As if you needed any more proof that we’re mired in a recession, just check out the top posts from this week: They’re focused on good, old-fashioned drinkin’. Here’s to better times, y’all…

In the meantime, the most-read posts from the week:

1. Women of Craft Beer: A Quick List (*)
2. Paste Names Best 25 American Breweries
3. The Passenger Set to Open Tomorrow
4. D.C. Dish Hall of Fame Leaderboard: Same As It Ever Was
5. Yaku to Close and Turn into a Rock ‘n’ Roll/Sushi Concept

* A certain light-drinking Budweiser beer was, once again, the most-read item, but we’ve stopped counting it.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Unlike what was reported over at Brand X, the Passenger plans to open to the public tomorrow in the former bar/cafe space at the Warehouse Theater on Seventh Street NW, even though some of the bar will not be complete.

Co-owner Derek Brown says that most of the space will be ready and that 90 percent of the wines will be available by 5 p.m. tomorrow, when the Passenger officially opens its doors.  The most prominent opening-day omission will be the “dining-car,” a sort of replica antique train car that will occupy the back part of the space. The dining car should be available by this weekend, says Brown, who’s opening the bar with his older brother, Tom Brown, and business partner Paul Ruppert.

Read More “The Passenger Set to Open Tomorrow” »

Tom and Derek Brown have pour, mixed, and stirred drinks at some of the best spots in the District: Komi, Citronelle, Palena, the Gibson, Corduroy, and Cork. But when the brothers decided to open their own joint, The Passenger, they didn’t want anything as formal as their former places of employment.

“I wanted a place where I could drink wine and play Motörhead,” says Derek Brown, the younger of the two siblings who grew up in Olney. “I’ve grown in my tastes. I haven’t grown in my want for a laid-back environment.”

True to their word, the brothers Brown are building a watering hole high on quirkiness — and low on pretension. It begins with the very building in which the Passenger is housed: the former bar/cafe space at the Warehouse at 1021 7th St. NW.  The space, co-owned by Paul Ruppert (who’s also a partner in the Passenger), dates back to 1890 and once was home to Ruppert Hardware, a fixture in D.C. for nearly 100 years.

Read More “Tom and Derek Brown to Channel Spirits and Iggy Pop at the Passenger” »

Few things make me happier in the dead of winter than reading this phrase in the sports section: pitchers and catchers report. It’s spring training time and despite the steroids and the gross imbalance of power in the sport, I still love baseball. The snap of a fastball in a catcher’s mitt. The crack of a bat. The deli mustard on an all-beef frank. The drunk behind me who won’t stop harassing the Nats’ left fielder.

Now there’s a blog dedicated to exploring food at the ballpark:

• Scoreboard Gourmet is eating her way through spring training. SG only has one fault that I can find: She’s a Yankees fan.
• Food Allergy Buzz reports on two local games this year that will cater to fans with peanut and other allergies.
• The Washington Nationals have formed a partnership with Levy Restaurants, a James Beard-award-winning company, to provide fare this year at the park. Levy is promising “regional dishes and innovative versions of D.C.’s favorites.” (OK, this isn’t a blog link. Sue me.)

On the non-baseball front:

• Both Metrocurean and Penn Quarter Living have their own takes on the recent opening of Zola Wine & Kitchen.
• Prince of Petworth has an early tease about another new watering hole on 14th Street NW.
• The Express maps the locations of D.C.’s latest speakeasies.

Everyone seems to be marking the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed that disgusting American experiment in ruining a good drunk. Some of the more interesting stories include:

Read More “Drink Up! It’s the 75th Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition” »