’ve only been behind the bar once before to make a drink in a restaurant/bar setting (Room 11 during a Compass Box tasting) and that was over 5 years ago. So I’m very excited and only slightly terrified.

And, of course, if you didn’t know, NYE is the last night for the Passenger in their 1021 7th St NW location. While Columbia Room will be moving to Blagden’s Alley, the Passenger still hasn’t found a new home yet. So we’ll see.

Come out. Get loaded and get down. Have fun. It’ll be great!

– SeanMike

First off: congrats to my co-blogger, Marshall! He got engaged to his lovely and fun girlfriend, Sylvie, earlier this week. I couldn’t be happier for them!

Second: We’ll be updating our DNS records soon. Thanks to GoDaddy’s support for SOPA, and general embarrassment I’ve had with them as a hosting company in general (especially every time one of their ads come on) we’ll be moving registrars. If you have any problems reaching the site, try using an alternate name – put a dash between “scofflaws” and “den” (i.e. scofflaws-den.com) or use .org as well. I’ll be moving the domains over in batches.

Third: If you missed Drink.Write 2011, you really missed out. We had a fantastic meal at PS7 on Thursday night, a fun tasting group at Jack Rose on Friday, multiple trips to The Passenger, a heck of a great time at the Repeal Day Ball, and then ended it hanging out at the Speed Rack competition at Jack Rose on Sunday after brunch at Bourbon. It was FANTASTIC.

Fourth: Some events coming up. PS7 is doing a Feast of the Seven Fishes tomorrow (Christmas Eve) if you’re into that kind of thing, and a “Gangster to Gangsta” event (check LivingSocial) for New Year’s Eve. And on January 17th, the Museum of the American Cocktail is doing a seminar about George Washington’s whiskey. You can register here.

That’s it for now – after the new year we’ll have more stuff for you! HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON!

Today marks the end of 2009 and the fist decade of this century.? It has been an interesting year, to say the least, and I wanted to get a few thoughts on The Den before festivities begin later today.

During this year, we have seen Scofflaw’s Den grow more than we imagined.? Our readership has doubled, our friend lists have quadrupled, and our love of cocktails and fine living hasn’t diminished.? We’ve been to our first Tales of the Cocktail, where we had the privilege to write for the Tales Blog.? We’ve attended the first-ever Drink.Write Conference thrown by the esteemed Cocktail & Spirit Online Writers Guild Group.? We’ve seen the cocktail and spirit scene in our nation’s Capital grow exponentially since we started this site.? And I hope we’ve continued to provide useful information to our readers in a light-hearted, free-spirited, friendly way.

So what does 2010 hold for Scofflaw’s Den?? First, we will be redoubling our efforts to post more often and engage our readers more.? We’re hoping to get out into the community and follow the lead of folks like Rumdood and co-sponsor a contest and charity event.? We want to provide more original cocktail recipes, hits and misses, and invite our readers and friends to critique the drinks.? I hope we can provide more information on homemade ingredients, including recipes and how-to instructions, and ways to make your home bar better. ? I personally plan to take my camera to every event and outing and chronicle the places and people that make DC such a great cocktail city.? And, knock-on-wood, 2010 will offer a few surprises along the way.

So, from Sean and myself, I wish everyone a Happy New Year and raise a glass to you all.

Cheers!

Champagne, of course, is that fizzy white wine from the Champagne region of France.? Cava is champagne’s Spanish brother while prosecco is the Italian sister.? Learn about more types of sparkling wines here.

Whatever you call it, sparkling wine is a wonderful way to ring in the New Year.? It’s festive, tasty and looks great in a glass.? Ahhh, but even though it is wonderful all by it’s lonesome, champagne makes an excellent addition to cocktails.

One of the great things about champagne is its versatility.? One word of warning though – whichever type of sparkling wine you use for cocktails taste it first.? Many sparkling wines are very dry, also called “Brut.”? This dryness comes for a relatively low amount of sugar.? But the opposite is also true, some sparkling wines are incredibly sweet.? You’ll need to figure this out before mixing cocktails in order to achieve the proper balance.

Before the New Year celebrations begin, I want to share with you a few classic champagne based cocktails.? First, is the aptly named “Champagne Cocktail.”

Champagne Cocktail
1 sugar cube
Angostura Bitters
Sparkling Wine/Champagne

Saturate the sugar cube with Angostura bitters.? Pour a flute of champagne and drop in the sugar cube.? Watch the pretty fizz.

Honestly, the sugar cube and the bitters don’t bring much to the party.? As the sugar cube breaks down, the bitters are released into the drink but not enough to drastically alter the taste of the champagne.? The sugar just kind of sits in the bottom of the glass and without stirring it up (and releasing a lot of the bubbles in the process) it doesn’t do much good either.? But it certainly makes for a striking presentation!

Another classic champagne (or sparkling wine) cocktail is one of my favorites, the French 75.

French 75
2oz Gin
1oz lemon juice
2 bar spoons simple syrup
Champagne

-Shake gin, lemon juice and simple syrup with ice and strain into a chilled champagne flute.? Top with champagne.? Garnish with a spiral of lemon peel and a maraschino cherry.

The French 75 is, to me, what a champagne cocktail should be. It is sweet, tart, fizzy and packs a nice little punch (almost like a piece of artillery . . . ) from the gin. This is a pure crowd-pleaser – not even the self-described gin haters would turn down this cocktail. Feel free to play around with the types of gin you use to find what works best for you. I’ve used Plymouth, Aviation and Hendrick’s to great success. Each creates a slightly different profile on the final product and each was very (hic!) enjoyable!

Finally, feel free to experiment with creations of your own. Sparkling wine is a fantastic base to create your own house cocktails. While prepping for this article, I had just finished a batch of spiced pumpkin liqueur. (Keep your eyes open to the Scofflaw’s Den for more about that!) I decided to take my own advice and see if I could come up with something unique and festive using champagne and the spiced pumpkin liqueur. What I came away with is

A Sweet Ending
2oz Amber Rum
1oz Spiced Pumpkin Liqueur
Dry/Brut Sparkling Wine

-Shake the rum and liqueur with ice and strain into a chilled champagne flute. Top with the dry sparkling wine of your choice.

The name is derived from the sweet ending of a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal – usually pumpkin pie at my house.? But it also serves as a reminder that this is the ending of one year and the beginning of the next.

So there you have it.? Go out and buy a few bottles of your favorite sparkling wine and experiment with some cocktails of your own.? You and you’re guests will love the versatility and creativity that champagne cocktails bring to the party.

Have a Happy (and Safe) New Year!? Cheers!

Additional champagne cocktail photos can be found here.