Eleventh Street Lounge

Of the many, many, many, many, many, many times I’ve been out in Clarendon, I’ve never been to Eleventh Street Lounge. My friends and I found ourselves here recently after pregaming at Hunan 1 and in need of some dancing. Our usual haunts all had lines and it was a cold night, and Eleventh Street Lounge had no one outside (bad idea?). Bonus — there was no cover charge either! Unless there’s a band playing, I hate that some Clarendon bars try and charge cover for a DJ. It’s not a club!
Once inside, the bar is pretty narrow but we walked right through and headed downstairs to the action. The DJ was spinning great tunes — all songs that we loved — the MC was honoring all of our silly shout out requests, and it wasn’t too hard to get a drink (and they were reasonably priced). They also had lounge seats around the perimeter of the room which I’m not sure are «VIP» but we were able to hang out and dump our stuff there without anyone yelling at us. It was crowded but not so obnoxiously crowded that I wanted to punch people for pushing me around.
My only issue with this place is the bathroom only has one stall for each sex (but two sinks in a bathroom for one???) so the line to get into the ladies’ restaurant was quite long and took forever.

LOVED this place!!! We went pretty early (9ish) and it was fairly packed, but we were still able to get a seat at the lounge upstairs. The atmoshphere was great, not too loud but not dead either. They have a pretty extensive cocktail menu, but I didnt try anything special, and just ordered a gin and tonic, which was defintely good. The bartenders were very friendly.
Around 10 or so, we ventured downstairs to the dancefloor, which was AWESOME. since we got there early, we got a table downstairs which was nice, but not necessary. Its a big dancefloor and theres plenty of room. The DJ was great, and played all of the songs we requested (LOVE DJs like that), but we were also the only ones dancing for awhile so that might have been why. It filled up around 11 or so, and the music was still good, but my only complaint was that the music wasnt near loud enough. We asked the bartenders what the deal was and I think one of the speakers was broken, so hopefully they fix that. Other than that, it was perfect. I will absolutely be back!!!

Sausage waffles! I die!

I like this place, never eat there as of yet but it’s a fun place to go out for a drink or two and it’s usually not too crowded in there unless there’s an event going on. No cover, nice furniture upstairs and random DJ and drunken dancing downstairs is always fun.
The downstairs bathrooms nasty and doesn’t lock, so be prepared to get walked in on once or twice while your taking a pee lol.
Otherwise I like this place all around, careful not to run up a $ 100 tab with your boo, drinks are pricey.

Apparently, there’s some sort of cosmic bullshit happening this week that is making everyone have a chronically bad day. I am hoping that this is the cherry on the end of it and we can finally commence with the numerologic party that is supposed to come with 11÷11÷11.
We bought a Groupon for this place ages ago. Today, the bf started a new job in Clarendon and my friend was in town, so we wanted to go out for drinks and dinner in Clarendon after work. Just so happened that this Groupon was about to expire, so double yea.
The place is small and was easy to miss. Inside the seating was kind of sparse and filled with the $ 20 Ikea chairs I bought in college. The Groupon had weird restrictions, so we perused the menu to see what fit the parameters and ordered some drinks and our food. We were basically the only people there when it was early.
The three of us have different schedules and the cell service sucks in the DMV, so my friend let us know she was on her way a bit late – after we ordered. Despite fucking up our drink order, the waitress was generally attentive and nice about our request to have the kitchen fire our entrees late since we were waiting for our friend.
45 mins later our friend shows up, our meal is served, our friend orders a drink, and the waitress disappears. She forgets to bring silverware, etc. This is the point at which the night takes a turn for the ridiculous.
It has gotten pretty busy, so the waitress takes forever to do everything at this point. This is mildly annoying, but totally understandable when a place is busy, as it looks like she’s the only one working tables. But it got progressively worse, until we have to start trying to find a way to flag her down that’s not completely douchey — go-​go-​Gadget Searing Eye Contact! This is the point at which she starts to get more obviously shitty. Whatever.
After waiting for like 20 mins for the opportunity to ask for a check, my friend mouths to her as she swoops by and I’m telling a story. She brings the check, I whip out the Groupon on my iPhone, and split the check as I have done countless times in my adult life: 1) circle and name separate totals for easy splitting (there are only 2 checks); 2) write Groupon number on check; 3) return to waitress. This is the point at which the waitress is supposed to say «oh you have a Groupon and you want to split the check! Okay, I’ll go do that and be right back!» and then you say «thanks!» and now you know your actual total so you can tip on the whole check.
That is not what happened. What happened is that the waitress got shitty with me about not mentioning the Groupon when asking for the check (which I didn’t do), then took my phone instead of the number and walked away for a super long time – long enough that I started to freak out about what she had done with my fucking phone – and came back without even having marked the Groupon as used. When she came back, she still hadn’t split the check, so I did it again; she argued that she was incapable of doing math – I should add up the separate totals and walked away… Everyone at the table was fuming, but I obliged, thinking that the third time she would actually just go back to the computer and split the damned check. Nope. Brought it back a 3^rd time complaining that my math wasn’t right since I hadn’t ADDED IN THE TAX and so she put the entire tax bill on one check. Gurrrrrl, NUH UH!
Things that are part of your job as a waitress: 1) taking my order; 2) checking on the order; 3) bringing the check; 4) dealing with the check. This whole scenario would have only been annoying had she not been shitty, but she was heinous, and that’s what made us all livid.
She got no tip. Zero. I can name on 1 hand how many times in my life the service has been so bad that I didn’t leave a tip. All of those times involved rude servers. I will put up with the food being bad, the wait being long, and my order being fucked up repeatedly, and still give you a decent tip. I will NOT pay you to be a bitch to me.
The 2 stars are for the food, which was okay. The plates were too small for the food such that it had to be stacked in a not-​for-​presentation manner, condiments came in take-​out cups, and the fries came out of a bag, but the flavor was decent. The crabcake sliders were my fav of the night – the sauce served with them was great. My steak (which, as you know, I almost never order, but that Groupon had weird parameters and the selection was limited) was 2 oz smaller than stated on the menu and overcooked, but had a nice salad alongside it.
Needless to say, we won’t be back.

