blue gin and georgetown parking

This past weekend, I made my second trip to Blue Gin (lounge and martini bar in Georgetown) and for the second time, I was pretty pleased with the place. I know most of what makes a good experience for me has to do with the company I'm with, and I was with some great company (thanks Melissa, Juan, and Sherry), which meant I had a great time. So good that we ended up closing the place out...

As far as the actual bar/lounge is concerned, it's the little things at Blue Gin which makes it stand out to me as a place I would choose to go. The staff is really friendly compared to other places. In particular, the bouncer wasn't stonefaced or pissed off, the girl collecting cover actually took a moment to say hello and didn't snap at my money, and our server didn't have an attitude problem and actually looked like she was having fun working. The crowd, although well-dressed and looking great, didn't have that pretentious "I'm too good to look at you" aura like they do at some other places in DC. Part of it may have been related to Good Friday, as Georgetown was surprisingly not crowded at all -- and to me, this was a great thing. We actually had room to sit, chill, try out some martinis, and enjoy the evening. I thought the Friday night house DJ did a really good job spinning and the live congo drum player, although loud, was kinda cool. Although I'd recently heard (from friends and from customer reviews on the Web) that they were giving people a hard time about going upstairs, we went to check out the upstairs without any issue at all. I'm glad that the people who run the place understand that a customer's experience consists of little moments that all add up to form an overall impression and opinion. (More to come on customer experiences later this week.)

Just for reference, a while ago I found spacious and relatively inexpensive ($7 flat rate for evenings and weekends) parking in Georgetown that is open late (3am) on 30th Street, NW, between M and K Streets. So directions if you're coming from Virginia and you want to avoid Georgetown night traffic: take I-66 East (or US-50 East, or GW Parkway) and cross into DC on the Roosevelt Bridge. Take the left exit to E Street, immediately veering left to the unmarked downramp (away from upramp to E Street). Move left three lanes to follow overhead sign to Rock Creek Parkway. Exit left following the sign to the Rock Creek Parkway, then immediately veer right at the barely marked ramp to K Street (away from Rock Creek Parkway). Make a left at the traffic light onto K Street and make sure to take the unmarked downramp towards your left (the upramp puts you on Whitehurst Freeway). 30th Street is one way, so you have to go around the block. Make a right on Thomas Jefferson Drive, a right onto M Street, and then a right onto 30th Street where the parking garage will be on your right. I've tried parking at a number of other places in Georgetown, but this is the least expensive garage I've found that keeps these hours and you avoid the massive M Street traffic mess between Key Bridge and Wisconsin Ave. Oh, and don't bother tracing these directions on a map, because it's just not possible :)