The Speaky Trail
Off the Record in Washington, DC

District of Columbia / Washington

Off the Record

Hotel Bar1927 hotel 4.3 (2100)$$$

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

Columbia Room in Washington, DC
4.6

Columbia 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.

Hidden Door
The Gibson in Washington, DC
4.5

The 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.

Hidden Door
Build a night run from here

The Gear Room

Drink like Off the Record at home

All gear →

The Savoy Cocktail Book

Harry Craddock's 1930 compendium, written while America was dry and London was not.

$20–30Find it →

Old Fashioned Cocktail Kit

Bitters, demerara syrup and a rocks glass. Nothing here is optional and nothing is extra.

$30–50Find it →

Clear Ice Cube Mold

Directional freezing makes hotel-bar ice at home. Dilution slows, drink stops racing.

$25–45Find it →

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