That’s me in the
corner. That’s me in the spotlight, losing my religion.
Trying to keep up with
you and I don’t know if I can do it.
Oh no. I’ve said too
much. I haven’t said enough.
A whole 2 weeks for Part II (Remember Part I)! Hope I haven’t lost your interest! We are in the MIDST of football playoffs, so let's wrap up Monday Night Football... To recap – we’ve left Chinatown’s bat cave and
head to the infamous Capitol Lounge on Capitol Hill, a New
England Patriots bar (I recently discovered) to catch the Monday Night Football
game. If I were to make a list of the
things I love most about DC, near the top would be the fact that DC is an international
and domestic hub for individuals from all types of backgrounds. It’s a skittles commercial-all the colors of
the cultural rainbow. And here we are – a Monday
night in our nation’s capital, and this Southerner is surrounded by New England
Patriots fans with Mark Wahlberg accents and his reaaally NSFW (unless you're Officer Dignam) The Departed vernacular.
Capitol Lounge (Cap Lounge as
they call it on the street) is located on the strip of Pennsylvania Avenue
restaurants down the street from the United States House of Representatives
office buildings, nestled between Capitol Hill and Eastern Market in Southeast
DC. It is a Republican-owned (but
bipartisan in business) playground for congressional staff, particularly
interns and younger twenty-something staff.
The décor is pretty austere, but it is adorned with aged political
paraphernalia (the walls are a collection for Reagan and Nixon campaign swag, hung
amidst red+white+blue and stars+stripes fabrics/flags/buntings, etc.). Of bars in DC, with such power-packing
patronage, Cap Lounge is the Jenny from the Block version of Jennifer Lopez – the
inconspicuous, no frills neighborhood pub, full of fully suited puppeteers for our
federal lawmakers. It is a staple in
Capitol Hill so there is no need for inventive concoctions or promotions, although they do offer a few good ones, and I
would call it unpretentious for that reason but doing so would only be
half-right. Among the political and
patriotic stylings are signs stating, “I don’t care who you work for.” And, if you show up AFTER the safety hours of
happy hour, the place is full of political loose lips and poisoned
philosophies, all willing to dive into a debate on House Resolution yadayada,
the exact role/size of the federal government, skinterns in the office of
Congressman Cat in the Hat, to whom and how much big donors have spent this
past campaign cycle, the economics driving the American job market, and of
course, how this/that party is screwing over America’s future.
The yin to balance the yang,
however, is that Cap Lounge will often reserve entire levels for private parties,
like it is on this particular night as the main level has been hijacked by a
trivia night. The private party this
evening (for what, I’m not quite sure) is closing down, so the staff has been
kind enough to let our small group enter the private party for the tail end so
that we may catch kick-off while trivia concludes. Not that there aren’t enough televisions
upstairs, but we absolutely take the offer.
The space has mostly cleared, with a few lingering behind, most of whom
are vortex’ed into liquored-up conversations, with exception to a small,
isolated table which is shared between 3 suited men (much grayer than the usual
suspects) who are holding their alcohol much better than the usual suspects as
well. This particular exclusive table is
enthralled in a quiet conversation, with a private television, a table of beer,
catching the beginning of the game between incognito conversations, all of
which is being kept quite private.
In the same room, I’m sitting
adjacent to 2 fine, young, over-served gentlemen I’m fairly certain wound up
here from the Hill, discussing the state of our country and slurring their personal
patriotism. “I mean…dude, I rreaaally
love the Constah-tution,” divulging very little into any substantial political
theory at this point. Full confession -
by the end of the night, I will be guilty of similar crimes myself, bickering
with well-informed friends over whether or not the state of Texas will remain
red or turn blue in the 2016 presidential election. #onlyinDC
In my experience, veteran Hill staff tend to turn their noses at the
thought of Cap Lounge after work, probably because at one time they’ve done
this exact, roll-your-eyes-the-next-morning-in-embarrassment, type of
thing. I label it infamous because by
the end of the night, it can be fall-down drunk, the last place that you didn’t
need to visit on your way home from
the evening’s shenanigans, yet you’re inside ordering another round and
plunging money into the computerized jukebox.
Around 9:00, the majority of the
trivia masses leave the bar, and Cap Lounge releases their Jerry Jones-sizedsuperdome screen (well, for a bar space it is huge) and we head upstairs to the
main room. The crowd has dwindled, but
that will change before halftime. The
bar offers great specials for the football game, including $5 pizza which is my
favorite from their food menu. If pub
grub is not pleasing your palette, the location is perfect to explore other eatable
options-Top Chef’s Spike Mendelsohn offers 2 amazing restaurants: Good Stuff and We the Pizza, located just across the
street, perpetually packed with power players including President Obama. Cap Lounge is now packed with sports
enthusiasts at this point, in particular New Englanders from the Hill, small
business owners, veterans, lobbyists, and a few 2012 Presidential battleground
campaign staff. After 9:00 on most
nights, you are bound to see just as diverse a crowd...
My last
call: great locality, interesting crowd, even more interesting conversations, most of
which devolve into superficial matters.
It is the bar for workers of politics to unite, and a spot for the rest
of the world to watch the beer-based bipartisan common ground burn up in
flames.
Until Next Time,
xo, Megan
