Todd Thrasher’s drink of choice is a rum and tonic. For years, whether it was at his award-winning Alexandria speakeasy PX, long stints at Restaurant Eve and Society Fair, or his more recent creations for The LINE’s Brothers and Sisters cocktail program, the veteran bartender and multi-year James Beard nominee sought a drinkable rum that would pair well in a tonic. He often used Mount Gay rum but saw holes he could fill in the artisanal distilling of his favorite spirit.
So Thrasher switched directions in what has been an oft-watched, decorated career: He crafted his own rum. He honed his distilling techniques at places like Kentucky’s Moonshine University. The payoff is four types of rum made in 200-gallon stills at Thrasher’s new Potomac Distilling Company at The District Wharf, all served up at the attached bar Tiki TNT. The initial lineup includes white and gold rums, one with traditional with notes of vanilla and allspice, and a lighter, earthier green spiced rum Thrasher created for his signature drink with lemon verbena, mint, and green cardamom.
“I spent the last 15 years in a suit and tie,” Thrasher says. “You get to a point where you want to do something different. When I opened PX, I wanted a quiet place where my wife and I could go and sit down and talk. At this point, I want something completely diametrically opposed: loud and raucous and fun.”
Thrasher is letting loose with Tiki TNT, which opened Monday with limited service. The space is a Hawaiian waterside cocktail bar, where all three split-level floors and a rooftop bar are doused in pink, bamboo accents and fuzzy neon chairs decorate the bars, and the rum flows freely. His mantra, splashed in neon above one of the downstairs bars, is “Have a Blast”—a break from the more serious, no standing rules at PX.
Cocktails are, of course, rum-forward and incorporate one of Thrasher’s four distilled styles whenever possible. There are classics like pina coladas, mai tais, and frozen concoctions made with El Dorado aged rum, as well as $14 tiki cocktails, creatively named. Mister Fancy Pants has Thrasher’s white rum and clarified pineapple juice; the Feel Better and Get Well mixes Irish whiskey, house gold rum, and lemon bitters.
The menu, which is full of big-name chef collaborations from Thrasher’s industry friends, also doesn’t take itself too seriously: You can order bowls of kimchi Top Ramen and a slate of catches from The Wharf’s fish market next door alongside a Peruvian rotisserie chicken created by Maketto’s Eric Bruner-Yang. Chef Larry Blevins of Society Fair will oversee small plates ($6) like avocado dip and poi with mashed taro root to large dishes (up to $24) like coconut shrimp flatbread, salmon and Old Bay sandwiches from chef Bryan Voltaggio, and a pork shoulder platter with Hawaiian rolls and dipping sauces.
For dessert, Thrasher tapped Bayou Bakery’s David Guas for tropical-infused sweets: pineapple upside-down cake, coconut cream pie, and a recreation of the rum buns Thrasher loved from now-shuttered Hogate’s in Arlington. The buns can come glazed with or without the booze.
The bar will offer happy hour daily from 3 p.m.-6 p.m., last-night specials with flatbreads available until last call (1:30 a.m. on weeknights, 2 a.m. on weekends), and a forthcoming weekend brunch serving $40 fish bowls and $18 bottomless mimosas. Thrasher also shows his long history of loyalty in the D.C. drink scene through a nightly “industry family” $10 special: dinner, a Miller High Life, and a shot of his rum.
For those who don’t go to the tiki bar, Thrasher says his rum will soon be available through local distributors in D.C., Maryland, and Delaware. He also plans to release an aged spirit down the line.
“Every day you should learn something new,” says Thrasher. “Whether it’s distilling or bartending or working in a restaurant, if you stop learning you might as well just stop.”
Potomac Distilling Company and Tiki TNT are located at 1130 Maine Avenue SW at the Wharf. Tiki TNT hours are Monday through Thursday 3 p.m.-2 a.m., Friday 3 p.m.-3 a.m., Saturday 11 a.m.-3 a.m., and Sunday 11 a.m.-midnight.
