Horse races are sporting events I can get behind: Gambling, hats, and over in two minutes. Also, each of the American Triple Crown races features a traditional official cocktail.

At The Source by Wolfgang Puck, the bar team decided to honor the equestrian traditions by adding each of these three cocktails to their lounge menu for a limited time. However, as an Asian fusion restaurant, the classic mint julep (Kentucky Derby), black-eyed susan (Preakness) and Belmont breeze (Belmont) seemed a bit too domestic, so they decided to add pan-Asian flavors to their interpretation of each.

Upon reading this, I was curious – and maybe just a hint dubious. These are such iconic American drinks, the julep in particular. How would spruced-up Pacific Rim variants work out?
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It’s time for Friday Happy Hour, highlighting a drink we’ve recently enjoyed, every Friday at 4pm! Please share your favorites as well.

Some of my favorite things: London, gin, ridiculous hats, men in morning dress, and pomp. I have even been told I am “a bit of a princess” (though that may not have been meant as a compliment). In other words, I have somewhat greater than a passing interest in this morning’s Royal Wedding.

I am writing this column whilst drinking Bellocq tea – No. 35, naturally – from a William and Catherine commemorative mug purchased at my favorite store in the world, Liberty.

Of course, that does not make for nearly so good a happy hour as a Pimm’s Cup.
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It’s time for Friday Happy Hour, highlighting a drink we’ve recently enjoyed, every Friday at 4pm! Please share your favorites as well.

I hate jelly beans. I do not care if this makes me some kind of easter bunny hating grinch, I think the neon-colored gelatinous orbs are gross. However, even the jar of them that arrived with my drink at Last Exit last night did not sour me on the place.

The new Mount Pleasant bar specializes in simple drinks that showcase house infused sprits and pairs each one with a little snack like grapes, popcorn, or, in the case of The Josephine, jelly beans. The pairing makes sense – the sugary, fruity beans are meant to play off the dry, savory qualities of the drink. The Josephine takes a thyme and grapefruit infused gin and lengthens it with a bit of club soda. The result is a sophisticated, not remotely sticky, sort of a take on a “gin and tonic” and perfect for the coming summer.
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It’s time for Friday Happy Hour, highlighting a drink we’ve recently enjoyed, every Friday at 4pm! Please share your favorites as well.

This Friday Happy Hour is a little unusual: I have never tried the thing I am going to recommend. In fact, only a few people I know have yet had the chance to sample it. However, starting tonight, that is all going to change.

DC Brau is the first brewery to be crafting beer within the District in a generation. Much has been made of the risks the entrepreneurs behind it took and their forays into public policy to make the city more hospitable to themselves and other new breweries that might want to crop up. For more, one can read a profile we did on Brandon Skall and Jeff Hancock last year.
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It’s time for Friday Happy Hour, highlighting a drink we’ve recently enjoyed, every Friday at 4pm! Please share your favorites as well.

Sunday afternoon, I found myself fairly aimlessly going about town with someone when I happened to look at Twitter on my phone. A terrible habit, I know, but a habit nonetheless. I saw an update from The Passenger with a photo of their special cocktails for the day – and I instantly had a mission for us to accomplish. I texted one of my favorite friends, a known lover of Sunday excursions to the Passenger, to see if he wanted to join us. He replied that he was already there. I should have guessed.
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It’s time for Friday Happy Hour, highlighting a drink we’ve recently enjoyed, every Friday at 4pm! Please share your favorites as well.

My friend Kirk (pictured above) has been reading Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises specifically, which got him thinking about the Jack Rose cocktail. In the 1926 novel, the narrator sips one in a Parisian boîte and the drink has benefitted from that bit of product placement ever since. When I asked him what I should drink for the column this week (after a spate of fairly unremarkable imbibition) he had a clear answer: a Jack Rose at The Gibson.
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It’s time for Friday Happy Hour, highlighting a drink we’ve recently enjoyed, every Friday at 4pm! Please share your favorites as well.

Tuesday was my rad friend Julie’s birthday. Julie does really important work at a really important non-profit and is always surrounded by super cool activist types, musicians, and the like. I showed up to her impromptu party at Haydees in Columbia Heights straight from a meeting, dressed like someone who has to get up early to take the train to work on Wednesday mornings; I was the only one so attired. Pitchers and pitchers of margaritas came as the group swelled in size and grew louder to try to compete with the blaring music. As it got later, I realized I was going to have to be that loser who leaves the party first – thus confirming everything the cool kids probably thought of me and my sell-out job all along.

My friend Jeffrey agreed to leave at the same time, but as soon as we got out of the loud, loud restaurant, he made clear he was not actually ready to go home. He knew our friend Iris was working over at Room 11 and so we made our way there. I may be giving away a secret here, but around midnight on a Tuesday night is the perfect time to go to Room 11. The snug, warm bar had only a few other patrons and the atmosphere is extra cozy. Room 11 is generally open until at least 1:00 – part of the owners’ commitment to creating a “neighborhood bar” feel.

On the chalkboard was a Burnt Sugar Old Fashioned which, Iris told me, was one of the first special cocktails the staff created upon the bar’s opening but which is sometimes unavailable when they cannot get the special sugar in question. When prepping a syrup of it, the bartenders burn the sugar to caramelize it and add extra molasses. This creates a dark, opaque cocktail with a depth of flavor. Iris added Maker’s Mark bourbon, Fee Brothers Bitters – and a peel of orange which took a bit of effort as she was working with one injured hand. The drink was rich and delightful and a perfect way to end the evening. It was even better than the sticky, bright green margaritas in huge cups I had been drinking all night (which is shocking, I know.)

It’s time for Friday Happy Hour, highlighting a drink we’ve recently enjoyed, every Friday at 4pm! Please share your favorites as well.

I may be against eating meat but I am totally in favor of day drinking. When Addison arranged a ChurchKey for brunch on Sunday, I asked to tag along. As a vegetarian, I wanted nothing to do with the Luther – I just wanted to socialize and drink beers at noon.

Noon seem early for a bourbon-barrel aged wild ale – but by the time we wrapped up the multi-hour brunch session, several glasses of Goose Island Dominique had made their way to our table. I think everybody ordering beer at the table had at least a small glass.

Goose Island produces the very delicious Bourbon County Stout, which is aged in used bourbon barrels. After they age the stout in those barrels, they recycle them again to age a wild-yeast farmhouse style ale to produce the Dominique. The barrel-aging infuses the beer with a bourbony, spirituous quality and vanilla note, which blends perfectly with the more tart, sour, and rustic flavors.

The fascinating thing about this beer is that it seems to be so balanced that it really appeals to a wide variety of tastes. Everybody with whom I have sampled this seems to enjoy it. When I found myself at ChurchKey again with another beer nerd, his sip of mine turned into him ordering himself another glass. (I forced myself to have something else and ordered a different Goose Island, the Pepe Nero, for my next drink.)

It does not go overboard in any single direction which may not impress the heads who want something really intense or distinctive. Instead, the beer has a certain elegance and subtlety – without being boring.