Where to Turn 21 in DC?
 

Our daughter, who is going to college in DC, turns 21 over the Labor Day weekend.

(I thought it was really amusing that she was actual born on the Labor Day holiday in 1984 ... not sure ms. jmd001 thought is was all that amusing.)

The daughter has given us some ideas about what she would like to do / where she would like to do it, but we're looking for other suggestions.

So where would you recommend (bar, restaurant, hotel, other?) for a party of 15 to 20 people where the celebrant was turning 21 (and is really looking forward to that first [er, ah...first LEGAL] alcoholic beverage!)? Something in the Georetown area would be convenient.

The first place that came to my mind was the Ritz-Carlton in Georgetown. The lounge area with oversized chairs/sofas, soaring ceilings and exposed brick walls, and a fireplace is perfect for a small gathering. It is, however, somewhat sedate (no crazy drunken college kids here) and the atmosphere is elegant. This is also probably more suitable for post-dinner.

For dinner, not knowing how much you want to spend, I've always enjoyed Buca di Beppo in Dupont Circle (a mile east of G'town). The food is average at best but they cater well to large parties (big portions, good service, lots of birthdays here) and the limoncello shots are fierce. It's always a night to remember (or not, as it were) at Buca.

If you're not confined to Georgetown, Helix (2 miles or so east of G'town) has a hipper-than-thou bar complete with white-washed furniture, lovely banquettes with sheer screens, and fabu-tinis (you can even get one named after your daughter!). But the best part is the outdoor patio. Nothing is better than drinking under a starlit sky :)

If I was turning 21, I'd want to party with my closest friends at a bar or loud restaurant, get thoroughly sh*t-faced, and end up at a place where my dollar bills will come in handy ;) (I have a perfect spot for that too!) But then again, your daughter may not be as trashy as me :D

Congrats on your daughter turning 21 and for being a cool dad! :)

I would vote for the Brickskellar, a labyrinthine, crowded, ultra-fun bar in Dupont Circle with one of the best beer selections in the United States. Literally hundreds of options from all over the globe. If you want your daughter to start her drinking education off right, this is the place.

I believe BearX220 is thinking of the Brickskellar, in Dupont Circle (on 22nd St.). It is a fun place, and has a good beer selection. If you went there, you could have dinner at Mimi's American Bistro beforehand, which is right around the corner (on P St.) it is sort of a caberet where the servers all take turns singing, and would be a fun atmosphere for a family dinner.

Another suggestion...in Georgetown there is a restaurant/bar on M St. called Mie & Yu, which has a very cool, funky interior, good specialty drinks, and good, if slightly pricey, food. It is a large restaurant and each room has a different theme - for example, the "moroccan bazaar" or "turkish tent." You can also reserve an entire room for a private party.

Thanks!!! Keep the great ideas coming.

Except ... well ... I don't think the Ritz-Carlton is quite the right place ... irrespective of cost. :(

How about renting a bus and doing a wine tour in Virginia? 'Course for folks from the Bay Area that may be anticlimactic.

You could always start at a restaurant and commence a pub crawl. The patio bar at Sequoia or Tommy & Joe's on the Georgetown waterfront could be nice provided it's not excessively sticky outside (as it usually is in the summer). For the "DC experience" (without unreasonable cost) how 'bout the old Old Ebbitt Grill? I think the WashPost rated it "best bartenders" or some such a couple years ago. You could then pick a bar for after dinner to settle in.

Speaking strictly for myself, had my parents flown out to New York for my 21st I would have opted for a smaller, more private celebration with them (as I only saw them a few times a year); 21st birthdays with the big group of friends were typically organized as a pub crawl.

You are absolutely right, dillard8. Thanks for the correction!

Not to be too anal, but dillard8 is not absolutely correct. The correct spelling is Brickskeller

Regardless, looks like an excellent idea. Any idea if they do private parties?

Looks like I need to brush up on my German spelling. :) The Brickskeller does do private parties, though I am not sure if they accept them on the weekends - my firm had done events there on week nights. It's a large place though with lots of rooms, so they might.

Mose Allison plays that weekend in a freshly renovated Blues Alley
http://www.bluesalley.com/calendar.htm

Helix
 

Not to discredit the earlier poster's idea, but I'd throw in a world of caution re: Helix. While it's definitely a cool place, it may not measure up for someone truly expectingly a hipper-than-thou experience. I enjoy the place myself, from time to time, but it's not exactly top end. Topaz might better serve that purpose (with the added bonus of being next to the truly excellent Tabard Inn) or Dragonfly, down on Connecticut.

Bumping my own thread.

Many great ideas above (thanks, everyone!), but wanted to solicit one additional round of suggestions before finalizing things.

For those of you who might be interested...
 

We selected the Topaz Hotel for the daughter's 21st birthday party. In summary, we were very pleased with how everything went.

Some details: Because we were doing the party at the Topaz, it seemed logical for the wife & I to stay there (even though we are Diamond with HHonors). Online, I got a weekend, AAA rate at $126/night. Since the hotel was very lightly booked (Labor Day weekend) and we were going to run up a pretty hefty catering/bar bill, they upgraded us to one of their "Specialty Rooms" (an "Energy Room"). Not much of a view, but an excellent, relatively large room with lots of nice touches. Calling it a suite would not be exagerating too much.

For the party itself, we selected the "Enlightenment Room" on the lower level (i.e., basement). No view, but it had a built-in bar, and was pretty much just the right size for the ~35 people attending.

The catering person tried to tell my wife that she was ordering way too much food and should do the bar tab on a per-drink basis. We electing to get all the food we thought we needed (we ended up needing more) and to go "by-the-hour" on the bar tab (which turned out to be a VERY wise decision financially).

You have to realize that except for us two old fogey parents, all the attendees were students from Georgetown University. We expected them to eat and drink A LOT. Our expectations were met. :D

We rented a bus to bring the attendees from campus to the hotel and cart them back (to avoid anyone having to drive). Turned out that the bartender was an attractive lady in her mid 20's, who was a grad student at Georgetown. So the crowd ate ALL the food, endured a PowerPoint presentation that I put together of our daughter's growing up, and got the bartender to drink shots with them (the attendees included several members of the G'town baseball team). I even had a few "SoCo & Lime" shots myself. (Don't think I had had any Southern Comfort since my college days ... and certainly never mixed it with Rose's Lime Juice!) I felt much better the next AM than I deserved to.

Overall, we were very pleased with the Topaz as a hotel, the responsiveness of the staff, the party factilities, and the quality of the food & drink. If ~$100/person is in your party budget, we would very much recommend the Topaz.

Note that with the bus transportation, everyone arrived at the same time and everyone left at the same time. If folks could have or would have drifted in and out and were not all college students, then the "by-the-hour" bar would likely not be the way to go.

Here is another vote for Brickskellars. Great place. Has some large rooms. And the largest selection of beers in the world (they are in the Guiness Book - how appropriate =) Fun for the newly legal and veteran beer drinker alike. Not to be missed.