Moar of dis

The District of Columbia is slated to leave the dwindling number of states still outlawing off-premises Sunday liquor sales. This Tuesday, the D.C. Council initially approved a measure that would completely revamp the district’s alcohol laws and allow class A retailers—the city’s liquor stores—to open on Sundays.

The District’s old, largely anachronistic blue laws are among the last in the region to be scrapped: Virginia abandoned its restriction earlier this year and Montgomery County, Md. lifted its ban in 2010. Of course, intoxicating liquors have long been permitted in bars on Sunday and grocery stores already sell beer and wine every day of the week.

D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) floated the proposal earlier this year as an alternative to Mayor Vincent Gray‘s proposal to extend bar hours as late as 4 a.m. for most bars. The bill is projected to raise $710,000 in sales tax for the District government. The ban has remained on the books so long, in part, because certain neighborhood groups oppose any legislation that would increase the amount of drunken loitering outside of corner liquor stores.

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Brave DeGioia: Why’s it so crowded here? Is it Maximum Mexican Day at Leo’s?

The federal government, the D.C. government, all buses, planes, and the entire Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority shut down services for the day. Even Leo’s just closed.

The Potomac River is likely to top its bank, a massive generator is set up outside the Southwest Quadrangle, and President John J. DeGioia stopped in at Leo’s with Police Chief Jay Gruber  and Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson because they also forgot to stock up their fridges with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Doritos.

But there’s one last upright building in this field of falling soldiers.

Dixie Liquor on M Street will be open today and tomorrow until 8 p.m., “God willing and the river don’t rise,” Dixie owner Sean Clark said to Vox. He added the store is always open during holidays as well. According to Clark, most students flock towards Bailey’s and peppermint schnapps during stormy weather.

“Honest to God, we’re one of the only stores open—snowpocalypse, f*ckin’ hurricanes. I work with cracked ribs, you think a hurricane’s gonna stop us from ringing people up?” Clark said. “If the power’s on but the cable’s out, bring cash.”

You heard the man. Not a moment left to waste as Hurricane Sandy slowly creeps towards the District area.

Photo courtesy of Rachel Pugh (Director of Media Relations), Last minute Dixie run by Connor Jones

After weeks of delicious home cooking over break, only free food and a little booze can cheer up the January blues.

Cupcakes may be the ruling food group in D.C., but you’ve probably not heard of the vegan bakery Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats. Nonetheless, they’re the reigning champions of “Cupcake Wars.” They are defending this title on Sunday in “Cupcake Wars All-Stars”, and have invited the hungry public to join them at their viewing party. Complete with absolutely free cupcakes and encouraged heckling, the party will be held this Sunday from 7 to 10 p.m. at Bourbon in Adams Morgan. For a tasty pregame to your holiday weekend festivities, head over to Adams Morgan and be prepared to defend why Baked & Wired or Georgetown Cupcake offers truly the best cupcakes in D.C.

Not all that hungry and don’t feel like straying too far from home? Well, Dixie Liquor has you covered! On Thursday the 19th, they will be hosting a beer tasting of the local award-winning brewery Starr Hill, featuring the Dark Star Stout and the Northern Lights IPA. The tasting will take place from 6 to 9 p.m., so be sure to stop by for your free drinks for the day. Don’t forget photo identification proving you’re 21 years of age.

What’s cheaper than a dollar store?

DC’s Fringe Festival brings more than art to the District … it’s also brings free clothes, books, and music. The Free Store promotes donating, recycling, and reusing among festival attendees, so if you want to add to your wardrobe—or empty out your closet—visit 1013 7th Street NW on Wednesdays through Sundays while Festival shows are running. The Free Store only has a few rules: clothes must be washed, and no Kenny G CDs or Danielle Steele books.

Free beer … seriously!

This Friday, Dixie Liquor will host the Great Lakes Brewing Company for a free beer tasting. The Ohio-based beer peddler will sample three different beers: Dortmunger Gold Lager, Lake Erie Monster, and (the delightfully named) Eliot Ness Amber Lager. The tasting runs from 5 to 8 p.m.

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For as long as Dixie Liquor has been seeking an exemption to the Ward 2 ban on single bottles of alcohol, the Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission has been trying to stop Dixie owners from getting one. Their logic? Allowing Dixie owners to sell super expensive microbrews and fancy culinary liqueurs will drive vagrancy and student drinking.

But earlier this year, ANC commissioners found themselves unable to stop the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration from giving Dixie an exemption anyway. So the ANC has issued a strongly-worded resolution against ABRA’s decision to issue Dixie Liquor a singles ban exemption without ANC approval. (Strongly-worded!)

The resolution comes after a misunderstanding which caused the ANC to mistakenly believe that ABRA would not rule on Dixie’s application without an ANC resolution approving of the exemption. Wagner’s, a liquor store on Wisconsin Avenue, was also granted an exemption to the singles ban, which the D.C. City Council passed for Ward 2 in 2008, without ANC approval.

Georgetown Metropolitan has the full text of the resolution, which reiterates arguments against the exemption that ANC 2E commissioners have been making for more than a year-and-a-half. Echoing concerns they brought up in both a January 2009 ANC meeting and an emergency meeting this April to discuss Dixie’s exemption application, the resolution accuses Dixie’s single sales of contributing to the presence of homeless people in nearby Francis Scott Key Park.

