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A bar patron's ability to develop a relationship with his bartender will invariably dictate a better imbibing experience, whether it's at a fancy cocktail place or the local dive bar. That is perhaps what makes the name of the much anticipated new bar from brothers Tom and Derek Brown, The Passenger, particularly apt. Going back to a time when travel wasn't about being corralled through metal detectors like cattle, The Passenger, which opens tonight at 5 p.m., is trying to put some first class luxury and leisure in your drinking journey. This is apparent throughout the decor, which features church pews, intricate wrought iron tables, and the building's original floors.
This is not a race to the finish with a simple two-ingredient gin and tonic or rum and coke. The expectation (though who knows what it will be like when the joint is actually busy) is for you to relax and have a complex cocktail that is crafted to your specifications. This experience will also extend to the back, the Columbia Room, a separate reservations-only 20-seat bar that will be served by Derek Brown. It is still undergoing construction, with the hope that it will open sometime in January. The private room is meant to ensure an unhurried evening that isn't necessarily guaranteed in the main bar.
There is no cocktail menu at the Passenger, so when ordering one, you'll be asked to specify a base liquor and further detail on whether you like a drier or sweeter drink. This is the part where it's important to develop that relationship with your bartender and have a real conversation. It will enable you the opportunity to learn more about what you prefer, and to learn about new things. You may discover that you like vermouth; the dry, rouge and blanc Dolin vermouths are highly quaffable on their own.
For non-cocktail lovers, there is a solid list of wines and beers (four on draft plus an eclectic offering of cans). If you come hungry, food is simple: olives, roasted almonds, beef jerky, and Route 11 chips are available for the slightly peckish, and if you want something a bit more substantial, there are paninis, half smokes and kimchi dogs (take care on that last one, it's spicy acidity isn't for everyone). Both the dogs and jerky come from Nathan Anda's Red Apron Charcuterie.
In addition to Tom Brown working the front bar, expect to see Bourbon Steak's Jamie McBain picking up a few shifts. Both have unique mixing styles and you may decide you prefer one to the other. But that really ensures there's something for everybody.
The Passenger
1021 7th St. NW
Washington, DC, 20001
(202) 393-0220
Metro: Mt. Vernon Square or Gallery Place/Chinatown
Mon - Thurs: 5 p.m. - 1:30 a.m.
Fri - Sat: 5 p.m. - 2:30 a.m.
Sun: 5 p.m. - 1:30 a.m.
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While the description of the libation options makes this sound like a blatant rip-off of the Gibson and its ilk, the combination of beverages AND munchies is worth a look-see. Especially the half-smokes - enjoying a snooty martini AND a tube of ground animal byproducts at the same time sounds fairly awesome. Not that I would, but I could. Win!
derek brown is/was behind the gibson in a big capacity. probably the reason it's similar, but from the sound of it another level.
and tom's a good bartender as well as person, i wish them all the luck and success. should be pretty cool.
What beers and how much? I know they are can heavy and see some Bell's on tap in one of the photos.
Carlous, Kalamazoo Stout, Arrogant Bastard, and Lagunita's Pils.
Cans: pork slap amber & stout; the Oskar Blues collection, two ciders, Steel reserve & High Life, and a couple others I can't recall.
Prices are not that bad here either. Maybe they botched our tab last night, but my three drinks, and my friends' six beers ran around $40 bucks. Pils is only $5 per pull .. not a bad deal.
Huge coolness on the location. That block needed precisely this. I'll bless them floorboards as soon as possible.
Don't people just drink anymore? Does everything have to be steeped in a soup of pretension?. I'm sorry, a vichysoisse of pretension.
I was about to call fie! and then you caught yourself.
From your lips to god's ears. What's with all these hoity-toity places and their chatty-cathy bartenders and bullshit cocktails? At a good bar, there should be four drinks on the menu, tops: light beer, dark beer, clear liquor, brown liquor. The bartender should be a mute and everyone should order with hand gestures. You want food? Eat a handful of the sawdust off the floor, Nancy. It's what you're grandfather would've done. No eye contact or talking either. If it's companionship you're after, find a bathhouse. You're at a bar to drink, so focus on your task.
In light of your previous avatar and your uncouth ways, I thought it was appropriate to say:
Cowboy: He's lucky Texas Jack ain't around... he'd gun that dude for sure!
Professor Fate: Pardon me, Mr. Pahd-nuh, who is this Texas Jack?
Cowboy: WHO'S TEXAS JACK?
Professor Fate: Who?
Cowboy: The roughest, toughest gunslinger in these parts... Lilly's his girl!
Professor Fate: Whoo, hoo, hoo... Lilly's his girl.
Max: Terrific...
"Welcome to Borracho, honey!"
"Welcome to Borracho, honey!"
This has got to be one of the more obscure references you've slung.
The cocktail pendulum will inevitably swing to the other extreme, where you'll get a bar called "Beer Bongs" where it's just a table made out of a door and cinder blocks, a funnel, some PVC tubing, and case after case of Schaefer. Everybody sits on the floor eating Cool Ranch Doritos and cold pizza while watching Liddsville reruns. Then they get tired, download some porn, jerk off, and pass out.
So this was a prospectus, right? How much do you need to make this happen?