Disclaimer: this review is only for brunch.
Went there this past weekend. We ordered the steak and eggs benedict and the fruit salad.
Steak & eggs benedict: steak wasn’t bad. BUT, the hollandaise sauce was congealed and refused to emerge from the plastic cup in which it was served. The egg yolk was cooked all the way through. So, my eggs benedict looked like hard boiled eggs with a side of mutant yellow cottage cheese.
Fruit salad: About half the melons were ice cold and the strawberries were about one day away from decomposition. Yummmm
Really disappointing considering how great the place is at night.

I had brunch here a few sundays ago and it was amazing. It was crowded and with a party of 10 (and no reservations), it took a very long time to even get a table, let alone order anything. However when we finally got seated and food and beverages put in front of us, we were all very happy. I got the steak (ribeye) and eggs. Delish!
It appeared there was only a bartender and one waitress taking care of all the tables/​customers. We made sure to leave a good tip for them, as the food was delicious and we understood why service was slower than we would have wanted. Despite the service, I would love to come back for brunch, esp since rumor has it that 11^th is going to be closed and make way for condos in the future. sigh…

On Wednesday nights, they have half-​priced burgers.
On Tuesday nights, they have $ 1.50 tacos, and 2 glasses of wine for $ 3.00. I like Tuesday’s better because it tends to not be crowded and is pretty quiet inside. It has a lounge atmosphere to it, and is a nice place to go to talk.
It has outdoor seating in front. It also has a private room downstairs with its own bar for private functions.

4+
Went for a Wednesday evening early dinner and enjoyed half-​off draft beers. They had an interesting selection beyond the usuals– delerium, flying dog, palm, chinay (unfortunately full price) and others.
It was half-​off burger night, but we opted for three small plates: the tuna, the steak, and the crab sliders. All were great! Tuna was paired with a nice apple and champagne vinegrette salad and cooked perfectly. Steak came with some Delicious rice and grilled veggies. Nothing special to the crab sliders but they hit the spot.
This place exceeded my expectations. As others mention, the atmosphere does not prepare you for the delicious food — but it’s always nice to be pleasantly surprised.
I’ll be back again soon — with another
deal — for sure!

This is an interesting place. We came here with a
coupon, and at first thought the place seemed pretty shabby. It was dark and kind of hot inside the restaurant and not very attractive décor. We sat outside on the patio. We were also initially disappointed by the menu, which was small and didn’t seem to have many choices.
However, once we picked our food all was well. I had two of their «small plates» which actually weren’t small at all! Cobb salad was good but I think it had a little too much cheese on it, and the crab cakes were delicious. I was completely satisfied with just those two plates. Boyfriend got a really delicious-​sounding burger with two pattys in it and piled with bacon, mushrooms and onions, and he also got one of the small plates, some kind of steak thing with a skewer. He LOVED the steak thing and thought the burger was pretty good though hard to eat. We were actually really pleasantly surprised and pleased with the food.
Our waitress was very nice, the patio was pleasant for people-​watching and their beer list wasn’t bad. I wouldn’t have even heard of this place had we not had a coupon, but I am glad we went.

