The Passenger dc and Columbia Room

The Passenger dc and Columbia Room

1021 7th Street NW

April 2013

After a delicious dinner at Acadiana, we slid on over to meet up with more friends at Passenger dc. Well actually, we were headed to the 'private' bar within the bar, the Columbia Room.

This is an interesting concept in that this is a bar within the bar. As you make your way through the Passenger dc main room, past the main bar, there is a non descript door. You enter into this door into a small dimly lit room where you are greeted by a hostess - "Welcome to the Columbia Room". I am not sure about anyone else but I was a little confused. I was thinking are we headed upstairs or something but finally realized this was what I'll call a kind of 'pre-room'.

At this point we are all very curious as none of us have ever been to the Columbia Room. She takes our coats and we wait a few minutes as the bar was full for the moment. There is a time limit which I assume is about the same for everyone, or maybe depending on how much you are willing to spend...??? we had 2 hours for our experience.

Finally we are led into the room and seated at the bar. The room is very intimate, just long enough for the bar and wide enough to comfortably move around. Within the room, the team consisted of 3 folks. The star of the show, the bartender slash mixologist was Matt.

The 2 hours flew by and it felt like 20 minutes..Well, Matt and Rob made their introductions and welcomed us to the experience! The 'treatment' consisted of unique drink creations for 2 hours paired with incredible nosh. As we chatted Matt would chime in to give a description of the drinks he prepared. Everything was incredible...no complaints from anyone.

Matt's Creations - The Columbia Room

Peppered in between the conversations and drinks were small plates of meats, cheese and spreads. Its personal service and you feel pampered. We were having such a good time that we did not want to leave. Everyone had a blast!

We grabbed a table on the way out to chat and sample a few items from the Passenger dc menu. I actually had a glass of wine but the table shared a Kimchi Hot Dog and...hmmm, well I can't remember but I will say that it disappeared so fast and when I asked if it was good  they all bobbed their heads up and down NOT side to side! I can't remember when I've seen food disappear so fast.

The crowd seemed on the younger side that particular night...late 20s - 30s. The server was really good. Efficient, patient and everything came to the table pretty quickly. 

The noise level was pretty high but then the venue is not very large. I plan to go back to sample that hot dog!