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Hill bar-crawl Sloppy talk, cheap beer |
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By The Hill Staff
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Posted: 11/16/04 12:00 AM [ET] |
On a normally quiet weekend, Capitol Hill became a boisterous hub of activity Saturday thanks to the “Chill on the Hill: Capitol Hill Bar Tour.”
The tour — organized to benefit Food and Friends, a local charity that delivers meals and groceries to people living with HIV/AIDS — began at 1 p.m. and ended officially at 9 p.m., though most partygoers kept going into the wee hours. | | Christopher D. Costa | | Chill on the Hill participants Saturday at Finn Mac Cools, one of eight bars on the crawl. |
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| Eight bars participated: Hawk ’n’ Dove, Tune Inn, Little Pub, Tunnicliff’s Tavern, Finn Mac Cool’s, Marty’s, Ellington’s on Eighth, Taverna the Greek Islands, Bullfeathers and Tortilla Coast. It was a young, lively crowd that included numerous Hill locals as well as revelers from elsewhere in the city and as far away as Philadelphia.
The party began at Hawk ’n’ Dove, where organizers began registering crawlers at 1 p.m. As the first stop, it wasn’t surprising to find the Hawk already packed and loud by 5 p.m.
At the front bar, Kylee Burgess and Cassie Cullen — both seniors at American University — were getting their first shots in, enjoying the $2 house special on lemon drops. Not regulars up on the Hill, both had been attracted by the success of the last pub-crawl, organized by Lindy Promotions on Halloween.
Larger groups quickly staked out the back room: college kids and staffers mostly, sporting Mardi Gras beads and sloppy, buzzing grins. A buoyant game of quarters was in full swing by 6 p.m., while the non-gaming crowd divided its attention between french fries and football — Pittsburgh versus Notre Dame.
Hawk regulars appeared to be surprised but pleased by the sudden popularity of their local haunt. At the back bar, cabaret actor Bill — or Ann Coulter, as he prefers to be called — batted mascara-laden eyelashes and said that he had just stopped in for a drink before heading off for his evening gig at a private residence down on Independence Avenue.
Organizers, bundled up at the registration table outside, said they were pleased with the turnout.
“This is the first event we’ve held on the Hill, and 650 people have signed up,” organizer Jackie Geyfman said. The majority of the crawlers had brought canned goods, she said, a donation that lowered the cost of attending from $10 to $7. Two overflowing tubs of food backed up her assertion. In total, the organizers collected more than 500 pounds of food.
The scene was much more low-key next door at Tune Inn, a bar known for housing the capital’s finest collection of mounted animals. It was just another Saturday night, with regulars shining their favorite barstools, happily unmolested by tipsy, pushy 20-year-olds.
A chilly, five-minute walk did not deter crawlers from heading east down Pennsylvania Avenue to 8th Street. Many stopped on the way to check out Little Pub before moving on, keeping the bar packed and steamy throughout the evening.
The hot spots on 8th Street were Finn Mac Cool’s and Marty’s. For those still thirsty after four or five stops, Finn’s was the place to be. The hungry headed to Marty’s next door for $5 chicken tenders, a special that Philadelphia native Alli Pincus seemed eager to try after she and her friends finished up at Finn’s.
Caught midyawn, Pincus explained that she was a bit tired, but she woke up quickly when asked her opinion of the crawl.
For her, it was the whole pub-crawl promotional concept, rather than Finn’s $6 car bombs, that appealed to her. “I’m amazed at the number of people,” she said enthusiastically. “I do fundraising for a school, and this is such a great idea!”
Farther down the bar, Arlington resident Renzo Cuavros voiced similar sentiments.
“A bar-crawl with canned goods! Why not?” he yelled over Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
Wearing a blue “I bleed beef” T-shirt and rapidly working his way through shots of Jagermeister and Red Bull, Cuavros said that he and his friends had been “hopping” since 3 o’clock. That could explain the poetic response from his friend Mike Gogttschalk; “I’m just a bill on Capitol Hill, trying to get my thrill, on a cheap-ass deal.”
Cuavros was feeling generous. He bought my photographer and me several car bombs (a vomit-inducing concoction of a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream dropped into a glass of stout and chugged).
Cornered in the ladies’ room — which was certainly quieter, but no less crowded, than Finn’s bar — Shannon with the State Department was eager to reminisce. She moved off the Hill two years ago and described the night as a “walk down memory lane.” A quick glance in the mirror and she headed out, keen to make it to Tunnicliff’s on 7th before it got too late.
Next door in Marty’s, the patio doors were open, keeping the bar cool and fresh — a pleasant change from the stifling heat and smoke that hung in the air at every other stop. As Pincus from Philly had predicted, the chicken tenders certainly appeared popular.
Tucked in at a table near the front door, Lindsay Pinkus, a legislative associate for Washington Partners, leaned across the table to tell me that she’d been to a pub-crawl organized on M Street a few months before but that she thought the Hill one was better.
“It’s an older crowd,” she said. “Not so focused on just getting drunk. Good company, cheap beer and more appropriate to network.” |
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