I had wanted to check this place out for a while, having driven past the polka-​dotted exterior so many times that I had become curious. When I read on ArlNow that they were going to be closing soon, I decided to stop by. Apparently the whole block of businesses is being torn down soon so a high rise can be built in its place.
What an unusual place. Another Unilocaler described the décor as looking like «a craigslist furniture section threw up» in it and that describes it perfectly. Red walls, chandeliers, red velvet lounge sofas, mismatched furniture… but it has a garish, dive-​y charm that I actually appreciate. Sometimes you just want to relax and not have to care about being in a fancy place. Sometimes you want to be surrounded by cheesy over the top stuff.
This place draws an odd crowd… people in their late 30s coming in for dinner and drinks. I went on Wednesday for the half priced burgers. They’re HUGE and delicious, and the service was great. The long list of cocktails is impressive, but they’re overpriced (they run from about $ 8-​$ 13). Still, they’re very well made.
If I had a lot of money and lived walking distance, I’d be here all the time. The parking situation sucks and the food is surprisingly expensive for the décor, but all in all I enjoyed myself and the food.

I’ve always really enjoyed Eleventh. Not only do they have great drink deals, but they also have a super atmosphere. If you want the laid back-​have-​a-​chat feel, you can stay upstairs. But, if you’re feeling some dance moves ticking out, head downstairs. It’s the best of both. I suggest it.

This is a review for this past friday night.
I came here to support my friend who is a resident DJ here (as well as Eden and Current). Upon coming, this place is TINY. The first floor was just a bar, nothing going on. The basement level is where my friend was DJ’ing at. Still pretty small. There was the usual Clarendon crowd there, all seemed pretty drunk and what not since I got there a bit late around midnight.
As far as the establishment itself, the basement definitely needs a change in décor and lighting. It feels like a dungeon. The bartender there clearly was a bit overwhelmed working by herself. Luckily I didn’t have to pay for drinks but I tipped her well, so I can’t speak on pricing.
If you like EDM, wait for DJ Mosel to come through.

I’ve only ever been for Saturday/​Sunday brunch.
Note — they stop serving brunch at 2:00p.
Street parking only, so I recommend Sundays to avoid the meters. Street parking is always hard to find though.
The mushroom waffle is to die for. The sausage waffle is to die for. If somehow you and a friend were to order one of each and then cut them in half and you each get half sausage and half mushroom… well, I really think that a portal to another dimension might open in your mouth. Maybe like Stargate, and it’s a dimension filled with mystical wonders and pyramids and badass looking dog people and an androgenous alien and/​or god and Kurt Russell and waffles from PLACES LIKE BELGIUM!!!
Ugh, why can’t it be Sunday morning NOWWWWWWWWUH…
Anyway, it’s usually pretty dead which is not an indication as to how awesome their brunch is. Because it’s awesome, that’s how! And can you beat $ 1 mimosas and bloody mary’s? No, no you can’t. The gods have spoken. Sure the bloodies taste like they’re just made with regular tomato juice. Who cares! What do you expect for a buck, the produce aisle in a blender? If we have multiple bloodies and/​or mimosas per person, they sometimes don’t even charge us for all of them anyway.
There are also other items on the menu which I’m sure are delicious but I wouldn’t fucking know because those waffles have me by the balls, I’M TELLING YOU.
EDIT/​UPDATE:
Brunch is super crowded all the time. Now that it’s springtime, all the fair-​weather fans (you see what I did there) come out in droves and yuck it up on the couches for like 3 hours while you’re standing there waiting, thinking to yourself, «You were f***ing done an hour ago. Quit nursing your lukewarm coffee and you and your friends skedaddle so I can get my Hollandaise fix.»

I was invited to an after-​movie happy hour on a Saturday night through a professional organization. We were directed to the basement, which was a nice space for around 50 people. However, there was a DJ who didn’t understand our collective tastes or an appropriate volume level. We were mostly there to talk shop instead of cutting loose on a Friday night. Not sure if it was the group or bar’s choice to have him but be cautious if you’re planning something where people actually need to talk.
The basement bar was full but without alternatives. They had maybe 3 kinds of whiskey and they tasted a bit watered-​down. The gin supply was good with maybe 4 types of varying tastes. The prices did not match the mixing skill or plastic cups– not in a good way. If I’m drinking liquor, I want a real glass.
I’m betting the main level would fix all these problems but we weren’t really welcomed there unless we were passing through to smoke or leave.
Overall, the location’s too good to not try again.

