| The Inn Zone |
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| Reviewed by Brian and Matt 12-27-02. | |
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| Where |
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| 7395-A Lee Highway Fairfax, VA (703) 876-6716 The Inn Zone is by the intersection of Glen Drive and US-29, by that big grave yard. It is in the same strip mall as the Safeway you can see from US-29 - just drive into the parking lot, turn left and go to the end. If the lot is full, park in the back. |
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| Summary | |
| The Inn Zone is a laid back redneck bar in southern McLean. If you want a very friendly place to get a beer, chili fries and play pool or sing country karaoke' - this is it. | |
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| Specialties | |
| Dollar pool, karaoke' (Tuesdays and Fridays) and kick-ass chili cheese fries. Actually, most of the food there is really good except for the chicken fingers so I suggest you try it all. |
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| Ah, the Inn Zone. The
fact that there’s a shitkicker bar tucked away in our NoVA delights me
to no end, makes me want to scour the county for cases of parallel
evolution. But I’d probably come up empty; the Inn Zone is a much
appreciated oddity. It’s where I take my friends of a southern
persuasion to show them that I’m not all the way Yankee. Sure, I don’t
have any knife wound scars; yeah, my country music exposure is mostly
from Sunday morning NPR, but I still manage to fit in here. Not that it’s a challenge. Inn Zone has this Jeckel and Hyde complex that seems pretty pervasive, yet I’ve never caught a glimpse of it. In my experience, based on no small amount of visitation, the place is a warm inviting establishment. I’d take my grandfather to get a beer here if he drank and was alive. The regular bartender Tony has one of the best face-paired-with-drink-order times I’ve seen. There aren’t many pool tables, so games tend to get gregarious, with strangers racking up together to avoid bogarting the felt. There just isn’t much atmosphere of hostility. But check out this blurb from Digital City, the only other Inn Zone review I could find: “great place for a fight a stabbing or your local towing company to just hang out”. Huh. Well, author Jhooknva63 has a point of sorts, I’ve heard that the police blotter is full of fights breaking out from this place. And it’s true, the surrounding neighborhood could be better (Matt’s always talking about this stabbing or that wasting death. Me, I almost rented an apartment there. Talk about low prices…). But the fact remains, I’ve been there enough to get recognized through the groggy swirl of some of the elderly regular’s brains, and I’ve never seen anything go down… so I reckon these things happen, but they’re rare. Okay, other bar stuff. At 4 quarters a game, this is the cheapest pool I’ve seen in a while. Only three tables, and as coin-ops the tables can “break down”, but still, $1 pool. Even on crowded nights, though, it’s pretty easy to get in a game of doubles on an occupied table. They’ve got a little stage here, a devoted corner of the bar, so they’re better hosts of live music than some. Bands tend to be the Aging Hipster Classic Rock variety, but then who isn’t these days. Karaoke is Fridays and Tuesdays… you know, I can’t figure out if I’m now souring on Karaoke or if I always disliked it. Didn’t it used to be socially unacceptable? Because now days it’s socially inescapable. The particular Karaoke that the Inn Zone works with is a talented Elvis impersonator, and is capable of carrying the show during early hours or slow spots. That’s good, but a major percentage of the song list is Presley tunes, and you get the sense the rest of the play list had to suffer a tad. Oh, and no “Clambake”, what gives! So, Inn Zone, good. Man, just writing this makes me wish I was drinking an MGD… I probably get too into the feel of a bar, but every time I’m there I always drink MGD and Matt always drinks Bud and precious little other times does that stuff touch our lips. Last time we were there one of our friends ordered a gin and ginger ale or some crap and I almost busted a gut. But, you know, who’s the bigger phony? |
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Funny story how we
found this place - I had been told for awhile by multiple people about
this rough-and-tumble bar in McLean called "The Inn Zone". So being
the tough guy I am I told Brian he had to go with me so that someone
could escape and bring my family the news of my demise. Luckily, it
turned out to be the friendliest place I've been in a long time - two
beers and ten minutes of half-ass mingling and you will be on a first
name basis with the whole bar. Not many places can boast that level of
hospitality. As mentioned earlier, pool here is coin operated and only a dollar a game. This is THE BEST PLACE TO GO FOR POOL. I wish I remembered how to do a blink tag so I could emphasize that. Games are cheap and even if you show up by yourself, it is easy to join in to other people's games. Don't bother trying that at those fancy pay-by-the hour places - they are anti-social by nature and I don't like them. Coin tables follow the same etiquette as arcade games - if you want the next game, lay down your quarters on the rail. Everyone understands that so go right ahead. My only suggestion would be to bring your own cue - there are two (2) in the whole place that aren't warped and wiggly. Course, if you are like Brian, you like 'em that way. Then there is the karaoke'. The play list tends to focus around current top 40, Classic and Southern rock and country with a dollop of Elvis thrown in by the DJ with the sideburns (hint hint). There is some talent with the singers here and when the talent is lacking it is always made up for with enthusiasm. If you are lucky, you will be there on a night when Brian is singing (he really is quite good) - if you are unlucky I'll be singing (and maybe I'll remember to turn the mike on this time). To top off the Inn Zone trifecta, the staff here is both friendly and they have that rare trait that they remember you if you go there more then once. Considering the large stable of regulars, that is quite a feat. Tony (the bartender) is good to talk to on slow days. I'm used to being forgotten so this scores big big points with me. So to sum up, with it's NASCAR and NFL inspired decor and down-to-earth clientele, the Inn Zone will not win any awards for class or style, but for those of us who aren't soulless yuppie automaton shitheads it is a haven of honesty in an increasingly fake landscape. And really, who wants to be an automaton anyway. |
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