It’s a perfect drink to enjoy by the fire – not too heavy, and with pleasant seasonal flavors.  Or if you’re throwing up holiday decorations, you might prefer to make the Decorator’s Drink, another recipe from last year.  Also of note, December 24 is National Egg Nog Day and December 31 is (for obvious reasons) National Champagne Day, giving you multiple occasions to celebrate at home this month.  

And for those willing to leave the house despite the dropping temperatures, there is quite a list of events in December.  The holiday spirit apparently moves many to offer cocktails to make or drink, plus we have Repeal Day and New Year’s Eve on the calendar.  So let’s jump right in, starting with a return of Drink Company’s annual hit, the Miracle on 7th Street Bar:

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DC's favorite Christmas bar is here (ft. 100% more pandas ) Read more about #Miracleon7thStreet featured in @brightestyoungthings Link in Bio! Opening 11/23

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I’m still kicking myself for missing the Game of Thrones Pop-Up bar, but I have been to the Christmas bar multiple times in the past, and it never disappoints.  Maybe you’ll see me there in December!  1839 7th Street N.W.; through December 31 from 5 pm to 12:30 a.m. (Sunday through Thursday) or to 1:30 a.m. (Friday and Saturday).

Read on for more:

Repeal Day:

As you may know, December 5 is Repeal Day – the anniversary of the effective date of the Twenty-First Amendment, that blessed constitutional provision that repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, the great Failed Experiment of Prohibition.  I wrote a bit more on Repeal Day last year – pointing out that repeal was not actually self-executing and as a result the District was not actually wet on December 5, 1933 (though Maryland, which clearly had its legislative priorities in order, did legalize drinking on that date).  Nevertheless, one may now celebrate Repeal Day legally in the District, and there are several options to consider:

11th Annual Repeal Day Ball.  The D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild returns with  its annual soiree, a black-tie affair to be held this year at the National Union Building in Penn Quarter.  World-famous PDT and other bartenders haling from distant locales will be on scene to provide libations while over 500 attendees dance to Prohibition-era tunes.  As of the moment the event is reporting that it is sold out, but stay tuned here in case in there are any last-minute ticket releases; note also that this is a Saturday-night event and is not actually on Repeal Day.  918 F Street N.W.; December 9 from 7:30 p.m. to midnight.

7th Annual 1930s-Inspired Repeal Day Celebration at Jack Rose.  Actually on Repeal Day, Jack Rose is hosting its own celebration, inviting you to “drink like it’s 1933” and enticing you with “Prohibition-era whiskey, burlesque, and bottomless bubbles.”  The event begins at 5 p.m. with a “Pappy Hour,” when the entire Pappy Van Winkle whiskey line-up will be on sale at special pricing.  Jack Rose’s Whiskey Cellar will convert into a speakeasy-themed venue with Prohibition-era whiskeys and other vintage spirits, and the main floor will offer bottomless champagne for $20, while burlesque dancers and “cigarette girls” (women offering you cigars for sale, apparently) round out the experience.  “Flapper dresses and swanky suits” are encouraged.  More information here.  2007 18th Street N.W.; December 5 from 5:30 p.m. to midnight.

More In December:

There is much more on tap in December.  First, on several different dates during December (including Repeal Day), join Urban Adventures on a Speakeasies & Craft Cocktail Tour of the Capitol.  The tour promises to show you various speakeasies around town, to educate you on how Prohibition shaped the District, and to offer you some “sweet libations.”  Tickets are $45 and available here.  678 Indiana Avenue N.W.; December 5, 13, 20, 21 and 28, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Next, there are two events featuring Philip Greene, cocktail historian and author of A Drinkable Feast: A Cocktail Companion to 1920s Paris, which these two events are presumably intended to promote, as well as To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion and The Manhattan: The Story of the First Modern Cocktail.  The first is the 1920s Cocktail Night at The Fourth Estate Restaurant.  Sample four cocktails – hot rum punch, the Jack Rose, the Bees Knees, and the Boulevardier (see my take on the last if you want to try it at home) – and enjoy light hors d’oeuvres followed by dinner.  Tickets are $75 (or $140 for couples) and available here.  529 14th Street N.W.; December 13 from 6:30 to 9 p.m.

Greene will also be present with copies of his latest book at the 11th Annual D.C. Holiday Cocktail Seminar, where bartenders from Buffalo & Bergen, Bourbon Steak, the Passenger, Occidental, and other spots will be showing you their favorite holiday cocktails and how to make them at home.  The event is being held at Occidental, which will also serve light fare.  Tickets are $50 and available here.  1475 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.; December 17 from 6:45 to 8:45 p.m.

