The Pub & The People
At this North Capitol street gastropub, top shelf bottles of whiskey are tucked between Chick Palahniuk novels and yearly editions of the Roget's Thesaurus. In addition to a full roster of creative American eats, the place is home to a text-and-spirit-heavy library where guests are welcome to flip through mysteries and essay collections while they sip scotch served neat, in tasteful vintage glassware. The food menu offers things like pumpkin-truffle mac& cheese and bourbon chicken liver mousse, while the cocktail list is an impressive amalgam of drinks crafted with fresh herbs, hand-squeezed citrus, and house liquor infusions (try the grapefruit-honey concoction with rosemary-infused vodka). Perhaps the most enticing of the available items, however, is the singular, rotating house barrel-aged cocktail -- it won't be listed on the menu, but be sure to ask your server.