After a few too many beverage , we ’re favourable if we can remember what happen the night before , never beware a hundred years ago . Thankfully , there are a few expert in our city who enthrall in observe the city ’s more devilish detail directly for us . Garrett Peck is an source , historian , and spell guide who has written several books on booze and prohibition , includingProhibition in Washington , D.C. : How Dry We Weren’t . Derek Brown is known as the prize - gain bartender who ownsfour of DC ’s most beloved bars and restaurants , but he also wears a historian lid as the first - ever Chief Spirits Advisor at the National Archives .
These two know all about DC ’s besotted past , and were uncoerced to share some particularly gin - soaked anecdote behind six historical place in the city . Here are some aspects of the metropolis ’s story your eminent school history teacher did n’t see fit to let you in on .
Old Ebbitt Grill
While the Old Ebbitt Grill has moved locating multiple multiplication since its formation as Washington ’s first saloon in 1856 , the restaurant has been located in a very notable spot since the 1980s : the construction that was once Keith ’s Vaudeville Theater , which Woodrow Wilson visited on Saturday night during his administration . This same cube used to be home to the Rhodes Tavern , from 1799 to 1984 , which did n’t count like much – just a plain brick townhouse – but actually served as the spot where Congress met after the burn of Washington evicted them in 1814 . Before that , the tavern saw many a politician come through for a drink or a rendezvous . " This is not only where people outride , but it ’s where a lot of business got direct . So you would stay there , take your meal there , and also booze there , " Peck say .
The Old Ebbitt Grill also used to be a boarding house called the Ebbitt House , which was see by legion noteworthy figure , including Mark Twain . Twain pass the winter of 1967 in Washington , pay off into all sort of trouble as a political journalist . He wrote vituperative comment about large politician and bureaucratic corruption , and of course , he tope his typeface off while doing so . Before his literary calling deal off , Twain was love to " run petty schemes simply to get a drink , " grant to John Muller’sMark Twain in Washington , DC . He and his pardner - in - offense , writer William Swinton , were often " enchanted by alcohol . " Twain recalls that their booze riding habit cause them some fiscal rigour , as paper writers make just a dollar per clause . " [ Twenty - four dollars a week ] would have been riches to us , " Twain wrote , " if we had n’t had to endorse that jugful . " Once when they were short on cash , Twain sold a lost dog he found at the Ebbitt House for $ 3 . When the frankfurter ’s possessor came looking for his pet , Twain offer to help find the hotdog – for a fee of $ 3 . duad bought the dog back from his original customer at the same price and return it to the proprietor … ending up with the $ 3 he involve to sate the jugful .
1331 Lounge
1331 was Shoomaker ’s address , and the place of birth of DC ’s prescribed cocktail , the Rickey . launch in the 1850s , Shoomaker ’s was later bought by a outstanding lobbyist , Colonel Joe Rickey . " It was quite a place , and it was also a little bit of a dive , it sprain out . While the drink were expensive , the décor was ratty , " says Brown . " There was once a steward or a porter who got fired because he wiped down one of the table , and when it was report why he was fired , it ’s because they said to him , ‘ Do you know whose elbows have been on that table ? ’ Because it was pretty much every famous person , " he explains . " This billet was kind of a who ’s who of Washington visitors , " Peck say . " fundamentally every president come to drink here , except for Rutherford B. Hayes , who was a teetotaller . "
The bar is even well sleep together for the Rickey ’s creation taradiddle . " The Rickey was make up by George Williamson , who was the bartender and chairwoman of Shoomaker ’s , " Brown explains . " He fabricate it , purportedly by taking Colonel Joe Rickey ’s regular drink , which was a Bourbon dynasty soda , and squeeze a quicklime and dropping it in , " Brown say . " manifestly , Rickey did n’t like it , and he particularly did n’t like it when multitude started prognosticate the drink after him , " Peck adds . " And yet the name mystify , because it was invented at his bar . "
In 2011 , Brown and Peck spearhead the campaign to designate the Rickey as DC ’s prescribed cocktail . " UsingProhibition in Washington , DCas evidence for the Rickey , we approached Jack Evans on the City Council , and asked them if we could get an official proclamation declare the Rickey to be DC ’s prescribed cocktail , " Peck recalls . They gestate it to be a foresighted , devious process , but the strength of their case made things easy . " We had the proclamation three weeks after , " Peck says .
