DC folks-Thursday game watching?

[Timonen]

I'll be in dc Thursday night for work. Is there a cuse game watching spot? Assume nothing formal for a midweek game but I've got flexibility so wanted to check. If not, I'll be in the Bethesda area. Any recommendations for where to go? Happy to go on metro if it gets me somewhere interesting (and I can get back post game which will be late)

Thanks!

 

[themorey]

Try this site: http://www.suindc.org/home.html

 

[Eric15]

I'll be in dc Thursday night for work. Is there a cuse game watching spot? Assume nothing formal for a midweek game but I've got flexibility so wanted to check. If not, I'll be in the Bethesda area. Any recommendations for where to go? Happy to go on metro if it gets me somewhere interesting (and I can get back post game which will be late)

Thanks!

Sign of the Whale at M Street and Connecticut Ave is the SU bar in DC. They usually have in-game drink and food specials, and will almost always have audio on for the game.

 

[Bayside44]

Sign of the Whale at M Street and Connecticut Ave is the SU bar in DC. They usually have in-game drink and food specials, and will almost always have audio on for the game.

The postgame goes next door to Camelot.

 

[Timonen]

Thanks all. Great info and that bar is just a couple metro stops down. The late start means I can get any work obligations out of the way. This is shaping up nicely!

 

[Eric15]

The postgame goes next door to Camelot.

For anyone who is wondering what Camelot is… it's a really quaint independent book store/coffee shop. We went there after the NC State loss in the ACCT last year.

 

[Townie72]

You can certainly take the Red Line Metro from Bethesda to Dupont Circle and walk the few blocks to Sign of the Whale on M Street. It's 30 - 40 minute trip. My recollection is its more bar than sports bar.

Or you can walk a few blocks to two sports bars in Bethesda. Caddies on Cordell is a Maryland Terps hangout but if the Terps aren't playing then SU is probably on. On Saturdays its pretty raucous. Tommy Joe's on Montgomery is another possibility.

Bethesda has a ton of bars and restaurants. Parking is a challenge, but there is a public garage between Cordell and Woodmont. Try the Louisiana Express for authentic Cajun food (Not a chain restaurant)

 

[Timonen]

You can certainly take the Red Line Metro from Bethesda to Dupont Circle and walk the few blocks to Sign of the Whale on M Street. It's 30 - 40 minute trip. My recollection is its more bar than sports bar.

Or you can walk a few blocks to two sports bars in Bethesda. Caddies on Cordell is a Maryland Terps hangout but if the Terps aren't playing then SU is probably on. On Saturdays its pretty raucous. Tommy Joe's on Montgomery is another possibility.

Bethesda has a ton of bars and restaurants. Parking is a challenge, but there is a public garage between Cordell and Woodmont. Try the Louisiana Express for authentic Cajun food (Not a chain restaurant)

appreciate the feedback. honest question - their website says to go to Farragut north which shows as a 15 minute trip from bethesda. does your 30-40 minute estimate come from the walk from the station?

 

[Eric15]

appreciate the feedback. honest question - their website says to go to Farragut north which shows as a 15 minute trip from bethesda. does your 30-40 minute estimate come from the walk from the station?

Not to contradict Townie, but it's really more like 20 minutes (15 minute Metro ride from Bethesda to Farragut North and then a 5 minute walk to the bar). It would only take 40 minutes if there were delays on the red line.

 

[Bill Orange]

Not to contradict Townie, but it's really more like 20 minutes (15 minute Metro ride from Bethesda to Farragut North and then a 5 minute walk to the bar). It would only take 40 minutes if there were delays on the red line.

The entire trip should take you no longer than 25 minutes, once you get on the train at the Bethesda station. Get off at Dupont Circle and use the south exit, take the long escalator up, which will put you on 19th Street. Walk south on 19th on the left sidewalk. You'll go by the Palm and then right after that turn left on M Street and The Whale will be on your left. The crowd skews young, so if you are old like Bayside, you might feel out of place, but you'll be among Orange Nation.

 

[Townie72]

Not to contradict Townie, but it's really more like 20 minutes (15 minute Metro ride from Bethesda to Farragut North and then a 5 minute walk to the bar). It would only take 40 minutes if there were delays on the red line.

