Speakeasies In The DC Area

In June I went to PX. It's a little speakeasy in Old Town, Alexandria. Last year, some co-workers and I went to eat at Eamonn's A Dublin Chipper for some fish and chips. Really great fish, cool assortment of dips AND they deep fry chocolate bars! Anyway, it's a small place and we could only find seating outside on the side street. While we eating and chatting we noticed people knocking on the door of the townhouse next door. What made it unusual was instead of opening the door, the guests spoke through a little peephole that opened at eye level. If you had a reservation, in you went. One gentleman didn't have a reservation and was quite perturbed about not getting in. Curious, I went and knocked to find out what was going on. Turns out the speakeasy is open when the blue light above the door is on and a flag (a pirate flag) is hanging above the door at Eamonn's. You make reservations (for parties no larger than 6). They're known for being creative with their drinks and making a lot of their own juices, bitters, etc. Anyway, after months of talking about going, the FTC (Finer Things Club) finally went. Before meeting up with FTC, I did stop into Eamonn's for a small fish. They're really good and I don't get to Old Town often and, let's face it, I was going to have some drinks, food would be good to have prior to that. The blue light was on. We knocked. The peephole opened and asked, "yes?" To which S answered, "We have a reservation." And we were promptly let in, ushered up some narrow steps into the bar. We sat across from it (and right next to the bathroom door). They brought homemade chips and the drink ordering began! All in all, I started with a drink that had strawberry and rhubarb. It had an ice ball in it the size of a small snowball. It was really quite unusual (and I admit I wondered how they got it that shape). Next I tried to see how creative they were. They had home made ginger-ale so I asked if they could make me something using that. They did. It had some pineapple and other assorted goodies. Then I had something, I recall not liking, so I ended on a drink involving beets. Everyone else got interesting drinks as well -- such as grog! Here's a sampling of the drinks we all had that night.





FTC had gone to The Gibson, a speakeasy in DC. It was also dark and by reservation. It specialized in prohibition era drinks. I wasn't really keen on their drinks menu to be honest. I'm not a drinks connoisseur by any means, but they were both fun nights and an excuse to dress up. But, I'd take Eamonn's or Marvin (the restaurant next door to The Gibson) any day. Marvin served my favorite cocktail of the summer -- the Lawnmower: lemonade with tea infused vodka and mint!