Just wanted to let you DMVers and visitors to our nation’s capital aware that if you are in need of more than the middle-of-the-road libation you must thither yourself to the Columbia Room, it only seats 17, and is a secret garden of delights! Brothers Brown opened the Columbia Room inside the Passenger which is right across from the Convention Center and it is based a bit on the speak-easy model. You don’t need a password, but you do need a reservation before 10 pm. It’s only open Thurs-Saturday. Having had the chance to watch the master mixologist Derek Brown himself prepare drinks for the shoot, I was reminded of a quote from the Robert Olen Butler story, “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain.” I paraphrase and mangle here:
His kitchen was full of such smells that he knew he had to understand them all or be incomplete forever.
I sampled a bit of a Manhattanesque beverage and gin gimlet, and both were club top-drawer. As Doogie MacArthur would say: “I shall return!” Here are a few others from the shoot that I liked, and will give you a feel for the Columbia Room.