Washington – Five dollars seemed unrealistic, even by a cheapskate’s standards. After all, you can barely get an ice cream cone, a drink, a burrito or a movie ticket for less than $5 these days – and never mind the cost of transportation.
My Saturday night out lasted 10 hours, and I did stay within my paltry means. I packed in a lot of entertainment using a combination of free events and self-discipline at bars and restaurants. In the end, I came away understanding the economic draw of the early-bird special. I also realized that early-evening deals and events with more conventional start times makes for a long night.
So what did I get for my Abe Lincoln? I watched orangutans spoon after a literal roll in the hay at the National Zoo, had a couple of beers at a biker bar, took in some Shakespeare, sampled some Latin American fare, listened to bad karaoke and got an impromptu salsa lesson.
The Saturday night drink special was the draw at Asylum, a saloon on the 18th Street strip. Asylum attracts an eclectic mix of leather-clad bikers, laid-back barflies, tattooed heavy metalers and wannabe hipsters.
Starting at 5 p.m., the bar stages a “Miller High Life Countdown.” Beers are 25 cents during the first hour, 50 cents more the next hour, and so on.
Since it was Memorial Day weekend, when hordes of bikers converge on Washington for Rolling Thunder, a biker bar seemed the perfect place to begin. En route, my friend and I stopped by the National Zoo.
With admission free, we spent 45 minutes in the park. We saw everything from the multihued tropical birds and fish in the Amazonia rain forest to a pair of snoozing cheetah cubs, and enjoyed fascinating people-watching as well.
Since you can’t very well go to the zoo without getting a treat, I dipped into my funds earlier than I had planned and shelled out $1.95 for a snow cone.
We had to skip the long line to view celebrity pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian to get to Asylum by 5:30 p.m., where we met another friend.
Despite all the Harleys outside the bar, it was too early to catch any rowdiness. The three of us polished off two rounds, one during the 25-cent hour, another during the 50-cent hour, leaving a 25-cent tip and bringing my bar tab to $1.
We headed to the annual Shakespeare Free for All at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre, where we spent three hours watching the Shakespeare Theatre’s free production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” under the beautiful night sky.
It was about intermission when our hunger pains began. We headed to the snack bar, but the $3 jumbo hot dogs were way too expensive.
After the show, my friends roundly vetoed my plan to get a free chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A with a coupon I had received in the mail. Instead, we went back to Adams Morgan and headed to El Tamarindo, a Latin American restaurant at 18th and U streets.
It was amid the savory smells of enchiladas and fajitas that my friends immediately stopped playing the $5 game and ordered tacos, burritos and margaritas. I, on the other hand, got a $1.50 cheese pupusa and drank ice water. To my happy surprise, the pupusa came with a side of coleslaw, and I supplemented the meal with complimentary chips and salsa. I spent a whopping $2, including tip.
I was still hungry when we headed up 18th street to Peyote Cafe, a karaoke bar with no cover charge. I had heard decent singers there in the past, but on this night it was too painful to stay. We walked to nearby Cafe Toulouse for live blues and jazz.
Next was Rumba Cafe, and we danced to live Latin music. A lovely, ponytailed gentleman, Arturo, showed me a few steps.
Near 1 a.m. we went to a nearby watering hole, Adams Mill. On the way, at Asylum, I contributed my remaining 5 cents to a pot so we could play a $1 electronic trivia game.
