DC bars to open early for impeachment mania
Restaurant and bar owners in Washington are aiming to cash in on impeachment in a decidedly #thistown way, opening their doors early so the city’s politically minded revelers can imbibe as they take in the House’s first televised hearings.
The House impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine is poised to enter a new phase on Wednesday, with public hearings scheduled in the Intelligence Committee, with more set for Friday.
{mosads}Duffy’s Irish Pub, in the District’s H Street NE neighborhood, will feature what it’s dubbing “happy hearing hours,” with $5 rail drinks and $2 off all drafts and wine during all impeachment hearings. The watering hole — which boasts eight large, flat-screen TVs with a “stadium sound” system — says it’s also whipping up a pair of impeachment beverages to mark the occasion. Bartenders will be serving a “Subpoena Colada” and a drink called “James and the Giant Impeachment.”
The eatery isn’t the only place prepping for all the impeachment action in the House.
Union Pub says it will be open for business at 9:50 a.m. on Wednesday, just 10 minutes before the hearing is scheduled to begin. The Capitol Hill tavern will be showing everything impeachment on all its TVs and will be featuring a surplus of specials.
For $7, customers can pick up a variety of peachy cocktails, including its “Impeachment Please”, made with peach-flavored Jim Beam, simply syrup and orange bitters, or “I Got 99 Problems But Impeachment Ain’t One,” a Sobieski peach vodka, peach Schnapps, orange juice, Sprite and lemon libation.
For bar-goers who plan on guzzling beer while they catch the impeachment hearings, there will be $15 Bud and Bud Light buckets available.
The Midlands Beer Garden will open its doors at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to show the hearings on two 100-inch projectors. The Georgia Ave. spot will be offering $6 Irish coffee and mulled ciders. Co-owner Robin Webb also noted that the establishment has a large bottle of champagne behind an enclosure with the message “In case of President Pelosi, break glass.”
Hawk ‘n’ Dove, one of Capitol Hill’s oldest dining and drinking destinations, will open at 10 a.m. on Wednesday and serve up its happy hour menu all day. TVs will be tuned to the impeachment hearings, a general manager tells ITK, for patrons to watch the goings-ons on just blocks away from the proceedings “live with audio.”
Another Capitol Hill destination, Capitol Lounge, is rolling out an entire pun-filled menu of drink specials for the first day of impeachment hearings.
Some of the offerings include the “Quit Bro, Go” — made with prosecco, elderflower, Italian soda, mint, lime and “served on a subpoena” — and an “Insane in the Ukraine” cocktail, which includes Stolichnaya Blueberi vodka, soda, and “frozen lemon-aid,” among other concoctions.
Available at 11:00AM pic.twitter.com/DBBXxNWhCp
— Capitol Lounge (@CapLounge) November 13, 2019
It’s not the first time bars around Washington have gotten in on the happenings on the Hill. Many places opened up early and offered up food and drink specials for former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony in July before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, and for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s February appearance in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
—Sutton Dunwoodie contributed.
—Updated at 11:15 a.m.
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