(Photo by Beau Finley)
It’s the season for tasting events. Though, on second thought, maybe that is every season. It’s also a week for sipping whiskey cocktails and beer and finding out who the best gay bartender around is.
This Week’s Food Events
DC Brew Fest
Eighty breweries will fill Nationals Park on Saturday afternoon and evening for the DC Beer Festival. It’s $45 to get into either the 12-3 p.m. afternoon session or the 5-8 p.m. evening session. Admission includes all the beer you can sample. Food truck food sold separately.
Blue Jeans Ball
Make up for missing this week’s Taste of the Nation by attending another one of the city’s big foodie evens this Sunday night. The Blue Jeans Ball, raising money for the Capital Area Food Bank, will fill the Marriott Marquis ballroom with tastes from dozens of restaurants. Tickets are $200 (an amount that can provide meals to 500 neighbors).
Tastes of Shaw and Dupont
A few years ago it was a fledgling dining destination. Shaw is now a juggernaut. The neighborhood’s own tasting event, Taste of Shaw, runs Tuesday night at the Howard Theater (620 T Street NW). Tickets are $80 in advance and $100 at the door. Meanwhile with Taste of Dupont this Saturday afternoon, restaurant hoppers can float between restaurants and bars around the circle, dropping in for tastes at each participating location. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 day of the event.
Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic
Billing itself as theworld’s largest annual LGBTQ bartending competition, the Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic returns to Nellie’s (900 U Street NW) on Monday. The DC contest is one of 17 regional competitions. The winner here will join other cocktail mixers in a final round of drink making at a Pride Festival in Key West. Taking the action at Nellie’s is free, and there is free vodka to be had.
Glendalough
Irish whiskey distiller Glendalough hosts a pop-up cocktail bar at Service Bar (928 U Street NW) on Wednesday night. Starting at 7 p.m., cocktails made with the double barrel Irish whiskey with the booze paired with bites from the bar.
Seasonal Garden Table
Blue Duck Tavern (1201 24th Street NW) introduces a monthly fixed-price dinner feature next Friday. Their Seasonal Garden Table will seat guests at a communal table on the last Friday of every month on the restaurant’s terrace. A three-course family-style meal, with multiple dishes per course, cocktails, and wine, is $125, tax and gratuity not included. Call the restaurant at 202-419-6755 for reservations.
Openings
The team behind Compass Rose are preparing to open a new restaurant, Maydan, this fall. Taking root at 14th St. and Florida Ave. NW, cuisine will focus on culinary traditions of the Caucasus region and surrounding lands, focusing on wood-fired cooking. The word maydan means square or gathering place.
Plan Ahead
ZooFari
The National Zoo invites guests to dine for wildlife on May 18. More than 100 restaurants will provide bites in the midst of great cat and prairie dog enclosures.
Embassy Chef Challenge
Will Barbados continue their dominance of the DC Embassy Chef Challenge? Last year, they won the annual event’s judges award with a rum-infused seasoned pork, while the Philippines was the people’s choice winner. In 2015, Barbados won all of the awards. The evening, in which chefs representing over 30 embassies, takes place on Wednesday, May 24 at the Ronald Reagan Building.
