When Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that the lower chamber was moving ahead with an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, my thoughts immediately turned to the D.C. establishments that open their doors for blockbuster Congressional hearings.

And I wasn’t the only one.

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Bars have long hosted screenings for big-ticket television like presidential debates, election nights, and, of course, sporting events. (That’s basically the business model of sports bars, after all.) But during the Trump administration, a new tradition has emerged in D.C.: rolling out the red carpet for patrons on a weekday morning and blasting C-SPAN, so denizens can communally watch the Congressional hearing du jour.

Starting with the testimony of fired FBI head James Comey in June 2017, which saw Washingtonians line up around the block to get into spots promising all manner of drink specials, a slew of establishments have also hosted viewing parties for the hearing featuring Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Indeed, now-shuttered restaurant The Bird even promised $5 “Moscow Muellers” every time the special counsel indicted a Trump associate.

And while it’s still unclear what, exactly, this impeachment inquiry will entail, it’s clear that some businesses are already gearing up for it.

The Logan Circle restaurant Logan Tavern devoted part of its Wednesday manager meeting to discuss plans for impeachment events. “Things are definitely still in the works,” says Carly Hudson, Logan Tavern’s promotions manager. “We have some drink specials and food specials that we’re working on.”

Already, hearing mainstay Union Pub has announced two specialty cocktails: “I Got 99 Problems but Impeachment Ain’t One,” featuring “impeachment peach vodka,” and the Jim Beam peach-based “ImPEACHment Please …” They’re going for $9 each.

Ashley Saunders, Union Pub’s general manager, tells DCist that, for now, the promotion is ongoing: “We’ll take it day by day and see how things progress,” she writes over email. “I’m not sure what the coming days will look like in terms of announcements or opportunities to have events here as things develop, but we’ll always do what we can to rally around what is going on in the world of politics.”

And even outside city limits, restaurants are mixing up impeachment-related beverages. The Dish & Dram, out in Kensington, Md., is now serving up a peach-inspired Old Fashioned called “A Good Ol’ Fashioned Impeachment.” Trying to cash in on impeachment has also led the establishment to rechristen its Moscow Mule as the “Just Another Mueller Report.” Both are selling for $10.

A spokesperson for Duffy’s Irish Pub says that “we try to make a lighthearted gesture of having a drink that’s related” to the proceedings, listing off the Covfefe cocktail as one example. But don’t expect a list of them in advance: “We usually wait until the last minute.”

Not everyone is a fan of this custom, which often prompts eye rolls. Derek Brown, the president of Drink Company and owner of upscale cocktail bar Columbia Room, made it clear that he wouldn’t be participating. “I won’t. I just won’t,” Brown tweeted on Wednesday. “The proper drink to drink during any politically hairy event is whiskey, always whiskey. Not with peaches, not with mint. I’m not going to create a cocktail for this, doomsday, hurricanes, or the second coming. We don’t need a cocktail for everything.”

Hudson, who says a big part of her job is “getting butts in the seats,” says that politically-oriented events tend to do quite well. Election night in 2018, for instance, “was one of our most successful nights ever … Being in D.C., [politics] is not only right in our faces all the time, but we see people come into the restaurants who work on the Hill and know these people” featured in the hearings.

Rob Heim, the general manager of Shaw’s Tavern, is waiting to see which hearings are televised before making particular event plans for the Shaw restaurant. Shaw’s Tavern was among the first to announce its event for the Comey hearing. “We like to provide a space for everyone with all types of political beliefs to gather and, especially in D.C., these types of events are pretty important to our community,” he tells DCist over email this week. “We are happy to provide a space for them to be watched.”

But even though many of these Shaw’s Tavern events have been packed, at least one offer by the restaurant shows some of the pitfalls of providing news-themed specials. Last fall, during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about sexual assault allegations against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh, Shaw’s Tavern advertised bottomless mimosas alongside viewings. Following outcry, the establishment deleted its tweet with the offer and apologized.

“It was an oversight on our part given the very serious circumstances of today’s hearing and in no way did we intend to offend anyone or make light of the situation,” the restaurant wrote on social media, pledging to donate all of its proceeds that day to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

The closure of The Bird, which offered those $5 Moscow Mueller cocktails on about 30 separate occasions over the course of the special counsel’s investigation, serves as another cautionary tale for leaning in too hard into politically-oriented drink specials.

“The intention was nice and it drove thousands of dollars to our restaurant, but it was also a distraction,” David Winer, who owns EatWell DC, the restaurant group behind The Bird, told DCist in January. “Sometimes it took our eye off dinner business.”

This story has been updated with comment from Ashley Saunders, Rob Heim, and The Dish & Dram.