IN BLOOM
A night in D.C. with Derek Brown, a leading force in that city's cocktail scene
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WASHINGTON — It’s 4 o’clock on a Thursday, and Derek Brown can barely contain his excitement as he scrolls through his phone.
“You want to see the coolest thing?” he asks, seated on a metal stool in his popular Cherry Blossom PUB (for Pop-Up Bar). Just above Brown’s head, the ceiling is engulfed by an explosion of bushels of white, pink and red cherry blossoms. A seemingly endless amount of white origami cranes and red and peach paper roses occupies whatever space remains unfilled. The display lightens the rectangular bar and provides an escape from the unseasonably cold in the bustling Shaw neighborhood on 7th Street near Howard University.
Brown finds the email from his publicist, linking to a recent story about the bar by Voice of America — in Russian.
“They dubbed my voice in Russian,” he says to his staff, busily preparing the bar for the expected 1,200 patrons that evening. “How cool is that?”
Brown, 42, is considered a rock star in the craft cocktail scene. He is responsible for helping to transform the Washington landscape with Columbia Room; the connected triumvirate of Mockingbird Hill, Southern Efficiency and Eat the Rich (local oysters and seafood);