Attention, shoppers: It’s time for happy hour. Thrillist brought word* this morning that several area Whole Foods have recently
launched bars, including locations in Arlington, Alexandria, and Tenleytown, with
a P Street pub on the way in October. (Sorry, Marylanders, you still can’t buy alcohol
in the grocery store, let alone drink it.)
Fueling your market run are local draft beers, wines by the glass, and organic coffee
and espresso drinks. Each store has a slightly different layout, but you can grab
a stool at all three bars for a boozy shopping break, take your beverage into the
more spacious cafe seating areas to pair with your meal, or carry drinks around the
store while you browse. To that end, shopping cart cup holders are in the works.
The drink selection varies by location, but you’ll find several glasses of wine and
bubbly and a selection draft beers across the board (see sample menus below), generally
priced between $3 and $7. While local wines may be offered, the vino list runs global;
the beer list emphasizes local breweries such as Port City and Tuppers’. In Virginia,
where the filling of growlers is legal, you can fill 32- and 64-ounce jugs with fresh
brew to take home. District buyers have their own perks: Tenleytown offers free rein
on 200 varieties of bottled beer, so you can snag a sample brew from any six-pack
before committing to the other five.
Like any respectable bar, all three Whole Foods watering holes currently offer various
happy hour specials, such as $1 off pints on weekdays and organic mimosas on Saturday
and Sunday. Just don’t go overboard, or you may end up with buyer’s remorse after
drunkenly purchasing that $100 load of kale.
Check back in with us for grand opening events at the stores, the launch of the P
Street bar, and upcoming menus.
Sample menu for Virginia (The Holland Pub in Alexandria)
Sample menu for DC (The Bar in Tenleytown)
*ARLnow should be credited with breaking the original news, and Eater DC should be credited with pointing out that it did so.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