Eleventh Street has so much potential but the blasé’ management and staff are running it into the ground! The restaurant does not open until 4 or 5 pm each day. They take reservations, but half of the time the answering machine does not work and they do not return phone calls. My girlfriends and I were trying to make ressies and there were two of us who called non-​stop for a week. No returned calls. Finally someone picked up and said they were just about to call me (sure). We even double booked the reservation by accident and they still didn’t have our name on file when we arrived. How incompetant! Service is super slow. Wine is on the more expensive side. It was still $ 8 a glass even during happy hour.

3.75 stars. I was never much for Clarendon at night, except for Iota when there was a travelin’ singer/​songwriter in town that I liked. Galaxy Hut and even Jay’s Saloon is too crowded these days. It’s unrecognizable if you compare it to the Clarendon I first met almost 11 years ago.
But I had a lot of fun in the basement of ESL last night, and solely for this I give it 4 stars. Everything’s relative. True, the DJ played a lot of songs that are pretty much only played at gay dance clubs, but people were dancing super silly and not giving a s***. We saw handstands and weird strength/​balance poses and Karate Kid moves and stripper girl dances. We had no choice other than to join in with the Kid ‘n Play and the Hammer.
Nice environs too, considering that the downstairs is in a basement — and considering how low in pretentiousness ESL is. The downstairs bartender was also a lot better than the clueless girl upstairs — good/​quick service, and funny & cute to boot. If you ask for something that’s girlie, he’ll give you a shooter made of Three Olives Cherry vodka, amaretto, peach schnapps, a little pineapple juice, and a little soda. Delicious and potent, similar to a Red Snapper or an Alabama Slammer.
Kudos to the several girls who shook off the boat shoe wearing d-​bags who walked in and immediately tried their Clarendon meat-​market tactics on them. First girls they saw, they pounced. When that failed, they turned around and pounced on the first girls there. Thankfully they gave up and left soon after. ESL’s one of the few non meat-​market places in an otherwise meat-​market area. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had in Clarendon without a live (non-​cover) band. Even on a Friday night, it wasn’t crowded.

This review is only for Happy Hour and comedy performance only — never had food here.
A-​Okay place for happy hour and local comedy!
Beer selection is decent and service is much improved recently.
Will probably upgrade review soon if the service stays consistently better :)

This place is a godsend compared to the rest of Clarendon.
However, I am a bit of a District Snob, so I suppose that means I’m not always as fair and balanced as Fox News as a Unilocaler should be.
Anyways, I met up with some of my old coworkers at Eleventh last night, and compared to some of the other spots we’ve hit up, I liked this one the best. For starters (and finishers, for that matter), they have EXCELLENT happy hour specials, and I do not mean $ 2 pisswater. Half price the house red and white, mojitos, cosmos, another cocktail I can’t remember, and a couple solid draft imports, in addition to $ 6 sliders and a couple of other obscure foods one wouldn’t normally have at happy hour. Then since it was Thursday, it was half-​off nearly all speciality cocktails, too.
The sliders were tastylicious bits of sirloin on tiny sesame seed buns, and the cocktails were quite good. I was mostly impressed with the innovative combinations: I had a root beer float martini that was strong as all get out, probably ’cause the root beer gives it a little kick. I followed up with a mojito that was a bit too sweet for my taste, but was pretty potent.
There’s certainly nice atmosphere. It’s clean and dark, but they had the curtains pulled back from the huge windows, letting in ample sunshine. R&B hummed in the background and since the bar wasn’t crowded, it was sooo nice to be able to talk without straining my lungs. Our server was rather perky, only she kept coming to check on us right when we were in the middle of an awkward story; one of those stories you only want your friends to hear, so that’s why you’ve lowered your voice, but up she’d pop to see if we needed anything else, and we’d say, No, we’re good thanks, and go back to telling our awkward story, now made more awkward by the fact that it was interrupted.
Point is, I quite liked Eleventh and I hope we can get back again soon.

Conveniently located to a metro station, this place isn’t half bad.
The waitresses were clearly skilled but overworked as they seemed to be in charge of everyone sitting, standing, and in between. It was nice, since you didn’t have to fight to get to the bartender, but I also felt like they were running frantically trying to keep up with the crowd.
The place is pretty small, so it would be good for small groups of 2 – 3 people. And the beer selection is nice, but unfortunately, they were out of several of the beers on their menu, which is always disappointing.

sweet potato fries.
Deeeeeeeelish!