It's NOT going to take you 20 minutes. It will be more like 30 - 35 minutes if you don't make any mistakes and if the good Lord's willing and the creeks don't rise. (Which is always a gamble in the People's Republic of DC in which the Government --- including the WMATA --- is actually a Jobs Program and not really there to do anything)

Let's take time to the Metro station out of the equation. Not matter where he goes he'll have some travel time to it.

But there are flaws in the 20 minute plan above. It is a 15 minute train ride. But it assumes he has no wait time for the Red Line Metro in Bethesda. This will be more of a problem on the way back as trains are less frequent late at night. And you always have the possibility of Metro problems (Trains that stop mysteriously, escalators that quit working, etc). A rarity ... but a real PIA for out-of-towners.

Then you have to get from the Metro up to 19th Street up the escalator and that's a couple of minutes.
Its a five minute walk to M Street if you know which way you are going. It's 30 minutes best case.

If I am in Bethesda, I'd as soon walk to someplace locally and walk back to my hotel. And find a place for dinner in Bethesda. The Sign of the Whale isn't that great a place to watch a game. All it has going for it is more SU fans.

Bill Orange's directions are correct. But do yourself a favor and assume 30 to 40 minutes for the trip.

 

[Bayside44]

You guys are splitting precious hairs. I think the big issue is age, the older you are the less likely it'll work for you.

But whatever you do - stay away from JOC on your trip to DC. If 2 or more people are gathered at JOC's house to watch, we'll lose.

 

[Timonen]

love the discussion, guys. i'm only in town for the day/night and always try to do something in the city-proper when i have flexibility to do so, so I'm leaning towards heading in...but definitely get the variability of all those moving parts and will have my eyes open.

If i'm passing the Palm that Mr. Tony always talks about, I'll be giddy and excited (for no good reason, of course).

 

[Bill Orange]

love the discussion, guys. i'm only in town for the day/night and always try to do something in the city-proper when i have flexibility to do so, so I'm leaning towards heading in...but definitely get the variability of all those moving parts and will have my eyes open.

If i'm passing the Palm that Mr. Tony always talks about, I'll be giddy and excited (for no good reason, of course).

It sure is. If it was a 7pm tip, I'd be there at the bar watching the game.

 

[KaiserUEO]

love the discussion, guys. i'm only in town for the day/night and always try to do something in the city-proper when i have flexibility to do so, so I'm leaning towards heading in...but definitely get the variability of all those moving parts and will have my eyes open.

If i'm passing the Palm that Mr. Tony always talks about, I'll be giddy and excited (for no good reason, of course).

the whole thing seems pretty confusing and time consuming.

just take the acela to NYPenn, walk upstairs.

done.

 

[CusefanATL]

I'll be in dc Thursday night for work. Is there a cuse game watching spot? Assume nothing formal for a midweek game but I've got flexibility so wanted to check. If not, I'll be in the Bethesda area. Any recommendations for where to go? Happy to go on metro if it gets me somewhere interesting (and I can get back post game which will be late)

Thanks!

WAIT A SECOND...

You dont leave your house for games in Atlanta... but you spend a few days in DC and you are looking to watch with a group?!

:blah::blah::blah:

 

[Timonen]

WAIT A SECOND...

You dont leave your house for games in Atlanta... but you spend a few days in DC and you are looking to watch with a group?!

:blah::blah::blah:

ha, at home i have a very strong competing interest. alone on the road for work and i'm able to go forth with selfish pursuits.

 

[OttoMets]

There's bound to be an inordinate wait at Bethesda and maybe some delays, so budget more time. And watch the late end - trains stop running rather early and, speaking from experience, the cab ride is a long and expensive one at 12:30 in the morning.

But Bethesda is really a ghost town and it's certainly worth the time to go down to SOTW.

 

[Townie72]

There's bound to be an inordinate wait at Bethesda and maybe some delays, so budget more time. And watch the late end - trains stop running rather early and, speaking from experience, the cab ride is a long and expensive one at 12:30 in the morning.

But Bethesda is really a ghost town and it's certainly worth the time to go down to SOTW.

OttoMets needs to get off Wisconsin Ave.

There are 300 restaurants/bars in Bethesda

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g41003-Bethesda_Maryland.html

 

[OttoMets]

OttoMets needs to get off Wisconsin Ave.

