Tunnicliffs Tavern - Capital Hill ( Eastern Market )

After a night of drinking it can be a crucial to find a good bar to serve up a solid hangover killer....in the late morning...or in the King Penguin's case....early afternoon. Tunnicliffs provided this very valuable service in the form of an ok bloody mary and 3 cold beers. Located in the heart of Eastern Market it is the closest bar to the awesome mayhem that is the Eastern Market flea market. Tunnicliffs does have a great neighborhood feel and has a well priced menu, TGIFish tavern interior and outdoor seating which allows the patrons to people watch on the weekends. ( King Penguin sat inside because the brightness of the sunny day hurt his eyes and aggravated a headache ) Sad thing about the outdoor seating is it always seems to be hectic and inefficient, so getting a group together there can be difficult. Parking is not suggested on the weekends as the street is blocked off ( but not usually a problem on weekdays). If you have time to scour for parking you can usually find a spot within a few blocks even on the weekends and during the week you may get lucky and land a spot right outside the front door. Metro access is right down 7th street on Pennsylvania Ave. so this place does have good accessibility. Tunniclifs is great for stepping away from the market and grabbing a cold one. Service has been mixed. On my latest weekend visit the bartender appeared tired-uninterested but she was amusing. She trashed a buddy for the questionable un-manly drink he ordered. I increased her tip soley on this hit to his ego. Regardless service is slow unless you are a regular ( understandable but not excusable) . When I stopped in for a weekday lunch, service was mediocre but at least the waiter was a really nice guy. I can't pick apart and totally figure out the business method at Tunnicliffs but service remains average so they will live with the rating. Prices are good and specials seem worth it if you live in close proximity.( Check their website as the specials are in flux ) I wouldnt cross town for the place but if you are in the area for the market or live in close by then a visit is in order. I do believe they achieve at Tunniclifs what they intend, to serve as your neighborhood bar.

Location - 4
Clientele - 3 ( its neighborhoodish )

Value - 3

Atmosphere - 2

Service - 3

Vote is a 3. Great place to stop by but not neccesarily worth the trip.

True Story - Adams Morgan

As per my usual routine of finding new places to imbibe I came across a new bar with some friends Saturday ( August 2nd ) night. This is a true story by the way. You may have remembered THE ANGRY INCH in Adams Morgan but to my suprise, and level of sobriety, I realized that it had been replaced with an establishment called....TRUE STORY. I thought nothing of it as I walked past as we were on a mission, but the vocal door man was selling his @$$ off trying to get some press for his new joint. ( one can only imagine why The Angry Inch shut down, a bar shutting down in Adams Morgan is pretty sorry because AM has a built in clientele of DC's hardest drinkers ) I digress. The door man says no cover, free shot with a drink, so we go in. Sure as $h!t, it was. I bought a round of 3 beers for the guys and 2 cocktails for the ladies....tab = 23.00$...plus 5 shots. In the biz, we call this a jackpot, at least for most places in DC. One can only assume they are keeping prices low to build up a buzz but I am not going to complain. The decor was wacky/industrial but the staff was fun and the place wasnt packed. Again, maybe due to its infancy. Music was loud enough to dance with someone...if you want to dance on the ground level of a place called True Story, but not so loud you couldnt have a conversation with the bachlorette party. SO, all in all, a good deal and a fun couple of drinks.

As an addition, there again thursday night and they were giving away 2 for 1 drinks. Get this while you can people! True Story.



Location - 4 ( it is Adams Morgan )
Clientele - 3
Value - 5
Atmosphere - 4
Service - 4



The King Penguin says a strong 4. The only thing now is to watch and wait....and get cheap booze while you can. This place stays cool in 3 months we will have ourselves a little re-visit, until then, keep up the fun.

Rating Sytem

A note on the rating system, everything is rated on a 1-5 Penguin scale. 1 being bad, 5 being the best. There is also an angry penguin if something about the place made one of us angry... we don't want to use it! But we will! So watch out A-hole barkeeps! As for the criteria, there are 5 factors.

• Location - Is the bar easy to get to? Metro? Parking if you risk it and drive?
• Service - Is the barkeep a witty little minx? An old pro? Or a miserable ass? ( note the latter will get the angry penguin ) Hook ups certainly get more penguins!
• Value - Does the place give bang for the buck? Or did you just burn a large portion of your free floating income? A classy place will not be hit on this, but! As the objective reporters we are here at Bar Penguin DC, expensive drinking will be noted.
• Atmosphere - Basically is the place a toilet or a cool place to pull down a brew? If there are 3 in the bar and someone has to walk over you to get to the bathroom, it's gonna get 1 penguin. Music too loud? Cool vibe?
• Clientele - DC can be known to...have a problem with the type of people running around. Are there cool people hanging around? Or does everyone hug their drink to their chest and scowl? The rubric on this is friendly or cliquish.

All these factors added together with our patent rating system will yield an overall penguin rating for those who need a quick reference. Happy hunting! And Beware the Bar Penguins!