Uh, take the Metro to the something Washington stop (orange line). Walk to Independence Avenue, turn left and walk until it hits Pennsylvania.

Quizzo is the Tuesday night trivia-off, and it's pretty cool, if you're lucky enough to glom onto a group of established intellectual regulars. I mean, I always considered myself to have some grasp of the esoteric, but you know how it is; sit in front of a trivia pursuit board across from the wrong people and you're withholding the scoop of ice cream on your humble pie, you've got too much to eat already, thanks. I think in the game and a half I sat in for, my only contribution was naming T.V.'s Brandy as the star of the 1997 TV version of Cinderella, and why the hell do I know that!  Anyway they were playing Cartoon Network on the TV in front of me, and just try acting intellectual when Pokemon is clawing away at your attention. Luckily the rest of the table knew that Prime Minister Bulbasaur didn't start that Chechnyan conflict. Anyway, Quizzo is really cool, I'd dig being back there, and apparently they do a Simpsons night occasionally. Which reminds me of episode 2F09, when Homer...

Quizzo started at 7 (we were late, as always) and finished up around 9:30. Everyone else filed out, leaving us free to enjoy the Pittsburgh portion of the bar. It's cool, kind of a giant bottlecap motif, like drinking in the Batcave! No, it's not like that at all, my notes just say "giant bottlecap". But anyway, the upper floor is the kind of place I normally dig, but then again I've seen it all before, and the drink prices here are something to write home about in murderous rage.

So we went down to the lower floor, which Matt loves carnally, and I didn't think was too bad. Normally I hate gimmicks in bars; I'm the guy that visited Milwaukee's Safe House and just went "eh". So how do I respond to a polynesian motif? Well, they keep things under restraint here, it's not overdone and actually works. Matt's Porn Lounge is as cool as he let on; a cozy little back room perfect for a group of five or six. It's all columns and pool tables, masks and taps; it overwhelmed my inner curmudgeon. And uh... this is about where my memory loss kicks in... Matt sez I did a shot from a mysterious benefactor, and a conversation with an electrician about union politics drifts through the haze... We both agreed that Jesus would have been a Union man, but which union, we had our varying opinions.

But looking at my wallet the next morning, it wasn't worth it; not the travel, not the bar tab This gets a negatory because I'll never be going back on my own initiative, never cajoling a group to go. But I won't need much cajoling myself...

This was a night with very auspicious beginnings. It started with a phone call. I wasn't in the mood to go to Salsa due to a rough day at work and had long been saying that Brian would enjoy Quizzo at Politiki. Brian's on holiday now so it wasn't hard to get him to go along with the plan. Like always, I told him I didn't plan on drinking much but as often as not that ended up not meaning anything.

On the Metro ride over we were regaled with the life story of a drunk returning from Arlington Cemetery. He was telling us how he didn't have money for flowers, but he only bought one beer. Then another. Then another. Considering he smelled like a brewery, I'm thinking there were a few more 'anothers' in there that he wasn't mentioning. I've been around drunk strangers frequent enough that it didn't phase me, but Brian I wasn't sure. He started out listening to the drunk's story with ether apprehension or rapt attention. It turned out to be the latter - I should have guessed. Our stop came right when Brian was discussing the pros and cons of going to war with the drunk.

A brisk jaunt down Independence street took us to the bar. Interesting place, each of the three floors has a different theme and name. I still haven't figured out whether Politiki is actually three bars in a common building, or one bar divided. You enter into a Pittsburgh sports bar. Going up, you have a WWI martini bar (fancy and red). Below a Tiki bar replete with two pool tables ($2 a play, coin operated) and a lounge in the back that one could film a porn movie at (plenty of pleather, low couches and hidden mirrors).

We had uncharacteristically traveled into DC on a Tuesday with two things in mind; Quizzo and beer. Quizzo is a trivia game that is hosted by a human instead of played on video screens (like you find at most places). For this application, human = more fun and therefore better. Questions are submitted by the players over e-mail (quizzomaster25@yahoo.com) and the best ones win. Subjects range from whether the moon has seasons (it doesn't) to remember who score dthe last point in last year's superbowl (I forget). Teams can win credit towards their tabs or free pitchers by winning the rounds, or by having the funniest team name. I've noticed clever names beat vulgarity, but both is twice as nice.

Beer here is found with a decent selection with decent (For DC) prices. 3 pitchers of IPC came out to $42 - more then we usually pay, but then again we were getting free entertainment and this was DC. Just for the record, I would like to state that we didn't really need three pitchers for two people and that Brian needs to work on those impulse drinkies.

Due to its location and the fact it has smarty-pants activities like Quizzo, the crowd here tends to be young political go-getters, interns and academics. Normally this would be bad, except Politiki seems to attract the fun ones, so it's all good. People were dressed trendy, but not pretentionsly so and I did see a guy there wearing a "Glock Perfection" shirt (odd for DC) so again, take that statement with a grain of salt. I've only been here once on a non-Quizzo night and the crowd then was very friendly and chatty so that is another big plus. Oh, also, the pool players are generally not very good (not like Inn Zone) so this is a good place to feed you ego.

After Quizzo, Brian and I hung around just to see what was up. Brian got approached by another drunk, this time an old electrician who was very proud of his union hat and like to say things like, "If Jesus was here today, he'd be an electrician." Like the drunk on the Metro, I was cautious (having been swung at unpredictably by drunks before) and Brian was thoroughly amused. I'm thinking true lushes like Brian must have some sort of special pheromone they detect each other by.

In summary Politiki = good and Quizzo = good. Of course, I've always been a sucker for a theme bar.

P.S. You may notice a lack of pictures. That is because Brian forgot to charge his camera. Just thought I'd point that out.