Columbia Heights beer bar Meridian Pint has swapped an old form of entertainment for a slightly less old form of entertainment.
The bar removed its shuffleboard tables and installed a row of video games and pinball machines earlier this week, said general manager Heather Kendrick.
Where patrons once could slide little pucks across a board, they can now test their skills at Elvis- and Elvira-themed pinball machines, perform fatalities in Mortal Kombat 3 and take potshots at deer in “Big Buck Hunter.”
“Looks great down here,” Kendrick told us via e-mail yesterday afternoon. “Had a crowd for the debates last night and it all went over really well.”
The Washington Post’s Fritz Hahn wrote about the swap yesterday afternoon and noted that Meridian Pint’s bartenders sling discounted craft beers between 5 and 7 p.m. on weekdays.
Photo courtesy of Meridian Pint
A stretch of road in Columbia Heights will become an outdoor beer hall this weekend when local bar Meridian Pint hosts an Oktoberfest neighborhood street festival.
The festival will take place along 11th Street NW between Park Road and Monroe Street NW between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. this Saturday. That block of 11th Street will be closed to vehicle traffic during the festival.
As with any Oktoberfest celebration, beer and Bavarian grub will take center-stage, and Meridian Pint will serve 20 seasonal American beers, multiple German beers and traditional German food during the festival.
But the festival, co-hosted by the Columbia Heights Initiative, isn’t limited to beer-drinkers. Attendees can also enjoy face painting, a moon bounce, live music from a Bavarian band, a dog show and a charity dunk tank.
Meridian Pint General Manager Heather Kendrick said the Oktoberfest will go on even in the case of rain.
“At this moment, we’re waiting to hear if Tropical Storm Joaquin is going to rain on our plans, but regardless of what happens it will go on,” Kendrick said. “If it does rain, we’re going to focus on having a trop-toberfest and do our best.”
Photo via Facebook/ Meridian Pint
Several recent burglaries at businesses in Columbia Heights and Park View may be related, say D.C. Police.
On Aug. 9, a man wearing a ski mask threw a rock through a window at arts nonprofit BloomBars (3222 11th Street NW) and allegedly took two donation boxes and change from a swear jar. A week later, a similarly dressed man was filmed smashing a glass door and entering a business on the 3200 block of Georgia Avenue NW.
Now, Colony Club (3118 Georgia Avenue NW) and Meridian Pint (3400 11th St NW), just blocks away, say they may have been hit by the same burglar.
Colony Club co-owners Ben Heller and Max Zuckerman say a masked man broke into their business last Sunday.
“He broke in at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning,” Heller said. “He used some sort of mallet type hammer to break through our back door, which is a glass door.”
The alleged burglar was filmed by surveillance cameras swiping a handful of beers and a bag of tools.
“There was a moment yesterday where we maybe thought it was the same person [as the BloomBars burglar],” Zuckerman said. But the mask and the grainy footage make it hard to positively identify the man, he adds.
“In terms of what he actually stole, it’s probably no more than a couple hundred dollars,” Heller says. “The main expense for us is having to replace the back door, or at least the glass on the back door.”
Meridian Pint general manager Heather Kendrick says her business was burglarized just this morning.
“At approximately 3:40 in the morning, [the burglar] smashed the window in,” Kendrick says. “He made off with some booze from here. Super infuriating.”
Meridian Pint’s surveillance cameras were rolling as the alleged burglar raided the bar and restaurant.
“To my sleuthing self, the guy looks like to be the same guy as the BloomBars thief,” she adds. “Same time, same mask, same gloves.”
The Metropolitan Police Department’s Third District Commander Jacob Kishter said that although the burglaries are “most likely related,” police are still investigating the possible link.
Surveillance videos courtesy of BloomBars, MPD and Colony Club
It can be hard to get a craft beer for $5 around here, but that changes at Meridian Pint’s 5-year anniversary celebration next Wednesday.
The Columbia Heights bar, known for its selection of craft beers and located at 3400 11th Street NW, will pour 24 different drafts for just five dollars per glass starting at 4 p.m.
The bar will also serve food from a special $5-per-item menu that was “created from guest favorites.”
