Alcohol + Oddity...What Could Be Better?

Shout out to the Washington Post Express for including this post in their blog log.

This past Saturday I headed over to Showbar's Palace of Wonders for the first time since their July opening. After reading about sword swallowing bartenders and various displays of oddities mixed in with the occult - I was anxious to see if it was everything I had imagined and most importantly, I wanted to see if it was as much of a departure from the DC bar scene as I had hoped.

As far as it living up to everything I had imagined from reading earlier reviews, I wasn't dissapointed with the decor or the feel of the bar. The staff seemed friendly, although not overly so (which is nice - I like my bartenders good and surly). There was plenty going on, which included sword swallowing and tarot card readings, but the nice part was that these things didn't get in the way if you were just there to have a couple beers with your friends - it's not like they were forcing a show on anyone and the tarot readings were tucked into a quiet corner which was great for a private reading (I was impressed with the tarot card reading - not just because I have a good future ahead of me...wink wink...but because you could tell the man doing the readings really enjoyed what he was doing...and that was nice).

It's going to be interesting to see how the H Street corridor develops and to see what clientele will frequent the bars that have already or will soon open their doors. The cops were out in full force Saturday night - my friends and I witnessed two police cars pull over a woman, and was then joined by a motorcycle cop (we didn't get the scoop on what the offense was). While in the bar, a cop entered and seemed to follow a group of girls who made a bee line for the "smoking deck" and down a flight of stairs. Not sure if they were underaged or in trouble, but the cop paused to give the bars cat (yes, there's a kitty that hangs out at the bar) some love.

The bar was relatively empty until around 11:00pm when the cabs started rolling up and dumping out what appeared to be M Street transplants. My friends (who bought a house in the neighborhood about a year ago) and I sat staring as these girls were exiting cabs flinging their huge purses around and generally drawing a lot of attention to themselves. Now look - I could launch into a whole discussion about gentrification and the changing face of the H Street corridor, but i'm going to leave that to DCist. What I will say is this - ladies, have some freaking common sense! I don't care if you're in Anacostia or Georgetown, you don't stand in the middle of the sidewalk digging through your purse, taking wads of cash, iPods and various other treasures out in order to find your I.D. I'm not a criminal, but for a fleeting moment, even I wanted to wack you on the head and take your shit - if for no other reason than to teach you a lesson.

Final note - there's no kitchen at The Palace of Wonders, so if you need to line your stomach after a couple of beers there is a great take out place across the street. I recommend the three piece chicken plate with french fries - amazing. Oh, and I just checked their website - turns out there's a Female Arm Wrestling Night on Tuesday's. Now that's a show I would pay to see!