Restaurant
Allegory has been trying to shape the conversation surrounding cocktail bars and their role in the DC community since our opening in September 2018. When we opened Allegory, our mission was simple; to create a bar for the DC community and represent them via our staff and cocktails while intersecting with local art, advocacy, and activism.
Luckily, we have assembled the best bar team a Bar Director could ever ask for. My new bar team brings creativity and passion to the bar, with each member contributing to our menu. They include Kapri Robinson, an accomplished DC bartender and founder of Chocolate City's Best, the world's most prominent Black bartender competition, and Princess "PJ" Johnson, formerly of The Hamilton and DC's ultimate bartender's bartender. She is also the first Black woman to become DC Bartender's Guild Vice President. They are joined by Julio Zavala, a veteran of Allegory from its opening day who earned the distinction of being the city's best barback in 2018. He is now emerging as one of the city's best bartenders. His first menu cocktail, the Jabberwocky, is our best seller. He will take all of our jobs one day. Recently, we added Greg Long to our team. Greg is a Chocolate City native who moved to NYC to work at Dante, where he worked for 1.5 years. While there, Dante would win every possible award imaginable. Greg returned to DC, back to his roots, to work at Allegory.
Allegory's new menu was inspired by Erik Thor Sandberg's breathtaking mural, a one-of-a-kind work of art that spans most of the bar's walls. It depicts Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass in the medium of Magic Realism. Still, the deeper, underlying meaning is that the classic tale is told through the eyes of Ruby Bridges—the first Black child to desegregate the William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana in 1960. Bridges had to overcome racial bias throughout her life, leading her to become one of the most influential civil rights figures in American history. The mural tells the story of both Alice and Ruby as they go down the rabbit hole into a new, weird, and terrifying world.
The goal of Allegory's new menu is to spotlight Erik Thor Sandberg's mural and create a conversation surrounding the issue of systemic racial bias through the story of Ruby Bridges. Each cocktail's name references, in a coded way, aspects of the mural. Guests will read the menu and order drinks, but we encourage them to find the meaning behind their libations' names. This creates a unique 4-D experience, amped up by our high-energy playlist, live DJs, and inclusive hospitality. With our diverse and highly talented bar team, we are committed to having guests from all backgrounds and walks of life feel welcomed and appreciated. We also think it is essential that Black faces are represented in the DC fine dining scene.
Allegory's cocktail menu includes creative takes on classic cocktails using advanced culinary and molecular techniques, like spherification, clarification, and forced carbonation.
Allegory is hidden behind the Radical Library at the Eaton DC, a hotel dedicated to progressive causes. The Radical Library is an homage to the DC music scene. It provides a free library for the DC community so everyone can access literature on every subject, from food justice to activism to fiction! Eaton is blazing the path for progressive, socially conscious hotels. They currently have a hotel in both Hong Kong and Washington, DC.
I have never worked in a space where the team and the bar inspire me in such a tangible way. The area is so much more than a cocktail bar. The work we do there is more significant than just putting booze in a cup, but we never forget the bar experience. If someone is just looking for a good cocktail experience or just a place to hang their hat, we can provide that for them, but if they are looking to dig a bit deeper, Allegory can genuinely inspire. It's a magical space.
