A Lounge

I will surely return to this place with friends after scoping it out with my girlfriend. Has a warm but relaxed feel in an upscale environment. Wonderful fireplace, bar area, lounge seating, and friendly barkeep. Solid Moscow Mule and decent Pinot Noir rounded out this experience. Truly a gem hidden in the hustle/​bustle of DC.

Nice spot for good cocktails.
Service is very slow.
Food is not offered, so be aware.

Quiet, comfortable, modern décor and very tasty cocktails. Loved the Metropolitan (a nod to the Metropolitan Club next door?). Perfect place for a restoring cocktail after the spring White House garden tour. Service quick and attentive.

$ 5 wine + swanky décor = hidden gem of happy hours
NOTE: Happy hour ends at 6:30 pm. Beware.

I came here for a happy hour — $ 5 wine pours by a very attentive and happy bartender. Vibe is pretty cool, good spot for a drink, and props for the fireplace!

My best friend an I hadn’t seen each other in a while so we decided to give this place a shot. The place was nice and the seats made way for both private as well as public communication among people. Other than how this place looked, the bartender was disappointing at best. While my friend got a whisky on the rocks, i decided to get the classic cocktail, «sand and blood». What shocked me was that the bartender had to take out a piece of paper with the recipe on it from one of the cabinets in order to make the mixed drink– A drink that was neither tasty or mixed well. I don’t know when the peak times are for this bar– but i visited on a Monday night to just have a good drink with a friend and was disappointed. It will take a promise from the bar for me to revisit this place again.

A hidden gem of a bar with very personal attention from the bar mistress, Jenny. This lounge offers two seating areas — one at the bar for frequent refills and idle conversation to pass the time, the other a series of sofas and couches away from the bar for quiet meetings or private reflection.

A bar in an unassuming hotel on H street near the Farragut area. I’ve probably walked by this hotel a dozen times and never realized it was here. The real plus to the place is that the bar tender was friendly, it was quite, clean and comfortable. Definitely the right ambiance for the after work meeting that I had here. Drinks were a bit expensive at $ 12, but nothing to cry about. Beer menu also didn’t really do much for me. Still, it was a nice place to have a relaxed drink where you could talk. Also bonus because the bar tender that seemed to know the regulars and who was willing to talk to those who weren’t regulars (even if she needed to pull out a card to mix one of the cocktails off the menu).

Sort of like my own personal Cheers in DC, a place everybody knows your name and they are always glad you came! Fancy and friendly service. The bartenders provide witty and lively conversation (Team NatashaJennyLisa) and pour a mix of yummy concoctions. A perfect place to wind down after a stressful day.

I loooooooove this place. I work really close by and this is my go-​to happy hour destination. First of all? Heavy pours and $ 5 wine between 5 – 6. Amazing. Second of all? All of the bartenders I’ve ever had here — Natasha and Jenny and Tina — are amazing, awesome people who were immediately so friendly and warm and engaging. The atmosphere is comfortable, laid back, and quiet; with a fireplace and comfortable chairs and, of course, the bar itself. I’m not really a fan of loud bars, so that makes A Lounge my favorite place to go for a glass of wine after work. The bartenders make an effort to get to know you and will recognize you if you show up every so often. I can’t stress enough how much I love going here, particularly in comparison with the many loud, claustrophobic, cluttered bars in the Foggy/​Dupont area. A Lounge is the kind of place to have a glass of wine and a conversation at a normal volume. ALSO I have definitely seen an amazing live duo play jazzy music there on one occasion.

Probably THE GREATEST hotel bar you will ever encounter ESPECIALLY if Jenny is your bartender. She’s got a great story and can put on all these different accents, very personable and entertaining as a bartender and she makes some meannn drinks.
Try one of her Old Fashioneds, seriously they are my favorite.
She also made me this margarita with jalepeno and habanero infused tequila whoa
and lets not forget the salted caramel shots
and her dirty dirty martinis
I call it the AKA because its the bar in the Hotel lounge and probably one of DC’s best kept secrets (or one of my best kept secrets). If you want a break from the DC chaos, want some private time with your significant other/​catch up with a dear old friend, or just have an intimate bar experience. This is the place!
Secret no more…

I finally got a chance to revisit this gem hidden in the lobby level of the AKA Hotel, and after a lovely evening, I regretted not having returned sooner. For starters, it’s pretty quiet in the late afternoons, which is nice if you’re just popping in for a quick drink after a long day. They light a fire at 5pm daily, so if you want to relax and stare contemplatively into the flames, just grab a high-​backed chair and a highball glass, and slip into a daze. On Thursdays, there’s a free wine hour from 5.30−6.30, which brings in a larger crowd that generally stays substantially later.
What sets this bar apart is the quality and variety of their cocktails. Be warned, they come on strong, so if you’re going to try to make it through the whole list (which I did), you should bring a friend or two to share them (which I didn’t).
Highlights include, in my preferential order:
Penicillin+
This is A Lounge’s take on an old classic, and the first drink I ordered. It’s listed as being Yamazaki 12-​year, Ginger, Honey, Lemon, and Ardbeg, this cocktail instead included Habiki as the base, with a Laphroaig float (welcome substitutions, for the record). The honey mellowed out the smokiness of the Laphroaig beautifully, and, overall, this was a well-​balanced cocktail with several layers of complexity and flavor.
Next up was a Blood & Sand, the concoction from the eponymous 1922 bullfighter film, according to the lovely Melani, who was so artfully mixing drinks behind the bar. This one’s also scotch-​based, with a dash of Aperol and a healthy splash of Dolin vermouth — quite tasty.
I also tried the Honeycomb, which combines tequila, honey, Pernod, and lemon for a refreshing take on a margarita, less the salted rim.
Lastly, there was the Yoshinori Red 100, an exclusive in-​house offering celebrating the 100-​year anniversary of the Cherry Blossom Festival. I had stopped writing down ingredients by this point, so you’ll just have to go and try one for yourself.
Sit for a while, sip for a while, and be glad you stopped in.