04/12/11
Personal Day
Shutting It Down for the Day
The Great Shutdown of ’11. Didn’t happen. We say: take matters into your own hands by spending a would-be workday hopping around from patio to roof deck to sidewalk café. Call it your own private shutdown.
NOON
Everything’s Got Beer on Capitol Hill
To start, you’ll want to take up a post where you’re likely to encounter people working harder than you. Enter Capitol Hill, where you’ll grab a seat at Belga’s sidewalk café for mussels with red ale, bacon and asparagus, followed by a Hoegaarden Float, with lavender honey and housemade vanilla ice cream.
- 411:
- Belga Café, 514 8th St SE, 202-544-0100, see the menu
3:00PM
Smoke ’Em ’Cause You Got ’Em
You’re breaking rules, sure. But here, they’re a little more lax. Like letting you puff away on their cigars (including a pre-embargo 1959 Cuban) on the garden patio. Pair them with Bourbon Steak’s new classic cocktails like the Scofflaw, the Monkey Gland and the Fog Cutter. Just don’t confuse your Fog Cutter with your cigar cutter.
- 411:
- Bourbon Steak, 2800 Pennsylvania Ave NW, 202-944-2026, see the menu
5:00PM
Towers of Seafood at BLT’s Sidewalk Café
By now, you’ve worked up an appetite. One worthy of a shareable mountain of oysters, shrimp, crab claws and half a lobster. Get there between 5 and 6:30pm (good thing you had nowhere else to be) and pair it with $5 beer, wine and cocktails. Tip: wave to the West Wingers as they punch out for the day.
- 411:
- BLT Steak, 1625 I St NW, 202-689-8999, see the menu
8:00PM
A Huge New Tiki Roof Deck in Clarendon
About this time, you should head across state lines. No, not because of the favorable extradition laws. Because there’s a giant new tiki-themed roof deck awaiting at Whitlow’s—at which you’ll sample the BBQ sandwiches, crab cake sliders and a redneck-y cocktail called the Double Wide, which consists of light beer and OJ.
- 411:
- Roof deck now soft-open, Whitlow’s, 2854 Wilson Blvd, 703-276-9693
MIDNIGHT
Getting Decked at Smith Commons
Your favorite former carpet warehouse on H Street has thrown open its second-floor back deck, which means two things: your James Brown Derby (bourbon, grapefruit, honey syrup) and large-format beers like Ommegang Three Philosophers will stay cold longer. And you’ll have to eat your prawns with chorizo that much quicker.
- 411:
- Smith Commons, 1245 H St NE, 202-396-0038, see the menu
Only what you need to know.