We're taking our cue from Dr. Dremos: $10k minimum, paid back over two years, buys you your very own private Beer Bong cubbyhole, where we store your gear, and door/table service. Upgrade to Platinum Beer Bong Class for access to the V.I.P. Lounge where you get to piss in an old clawfoot bathtub instead of the dead tree out back, and your Bacon-Tini is made with real bacon instead of Beggin Strips®. Platinum Class also guarantees that you won't wake up on a tramp steamer to a Shanghai man/boy love den.*
[*Not a guarantee. Warning: bacon factory may explode.]
The cocktail pendulum will inevitably swing to the other extreme, where you'll get a bar called "Beer Bongs" where it's just a table made out of a door and cinder blocks, a funnel, some PVC tubing, and case after case of Schaefer. Everybody sits on the floor eating Cool Ranch Doritos and cold pizza while watching Liddsville reruns. Then they get tired, download some porn, jerk off, and pass out.
It's called Trusty's
I think you mean a consommé or courtboullion of pretention. Not even the most cheese-eatingest surrender monkey would steep anything in a vichysoisse. It's not even French. It was invented at the Ritz-Carlton.
Or perhaps you meant "a soupçon of pretention?" La mot juste!
Maybe they could use some locally sourced ingredients... like bullets. Shouldn't have to go too far to get a few of those.
...gives new meaning to the regular beer and a shot special
I think they are repurposing the old Warehouse Theater/Gallery space and I suppose that is ultimately to the good. Although what the neighborhood needs is a dive bar that serves shots with a beer back and bags of Cheetoes off of a snappy rack. There are enough fancy spots already down at Gallery Place. (The shutdown of the Warehouse was a great loss; it's irreplaceable and I'm a bit bitter. Sorry.)
How about hitting Rocket Bar and swinging by CVS for a bag of Cheetoes beforehand?
Kimchi dogs, half smokes, and vermouth drinks? Somebody call the hazmat squad.
this place is going to make me fart.
Can anyone confirm that there will be a hobo-themed cocktail parlor opening soon? I hear their happy hour special involves Sterno poured through stale bread with a wood alcohol chaser. They had some run-in with the ABC Board over the entertainment which would involve topless hobos fighting over a porkchop. That, and they couldn't get powerful enough ventilation do deal with all the pickled eggs. Light a match and you could take out the whole block. Their charcuterie platter (three kinds of bologna, a Hickory Farms Yule Log, and a jar of Kraft Roka Blue) was less than not uninspired. So by all means, go to the Gilded Napsack Bindle if you want to DIE and leave a pickled egg smelling corpse. P.S. Parking was ample.
sounds like my kinda place. What time do the hobo's fight? And is it pickled egg au grautin? Before the first one (Blind Hobo) went under due to lack of audience participation they served congealed egg ala mode and egg custard. That was back when real gastropubs were just beginning. I really miss the smell of the place.
So we have a cross between Iggy Pop and the Sex Pistols? C'mon, you were all thinking it.
what i just want to know is how do the dcist writers afford to go out to bars like this and gibson, marvin, etc. so often. these places aren't cheap, and if you're renting a place in shaw/logan/u street/columbia heights, you're probably forking over $1000 a month minimum on housing costs. add in eating at fancy restaurants all the time, and i have to think that the average person reviewing these places has to be making a minimum of $85,000 a year to keep from being flat broke.
or do you just get free drinks and food in exchange for the reviews? 'cause i'm more than willing to do quite a bit for free drinks... :)
Maybe gothamist throws a little spending cash their way for these reviews? Or maybe these media previews are free for everyone who attends? That last one seems a bit unlikely but hey, you never know. IMGoph, methinks it'd be advantageous if you threw together a Frozen Tropics press badge in Photoshop and pretend you got your NE and NW mixed up.
Those whale cakes don't buy themselves.
dues: i'll get to work on the press pass post-haste!
I suspect that they're freebies. Charging for food/libations does not good press make!
Any new bar or restaurant is going to throw a media preview to create buzz, and we do attend them in order to taste what's going to be offered and get a good look at the place. That was the case here. We don't have the same kind of budget that the Post does to send our critics out to review places thoroughly -- going at least 4-5 times, over the course of several months, at different times of day/days of the week, etc. I wish we could do that, but we have to make due with a mix of attending tastings like these and the good will of our food & drink writers, who will often write up places for us that they had been planning on going to on their own. That's also why we clearly label posts like this as a "First Look" or a "Preview" as opposed to a review. This really isn't a review, it's just a quick peek at what you can expect from a brand new place.
As for whether our writers can afford it ... I personally dine out at a nice restaurant maybe twice a year, but our contributors come form all walks of life and professions, most of them aren't broke full-time bloggers like me :)
i guess dcist's readership must skew towards a higher income bracket than the one i'm in. because if all dcist readers were like me, these previews would be better branded as "fanciful dreams."
ah, to have money and time...
Well maybe if you didn't live in such a swank, hoity-toity, gated community like Trinidad you wouldn't be broke all the f**king time. I swear, you move out of that tarp-covered culvert in Swampoodle and all you do is complain about how poor you are. If you didn't want to be poor, why did you buy a roof?
touché, sir. i should have known my place. guess i just went and got uppity.