District of Columbia / Washington
Off the Record
A basement bar across from the White House where the walls are covered in caricatures of every administration since the hotel opened.
Getting in
Basement of the Hay-Adams hotel, across from the White House.
Order this
Presidential caricature-menu cocktail
Your passport
Hotel Bar rooms like this one are catalogued across the trail — see every hotel bar bar.
Keep the night going
Nearest doors
4.6Columbia Room
Shaw · Washington, DC · 1.0 mi
A tasting-menu cocktail bar down a cobblestone alley, treating drinks with the same seriousness a chef gives a nine-course dinner.
4.5The Gibson
U Street · Washington, DC · 1.2 mi
One of DC's original hidden-door revivalists, a warren of small rooms behind a black unmarked door on 14th Street.
The Gear Room
Drink like Off the Record at home
The Savoy Cocktail Book
Harry Craddock's 1930 compendium, written while America was dry and London was not.
Old Fashioned Cocktail Kit
Bitters, demerara syrup and a rocks glass. Nothing here is optional and nothing is extra.
Clear Ice Cube Mold
Directional freezing makes hotel-bar ice at home. Dilution slows, drink stops racing.
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