Photo by Adam Barhan.Drink of the Week: Dry cider
Where: ChurchKey, Meridian Pint
Hard cider is having a moment. Like the burgeoning demand for craft beer, expect to find more and better cider on restaurant and bar menus in the coming years. And I’m not talking about Woodchuck, Angry Orchard, or anything else that resembles gassy apple juice for ladies. The new hard cider is dry, crisp, and has a complex flavor profile on par with wine.
As a woman, I’ve never been able to shake the feeling that mass-marketed hard ciders are seen as a sweeter, girlier alternative to beer. The whole approach is off-putting: taste preferences don’t have anything to do with gender, and these marketing tactics distort the historical character of the beverage. In reality, hard cider is much more than some way to expand beer makers’ market share: it’s one of America’s oldest drinks. The first colonists were fermenting apples and pears long before anyone from Germany came over and started brewing beer. While it was not the sticky sweet incarnation that we know today, cider eventually fell out of favor, with prohibition putting the final nail in the coffin.
Today, small producers are brewing up ciders closer to those that our forefathers imbibed. Both Meridian Pint (3400 11th Street NW) and ChurchKey (1337 14th Street NW), renown for their beer selection, have entire pages of their menu devoted to hard cider. These puppies often come in a large format bottle, so bring a friend to share. Like beer or wine, the characteristics of cider runs the gamut from sparkling to barely bubbly and range in color from rich golden to the pale yellow. Flavors can be tart and super funky, like Etienne Dupont Cidre at ChurcKey, while others are brighter and fruitier, sometimes similar to a white wine. And even if you don’t like IPAs, dry hopped ciders — like the Wandering Aengus Anthem Dry Hop Cider on the menu at Meridian Pint — have a wonderfully crisp and lightly floral quality that goes down easily. Pair it with food, quaff it solo, but by all means start exploring what drinking cider should be.
Small Bites
Eat more pancakes in 2014
Forget that New Year’s resolutions about eating healthier because from now until February 9th, IHOP (3100 14th Street NW) is serving all-you-can-eat pancakes. The promotion is for buttermilk pancakes only, either ordered as a stack or with one of their combination meals. Waitstaff will continue to bring out flapjacks until you keel over or ask them to stop, whichever happens first.
Erik Bruner-Yang loves pop-ups
Last year, Erick Bruner-Yang popped up at Hanoi House; now the Toki Underground chef is popping up at Baltimore’s Artifact Coffee (1500 Union Avenue). The collaboration, called “Tokifact,” will feature ramen and dumplings from Bruner-Yang and cocktails and sake from Woodberry Kitchen. Tell your ramen-starved Baltimore friends to stop by the coffee shop for some noodly goodness on January 9th-11th or 16th-18th starting at 6:30 pm.
Bombay Club turns 25
If Bombay Club was a person, he or she would definitely be a Millennial. The D.C. institution (815 Connecticut Avenue NW) is celebrating a quarter century in the restaurant business with a special $25 anniversary lunch menu and a host of new cocktails. Look for dishes like Goan masala crab, lamb vindaloo, and tandoori scallops. Dinner guests will also get a complimentary glass of bubbly to mark the occasion.
