From live music to free outdoor movies—even a gyrating hula-hoop lesson—this week’s installment of Ten Under $10 proves that you can hit a variety of events this weekend without hitting up your broker.
1. Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Company is hosting Pooches on the Patio at its Arlington location Thursday from 4 to 8. Whether your pup’s a well-groomed handbag accessory or shaggy fetching companion, all breeds are welcome to this large outdoor patio. Canines get free treats, and owners get to down drafts ($3 to $4.75). If you bring your four-legged friend, you get 10 percent off your tab.
2. Pay homage to the late director/writer John Hughes and get in the back-to-school mood with a free screening of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off at the John Hughes Memorial Film Series at 8 Thursday at Asylum in DC’s Adams Morgan.
3. Sway to swing, bob to Brazilian, and jive to jazz at the Smithsonian’s free Jazz in the Garden on Friday from 5 to 8:30. Between the great wine on hand and the splashing of the National Gallery of Art’s grand fountain nearby, you’d be wise to locate the nearest restroom beforehand.
4. Motown Philly’s back again! More middle-age and less pubescent than before, Boyz II Men is playing at the Maryland State Fair Friday at 7:30 in Gaithersburg. The $8 fairgrounds admission is your ticket to the show.
5. Electronica meets hipster meets dub at the Liberation Dance Party at DC9 on Friday starting at 9. So lace up your Converse All-Stars and hydrate with free rail cocktails from 9 to 10:30. $6.
Today's coolest (and most refreshing) freebie comes courtesy of renowned mixologist Tad Carducci. Starting at 8 PM, free gin rickeys will be available at U Street speakeasy spot The Gibson. The cocktails will be served in the bar's back patio. Cocktails are free for only an hour, so make sure to get there early if you're planning on getting your drink on.
Here are our picks for this week’s ten-bucks-or-less activities.
1. Sangria lovers should head to Nando’s Peri-Peri for a happy-hour deal featuring 32-ounce pitchers of the stuff for $4.95. It runs from 4 to 7 every day at the Dupont Circle location and Monday through Friday in Chinatown. The promotion ends September 7.
2. We’re a tad annoyed that no one (we’re looking at you, Alejandro) told us about Blingo at Sticky Rice. Every Thursday night, the Atlas District bar hosts a bingo/white elephant mash-up game, where bingo players can win prizes and steal better ones from their opponents. The game kicks off at 11 and usually runs until 1 AM. Free.
3. The Arlington Cinema ’n’ Drafthouse has a good roster of second-run movies, including Land of the Lost, starring Will Ferrell, and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Brüno. Tickets are cheap—$1 to $5.50, depending on when you go—and you can enjoy table service during the films. Both are being shown Thursday night.
4. The Comcast Outdoor Film Festival at Strathmore wraps up Friday with a screening of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Thursday night, it’s Slumdog Millionaire. The films are free, but donations to NIH Children’s Charities will be accepted. Movies start at 8:15.
5. Asylum in Adams Morgan is all grown up—the bar is celebrating its 18th birthday Friday night. To mark the occasion, bartenders will sling beers for 18 cents from 8 to 10 and for $1.80 from 10 to closing. A DJ will be on hand with dance tracks, and the local reggae band Lucky Dub will play at 9:30. No cover.
Ordering a drink "on the rocks" at W Hotel's Point of View Lounge is not so simple. That's because the lounge serves ice five ways: cubed, shaved, chopped, speared and spherical. Each type of ice is designed to give specific drinks the optimal temperature and dilution level—no blenders here. In fact, POV has a walk-in freezer devoted almost entirely to ice, and "ice harvesting" is a scheduled part of their kitchen routine. The man behind the ice program is Sasha Petraske, owner of speakeasy Milk and Honey In New York. Though Petraske shied away from our camera, POV bartender Logan Skidmore stepped in to show us how to chisel away at a 25-pound block of ice and what to with the Japanese contraption they use to turn rugged chunks of ice into smooth spheres. Watch the video below.
Firefly's rose gin fizz and martini caprese cocktails. Photograph by Chris Leaman.
Summer drinks, says cocktail master Owen Thomson, are all about fresh fruit, citrus, and ice—though they have to be blended right. Too often, he says, summer cocktails such as margaritas end up sweet and syrupy. A good summer drink, bartenders agree, should have some tartness.
Thomson, the bar manager at Bourbon in DC’s Adams Morgan, says that for his favorite warm-weather drink, he stays local—the gin rickey, a mix of gin, lime juice, and soda water: “It’s refreshing, delicious, and was invented right here in Washington.”
His second choice is a guilty pleasure: a piña colada. “Not the syrupy coconut mess that is so frequent,” he’s quick to say. Thomson’s recipe calls for a measured mix of fresh pineapple, rum, and just a bit of coconut water and lime.
At Dupont Circle’s Firefly, Alice Gaber’s summer menu includes a rose gin fizz and a martini caprese. For the gin fizz, she adds rose water to a standard recipe, giving the cocktail, Gaber says, “a summery, flower-garden smell and taste.”
For the martini cocktail, she combines thyme-and-basil-infused vodka with house-made tomato water: “Unlike with sweeter cocktails, the saltiness of the tomato water makes this drink a great complement to food.”
This article first appeared in the August 2009 issue of The Washingtonian. For more articles from that issue, click here.
With its citrus tang, sugary sweetness, and crisp mint flavor, a mojito is like an adult lemonade—the ultimate summer thirst quencher. We asked DC native Kevin Diedrich, head bartender at Georgetown’s Bourbon Steak, to give us a recipe—and words of wisdom—on how to make a killer version. Diedrich claps the mint leaves between his hands to release their oils before gently crushing them, being careful not to cause bruising. Too much handling, he says, can cause the mint flavor to turn bitter. Shaved or crushed ice is essential to keep the drink cold and dilute it.
Kevin Diedrich’s Mojito 4 to 5 fresh mint sprigs ¾ ounce fresh lime juice ¾ ounce sugar-cane syrup 2 ounces 10 Cane rum Crushed or shaved ice Soda water
Put mint, lime juice, and cane syrup into a tall glass and gently crush or “muddle” with the back of a wooden spoon. Add rum. Top with crushed ice. Stir gently with a bar spoon. Top with soda water to taste and garnish with a mint sprig.
- Drinks
