Post #349936 by Suffering Bastard of Stumptown on Mon, Dec 17, 2007 6:58 AM

Because I spend a decent amount of time in DC for my work (www.commoncause.org), I decided to go with a friend to the Continental back in November. Until Trader Vic's returns to DC, there's not much easy to get to without a car, however the Continental is only a block away from a Metro stop.

We went in on a Sunday evening around 7 and there were about 4 other people in the place, which given how large it is, made it seem sadly empty. My guess is that other nights it's more packed.

We took the following photos of the Witco decor and the giant tiki. The Witco seemed out of place because of the sparseness of the decor. I normally see Witco in a more "cluttered" situation.

You'd think that the people working there would have some idea of what makes them different from other bars. However, that was not my experience.

i asked about tiki mugs. They looked at me like I was an alien. They didn't know what tiki mugs were.
I tried to order a tiki drink other than a mai-tai. Zombie, fogcutter, suffering bastard, Dr. Funk, planter's punch... they only one the bartender had even heard of was a zombie, but he said he didn't have the ingredients. I said, ok, give me a mai-tai.

They did serve it to me in a bamboo mug, but that might have been special for me since they were unable to fulfill any of my other requests. I saw mentioned earlier in this thread that they stopped serving in them due to theft. the mai-tai was adequate. It was refreshing, but hardly complex. I don't quite have the sophisticated palate that some others here do, so I don't have a great viewpoint on it. But I would warn that they seem to be a more utilitarian bar, serving alcohol as efficiently as possible.

We also ordered wings and something else (I can't remember what else now). The food was actually rather good.

So my review is this. It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but I will only head back if I am with a group that wants to go there. And don't expect anything interesting in terms of cocktails.

..sb