The new Columbia Heights coffeehouse, restaurant, and keg-wine destination will open in April at 1020 Monroe.

While chatting yesterday with Tryst beverage director David Fritzler about an entirely unrelated matter, Best Bites learned about bar plans for the company's forthcoming Columbia Heights operation. "Fishbowl" has been put out there as a possible monicker, though Fritzler referred to the project as "The Fourth Place"—it is the fourth venture from his boss, Constantine Stavropoulos, who also owns The Diner and Open City in Woodley Park. (The latter was referred to as "The Third Place" for some time prior to its opening.)

The new project, which occupies 7,000 square feet of real estate at 11th and Monroe, will have a bar that seats 22 to 24 people, according to Fritzler. There will be an emphasis on value wines and lesser-known varietals, and we'll likely see a collection of keg wines behind the bar, along with a nitrogen system.

Beer: There are lots of opportunities to drink some this week.

The holiday week is upon us, and we all know what that means: Tumbleweeds roll through the half-empty offices, phone calls and e-mails go unanswered, and the anticipation of a long, football-filled day of binging lulls everyone into a sort of fugue state in which time passes slowly but little happens in the way of work.

We might as well take advantage by getting a jump on our holiday drinking. Jack Rose just tapped Allies Win the War, a date-brewed barleywine collaboration between 21st Amendment in California and the great Ninkasi, based in Eugene, Oregon. Churchkey, meanwhile, has the Hitachino Nest White from Kiuchi in Japan. That brewery makes very nice beers that are packaged in little bottles with charming owls on the labels—graphic testimony to the Japanese people's well-established reputation for being the ultimate connoisseurs of cute.

There’s a Black Spirits party at American Ice Company on Wednesday, November 23. It begins at 10 PM and features drinks by American Ice bar manager Patrick Owens, along with Dan Searing, punch authority. Musical pleasures arrive by way of Andy Myers, sommelier at CityZen, KevLam (from the band Beasts of No Nation), and one “Peter Etcetera” of 13th Street Meats.

In the Last Minute Plans series, we let you know about surprising openings at soon-to-occur events.

Vinoteca owner Paul Carlson says classes at his 11th Street wine bar tend to sell out in advance, but a weekend cancellation has left him with a few open spaces at tonight’s holiday wine pairing class.

The lesson is the last in Vinoteca’s latest series (a new set of classes will begin in December or early 2012). The two-hour tutorial starts at 7 PM and costs $35; that buys you five wine tastings with food pairings, plus a $5 gift card.

Teaching will be local distributor Scott Peters, who will pour a port, a California Chardonnay, an Alsatian Gewürztraminer, a Pouilly-Fuissé, and a Prosecco.

Call Vinoteca (202-332-9463) to reserve.

Happy Monday, fans of booze. Today, sushi (and Singapore slaw) destination Zentan debuts a new happy hour that includes $5 small plates, including spinach, shiitake, and duck egg dumplings; vegetarian spring rolls; sweet & sour meatballs; and a petite portion of that famous slaw. There are also specials on rail cocktails, draft beers, and house wines. The HH will be offered from 4 to 7 PM Monday through Friday.

This being the third week in November, it’s time for the annual Beaujolais Nouveau celebrations. On Wednesday, Brightest Young Things hosts its Beauj blowout at 1905. The party starts around 9:30 PM; find details on the BYT Web site. Then, of course, there’s the annual Beaujolais belly-up at the Bistro Du Coin bar. This begins at midnight on the 17th. Meanwhile, the French Embassy's party takes place on Thursday. Find details and ticket information here.

Also on Thursday, Thanksgiving arrives one week early at Jack Rose. The Adams Morgan Scotch spot is tapping a few beer casks to drink alongside roast turkey. Sounds like a good opportunity to check out potential Thanksgiving beer-pairing options. (For more on that, check out this Best Bites post on T-Day beer pairings from local experts.)

Pinot noir? Please. This Thanksgiving, it's all about the beer.

Approach One: Greg Engert

Greg Engert, beer director at Churchkey and Birch & Barley, takes his beer pairing very seriously. It’s his job, after all. So we asked him to offer up suggestions for suds that would match winningly with the Thanksgiving feast.

“We’re looking for flavorful brews with medium-bodied richness; moderate alcohol; residually sweet tastes of bread, toast, caramel, or even light roast; and spicy-herbal aromatics. Any beer with these properties will go swimmingly with all of the food on Thanksgiving,” says Engert.

With that in mind, he divides T-Day eaters into two categories: those who like light meat, and those who prefer dark. For each, he offered up pairing selections from local craft breweries. If you prefer brews from places more far-flung, just use the beer styles (wit, hefe, etc.) to guide you. 

Engert offered six suggestions for regional brews for the breast eaters. (Oh stop it, you know what we mean.)

They are:

DC Brau partners with Utah's Epic Brewing.

DC Brau co-owners Brandon Skall and Jeff Hancock first encountered Epic Brewing—a beermaking operation in Salt Lake City, Utah—at Northern Virginia Brewfest last summer.

"We liked their beers, they liked ours," recalls Skall. So they decided to make one together. Head brewer Hancock came up with a recipe and sent it to Kevin Crompton, his counterpart at Epic. Then he flew to Utah for two days so they could brew the beer together.

In the end, the breweries decided to release two slightly different versions of the imperial pumpkin porter. ("Imperial" refers to the porter's high ABV—about eight percent.) DC Brau added roasted malts to the East Coast version, which Skall says envelope some of the sweetness of the pumpkin flavor. (An impressive six hundred pounds of squash were used to make it. Allspice, nutmeg, ground cinnamon, ginger, whole cloves, and Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans were also involved.)

The beer's name doubles as DC Brau's slogan. The phrase "fermentation without representation"—a riff, of course, on "taxation without representation," the battle cry of DC denizens who lament our limited voting rights—resonated with Epic cofounder David Cole. Skall said Cole and his Epic cohorts are currently fighting booze laws in Utah, where bars can only tap beers with four percent ABV or less. Higher alcohol brews are sold only in bottles and cans.

Tonight is your chance to sample the two versions of Fermentation Without Representation; Meridian Pint will have them both on tap. The porter will be sold by the bottle in stores nationally, says Skall, and should be in DC emporia by Monday.

How do you like your Manhattan? If you have a good answer—and many fans of the enduringly swank cocktail are very particular—head to the newly opened Jack Rose Dining Saloon (2007 18th St., NW; 202-588-7388) in DC’s Adams Morgan. It stocks 219 bourbons and 55 ryes for endless experimenting. If you’re new to the cocktail and don’t know whether you’re a bourbon or rye person, or if you like sweet or dry vermouth—or equal parts of each—consider getting acquainted with one of these four takes on the drink.