M DOGAN/Shutterstock
" I think somebody just call for to contribute it to their attention , " Brown explains . " I do n’t call back it ’s controversial . This is the drink that DC ’s good known for . " The Rickey , which is known in the bartending biotic community as " air conditioning in a glass , " is still a hitting to this day , with countless riffs showing up on menu all throughout Rickey Month in July .
The Temperance Fountain
You ’ve in all probability walked in good order past this outpouring hundreds of times , but chances are you ’ve never stopped to give it a 2nd look . This outpouring is one of about 50 commission by sobriety crusader Dr. Henry Cogswell . " We ’re one of the few metropolis that still has one , " Peck says . ( There ’s also one in Tompkins Square Park in New York , which you’re able to toast from . ) Cogswell financed the fountains in an exertion to convince people that toast H2O is ultimately superior to downing whisky .
The monument to Temperance is deserving that second flavor , but it might not really be deserving a third . " It ’s an wretched fountain . It looks like two Pisces are couple , and that ’s not something you want to imbibe out of , " Brown joke . The fish are part of the fount ’s on - the - nose water theme , as is the Grus that sits on top . But perhaps symbolism was n’t quite enough . " I mean , this melodic theme that you could get people to intercept drink whisky by afford them water seems unlikely , " Brown tell . We ’ll give Cogswell an A for effort , anyway . " They won the struggle , but they fall back the warfare . They foisted prohibition era upon the land , " Peck aver , " and then they fell on their faces because the area still desire to drink . " And drink we did .
The White House
It goes without suppose that there ’s plenty of history wrapped up in the White House , but the standard pass - through does n’t really reach on the boozy backdrop of our former president . One of our nation ’s wildest , gate - crash house party transpire in James Madison ’s White House in 1814 ( no JMU jokes , please ) , when it was cut short by some unwelcome party crashers . On August 24th , 1814 , during the War of 1812 , the British invaded the urban center . " It was a raid , " say Peck . " There was a short battle in Bladensburg , Maryland , and we catch our butts kicked by the British . "
After the battle , the Brits made their way toward DC , and Madison send a messenger to the White House to warn Dolley , who was devise for her everyday dinner party party . " Dolley loved to entertain . She was really a great hostess , " Peck says . They typically host 30 to 40 people every mean solar day . On this special 24-hour interval , they had to take flight before the British arrived . This also happen to be one of the moment that Dolley is think back for – she requested that the famous portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart be rescue from the house .
When the British arrived at the White House in the evening , they found a feast . " All the wine was still chill , the solid food was wait for them , for 40 mass , so all these officers all sat down and they had a dinner , and then at the destruction of it , they burned the White House , " says Peck . " We made dinner party , and then the British ate it for us . "
flickr/ercwttmn
Rum Row
Rum Row , a stretch of Pennsylvania Ave that runs from the National Theatre to 14th St , was precisely what it sound like . " It was where all the great bars were in DC , " says Peck . Relatedly , it was also part of " the Avenue , " the city ’s amusement district during the former 1900s . DC house physician flocked there to frequent bawdyhouse , bars , and gaming dens . In 1906 , there were47 barsalong Pennsylvania Ave between the White House and the Capitol .
alas , Rum Row was demolished in the eighties by the Pennsylvania Avenue Redevelopment Corporation . The most prominent spot on Rum Row was Shoomaker ’s , which the JW Marriott pays tribute to with their 1331 Lounge … although the scene here does n’t getquiteas raucous as it did back in the day .
The Willard Hotel
The Willard Hotel was first built in 1850 , but it has been reconstruct and renovated several times since then . The hotel has hosted abevy of famous guests , including Presidents Taylor , Lincoln , Grant , and Wilson , and luminaries from the likes of Martin Luther King , Jr. and Charles Dickens to P.T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill . Walt Whitman ( who lived nearby at the site where the W Hotel now stands ) wrote about the Willard , as did Mark Twain . The circular Round Robin Bar , know for its classical cocktail , has charcoal portraiture of many of its visitors adorning the walls . " I love the fact that while that streak itself might be younger , the Willard has such an illustrious history , and was certainly a imbibition place for many multitude , " Brown says .
In non - drinking news , the " Battle - Hymn of the Republic " was written at the Willard , and it was also the spot where a confidential serenity conference use up place in 1861 to seek to preclude the Civil War from find .
Sign up herefor our daily DC electronic mail and be the first to get all the intellectual nourishment / drink / fun in town .
Gin Rickey|Flickr/nisimo
Flickr/NCinDC Follow
Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
Flickr/Logan Brown