On to the individual events:

Class:  “Holiday Drinks” at Via Umbria.  Via Umbria returns with its monthly installment of cocktail classes, this time with a focus on holiday cocktails.  Learn how to make a spiked hot chocolate, spicy eggnog, and Winter Espresso Soda in a class led by a Via Umbria mixologist.  Via Umbria promises “an evening of sugar, spice, and warm cocktails of nice” and to provide you with skills needed to “invigorate any holiday bash” – perfect for that upcoming work holiday party.  Tickets are $38.50 and available here.  1525 Wisconsin Avenue N.W.; December 19 at 7:30 p.m.

Class:  “Winter Cocktail Class” at BRABO Brasserie.  On the same night, a cocktail class is also on offer in Alexandria, Virginia, at BRABO Brasserie.  A similar menu is on offer, promising to teach you how to make the restaurant’s “signature Eggnog,” a spiced hot chocolate, and a winter citrus shrub.  Snacks will also be provided.  Tickets are $35 and available here.  1600 King Street in Alexandria; December 19 from 7 to 9 p.m.

“Mezcal Under the Mistletoe” at the Royal.  El Silencio is co-sponsoring an ugly-Christmas-sweater and mezcal cocktail bash at the Royal, which should be all you need to know to want to attend this event.  But I’ll tell you more anyway.  The event promises a range of mezcal cocktails, starting with a warming coconut and mezcal-spiked toddy to welcome you, a range of tasty snacks, an “epic Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest,” and an “educational, sensory El Silencio Mezcal tasting,” among other things.  Plus mistletoe, presumably?  Not actually mentioned in the event description; maybe bring some just in case.  Tickets are $60 and available here.  501 Florida Avenue N.W.; December 19 from 6:30 to 10 p.m.

Class:  “Winter-Whisky Cocktails” at barmini.  Monthly #barmini101 classes continue.  This month learn to make three “winter-inspired cocktails and explor[e] whiskys around the world.”  The team will greet you with a drink and provide delicious snacks between lessons.  Tickets are $145 and available here.  501 9th Street N.W.; December 20 at 5:30 p.m.

Class:  “It’s a Commissary Christmas – Holiday Mixology Class with Food Pairings” at Commissary D.C.  In our last class for the month, Commissary joins the holiday-cocktail-making party, promising to teach you how to make two of those plus one traditional cocktail.  While you learn, you will also be able to “enjoy[] curated bites before Christmas Day.”  Might be just the thing to wrap up that last-second Christmas shopping that you may or may not be doing.  (Unless, of course, you still need to wrap up those gifts.)  Tickets are $65 and available here.  1443 P Street N.W.; December 24 from 8 to 10 p.m.

New Year’s Eve at barmini.  The second of two barmini events this month – and the only NYE event on this year’s list.  barmini promises a “one-time only cocktail flight” inspired by the “most popular ‘New Year Resolutions.'”  Food will also be on offer.  Tickets are $175 and available here.  501 9th Street N.W.; December 31, with seatings at 5:30, 8, and 10:30 p.m.

That’s all for this month.  Send me any events you think should be here or in future month’s lists.  And see you back here in 2019!

The post December 2018 Cocktail Events Round-Up appeared first on Capital Cocktails.

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It seems only natural that many bars and cocktail enthusiasts now celebrate Repeal Day with happy hours, special cocktails, or even full-on black-tie affairs.  (See my recent post on December cocktail events in D.C. for coverage of the Repeal Day bash at Jack Rose and the 10th annual gala put on by the D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild, for example.)

But wait!  The bars did not reopen on December 5, 1933, at least not everywhere.  Of particular interest to my D.C.-area history buffs, they did not reopen immediately in the District or Virginia.  As reported by the Washington Evening Star, Maryland “was busily engaged in arranging to go wet” pursuant to legislation that “went through its final steps in the Legislature in Annapolis” on December 4 and was presented to the governor for his signature the morning of Repeal Day.

But things were different in the District.  It remained subject to the Volstead Act, the legislation that gave force to Prohibition under the 18th Amendment:

The ending of the eighteenth amendment today finds Washington legally dry under the Volstead law, awaiting the assembling of Congress next month to consider liquor control legislation for the National Capital.

. . . .

The Volstead law continues in force in Washington under a recent ruling of Attorney General Cummings, who held that the national prohibition act will continue to be operative in the District and in the Territories until some action is taken by Congress.

It was Prohibition without Representation!  Nevertheless, District residents were not entirely without recourse.  The Evening Star went on to report that there was “reason to believe . . . that prosecuting officials will take the liberal attitude toward the matter and that residents bringing liquor into the District for their own personal use will not be in danger of any criminal prosecution.”

Thus, it seems reasonable to speculate that a least a few Repeal Day parties were held in the District that night, even if, as the Evening Star reported the next day, “the festivities [nationwide] seemed to lack the fervor some had forecast.”  (Perhaps the reporters weren’t invited to the right parties.)  And in any event, it seems more than fair to mark the occasion today.  Have fun out there!

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