It also disputes Dixie’s claim that it needs to be able to sell smaller-sized liquor bottles to chefs and expensive microbrews as singles, saying that anyone who cooks often will be willing to buy larger-sized liqueurs and that Safeway has had no trouble selling microbrews in six packs. And it obliquely suggests that allowing the exemption will contribute to drinking among Georgetown University students, the reasoning being that Dixie’s is the largest provider of kegs to Georgetown students.

GM thought—and we agree—that the resolution went too far:

“[T]he resolution’s overly cynical analysis of the merits of Dixie’s application is unnecessarily harsh and is inconsistent with past positions of the ANC. Remember that just last year the ANC and CAG were close to supporting a Georgetown-wide exemption from the single sales ban. That’s all ancient history now, though, since according to this resolution nobody but drunk Georgetown students would ever want to buy a single serving of alcohol and any liquor store that can’t survive without selling them isn’t trying hard enough.”

Hear, hear.

Photo from Flickr user Pedestrian Typography used under a Creative Commons license.

Early last year, the D.C. City Council passed a ban on selling single beers in some D.C. neighborhoods, including Georgetown. Faced with major revenue losses, many business owners immediately sought exceptions to the ban from Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. Those who could convince their ANCs that they weren’t selling singles at a price where homeless could buy them—the Logan Circle ANC gave an exception to a Whole Foods to sell pricey microbrews, for example—were by and large successful.

A year later, guess which ANC still isn’t playing ball with one local business?

Yep. Early Friday morning, Georgetown’s ANC met at the offices of the Georgetown Business Improvement District to discuss a request from Dixie Liquor for an exemption to sell high-price craft brews. In a 3-2 vote, the ANC passed a resolution advising the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration not to grant Dixie an exemption, frustrating efforts Dixie began in February 2009.

Back then, in an ANC meeting, Dixie Liquor owner Joy Kurash had argued that Dixie was projected to lose out on $38,000 without the exemption. She also brought samples to emphasize that what she intended to sell was expensive—high-end microbrews that start at $14, culinary liquors, and a Sam Adams “Utopia,” a $180 beer that Sam Adams only brews every other year. The ANC deferred a vote on the exemption.

On Friday, along with Commissioners Ron Lewis, Bill Starrels, and Bill Skelsey, the Citizens Association of Georgetown argued that single-sales of alcohol are directly related to high rates of vagrancy, pointing to the presence of “drifters” in Francis Scott Key Park.

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In the first of what will be regular ANC 2E wrapups, we’re proud to bring you the events of last night’s ANC meeting. (But between Issue Rundowns, GUSA Roundups, and ANC Wrapups, it grieves me to report that we’re running out of summary nouns.)

Last night’s local government rumble had a considerable many high points:  the ANC’s communal chastisement of WASA Director Louis Jarvis, the Dixie Liquor owner’s truly pathetic request for an exception to the singles ban, a resolution of gun stores in Georgetown, Apple’s store redesign, and a visit from the wardmaster himself, Jack Evans.

Details to follow, but the Safeway on Wisconsin will be closing for construction for over a month this Spring.

WASA: Jarvis felt the fury of the ANC when he admitted that 30% of Ward 2 hydrants, still need maintenance nearly two years after bum hydrants stymied firefighter’s efforts to rescue the burning Georgetown Library.

Ed Solomon, who recently watched from his tuxedo shop as a dumpster fire at Addison School required a second pumper truck (the nearby hydrant, tagged as “needing maintenance” but still supposedly in working condition, was in fact a dud), noted that this amounted to 59 hydrants and called the situation “unacceptable.” Later in the meeting, Jack Evans agreed.

Dixie Liquors: Next, Dixie Liquor’s Jody Kurash stopped by to request an exception to Ward 2′s singles ban, saying the store projected a $38,000 loss in sales for this year based on 2008 figures.

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For those looking to get their hallucinations on, the recently reopened Dixie Liquor is hosting an absinthe demonstration/tasting tomorrow from 4-7 p.m. As far as I can tell, or at least according to the New York Times, the absinthe they’ll be serving, Lucid, sounds pretty legit. The makers of Lucid managed to get around the U.S.’s ban on absinthe by omitting thujone, a chemical in modern absinthe, the Times says, which Lucid’s absinthe chemist claims wasn’t even a big part of old-school absinthe. From the Times:

Mr. Breaux knew that removing thujone entirely might harm the taste. “I had to get a handle on the whole thujone issue without compromising the character and the flavor of the drink,” he said. To accomplish this, Mr. Breaux blended the grand wormwood with green anise and sweet fennel from Europe, instead of using more-affordable imports from East Asia. Using herbs from Europe, absinthe’s native continent, he said, gives the drink an earthier essence.

Mr. Breaux also had to keep the American palate in mind while developing Lucid. “In the U.S., anise is a sort of a strange flavor,” he said. “We don’t get a lot of exposure to it.” So Mr. Breaux made sure that Lucid had a slightly cleaner, crisper taste than its European peers.

I’m not much for the flavor of anise, but if I were (and if I were 21), I’d probably be hitting this up tomorrow. Hallucinations aside, Lucid is 62% alcohol, so if you do end up going, watch out for yourself.

Photo courtesy www.drinklucid.com