There are 300 restaurants/bars in Bethesda

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g41003-Bethesda_Maryland.html

OttoMets is very familiar with Bethesda and agrees with Townie that Louisiana Kitchen makes a good po' boy and some interesting non-sweet beignets; however, most of the restaurants and bars up there are mediocre and are only worth a visit after putting down a lot of drinks during a beer pong tournament at Tommy Joe's.

Seriously, for a place that has so much wealth, Bethesda is a culinary wasteland. Over a hundred restaurants, precious few of which are worth a trip for anyone outside the immediate neighborhood. And, believe me, after working on Montgomery Lane for several years, I've tried all the usual suspects. Black's, Taylor Deli, Vace, Lebanese Taverna, Louisiana Kitchen are good. And a pepperoni/chicken parm slice from Mamma's sounds good right now.

But for anyone staying in the area, the logical advice would be this: run, don't walk, to one of a dozen neighborhoods in the District (probably one of America's best five food cities right now) for a memorable and high-quality meal.

 

[Timonen]

OttoMets is very familiar with Bethesda and agrees with Townie that Louisiana Kitchen makes a good po' boy and some interesting non-sweet beignets; however, most of the restaurants and bars up there are mediocre and are only worth a visit after putting down a lot of drinks during a beer pong tournament at Tommy Joe's.

Seriously, for a place that has so much wealth, Bethesda is a culinary wasteland. Over a hundred restaurants, precious few of which are worth a trip for anyone outside the immediate neighborhood. And, believe me, after working on Montgomery Lane for several years, I've tried all the usual suspects. Black's, Taylor Deli, Vace, Lebanese Taverna, Louisiana Kitchen are good. And a pepperoni/chicken parm slice from Mamma's sounds good right now.

But for anyone staying in the area, the logical advice would be this: run, don't walk, to one of a dozen neighborhoods in the District (probably one of America's best five food cities right now) for a memorable and high-quality meal.

Whoa whoa. I fear my note exploded the tinderbox that was the burgeoning dc regional gang war. I just wanna watch the game somewhere interesting!

 

[Timonen]

I wanted to close the loop on this and let you know how it went. I decided to head in and go to Sign of the Whale. The wait for the train in Bethesda was pretty long (3 trains came going the other direction in the same time it took for one to take me into the city which i suppose makes sense at that time). So, it did net out to 30-35 minutes which is exactly what I was mentally prepared for from all of your feedback.

I got off at Dupont Circle per Bill Orange and walked past the palm. I gave the TK salute on the way past for good luck. I passed SOTW my first time down M, but saw it when I backtracked. Smaller than I expected from the pictures. As you warned, it was young. Now I'm no codger like some of you (respectfully ), but these kids were 10-15 years younger than me. There was no sign of anybody from Syracuse. I sat at the bar and had them turn on the Texas/Iowa game in front of me so it was already where it needed to be for gametime. Then I drank (plastic cups - holy hell, where am i?!?!). at one point a young lady sat next to me with nothing IDing herself as a cuse fan, but it turns out she's a 2011 grad from hawaii who lives in the neighborhood and comes for games. OK, here we go - let's open the floodgates! She stayed for 20 minutes or so and we traded stories about her playing beer pong with Dante and Scoop and me playing drums while McNabb danced in the front row (nice commonality across generations) before she headed upstairs to watch. I didn't want to give up my seat for the unknown, and I didn't trust there was any cuse people up there because I had been monitoring the flow. I ordered the Buffalo Chicken Dip. It was strangely and unexpectedly divine.

Then the game started. Very soon in, a nicely suited man who was a little older than me came and sat down next to me and self IDed himself as a cuse fan. We got to chatting and it turns out it was Ross Rubenstein, chair of the Public Admin dept at Maxwell. As an MPA grad, that was a neat and unexpected treat. I was grossly underdressed in my sweatshirt and hat (though I could have competed with him 3 hours earlier on that front). He was coming from a fundraiser that seemed to have every SU bigwig in attendance and lots of notable Washington folks. We had fantastic conversation through the first half and it validated my choice to go there. The game was the game. Ross had some friends come for the second half and I took off back to the hotel. I didn't want to sit through an ugly second half AND miss the last train. I caught the final 8 minutes in my hotel and was pleased I had made that choice, particularly when my wakeup call came at 4:30 this morning.

So, definitely a worthwhile venture and I can check the box on "making something out of every minute of my work trip" which is always the goal.

Again, thanks to all for the thoughts/insight.