Parker Girard, the Beverage Director for Barrel, spoke with KFI's Kris Ankarlo about his pop up bar that he opened this week to help celebrate Trump's inauguration - sort of.
The Washington D.C. watering hole Barrel has been converted into a popup bar that's being called a 'Russian-themed Victory Party' for Donald Trump. The tongue-in-cheek name is an expansion of an idea Girard had last fall when he turned a bunch of Trump's quotes into cocktails.
Huge propaganda posters line the walls while Russian marches play over the speakers. But it's hard to miss the enormous huge mural of Trump and his cabinet drawn in a 'Last Supper' themed portrait. Customers are drinking Baltica and Moscow Mules while The Apprentice plays on TVs on a nonstop loop.
Girard admits that his popup bar is a political statement and half-jokingly says that "It's the most expensive joke I've ever made in my life."
"It is a statement - a decidedly partisan statement. And as a member of the hospitality industry, it's tough to make statements you believe in without thinking you have to pander to everybody ... And I think that makes us really different in that we just kind of are saying 'hey this is a thing we believe.'"
For the most part, Girard says the popup bar has gotten a great response. "We were worried about people that don't get it or have a different kind of worldview coming in and trying these cocktails and stuff and causing trouble, but really, everyone's been really great and really nice."
The popup bar will close on the 21st, so you may have to wait until 2020 to try one of Girard's signature cocktails, "This Drink Costs $29 at the Trump Hotel."
Sounds delicious.
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