USA Game on H-Street

My third adventure this week was the USA vs. Ghana game at the H-Street Country Club Bar. Our good friend Sam and his roommate Megan picked us up and we traveled through the parade mess that is the DC Caribbean Festival (FYI-The website is loud) taking up all of Georgia Ave to a stretch of H-Street that houses a ton of bars, cute restaurants and boutiques. We were going to the newest hippest bar, Biergarden. However it was packed so we hopped down the street a few storefronts to the next bar that was open, had big TV's and where we could grab a table.

H-Street Country Club bar is pretty interesting. The inside is all decorated in sporty argyle memorabilia. They have a few pool tables, a shuffleboard table and skeet-ball. Upstairs they apparently boast a mini-golf course but since someone had claimed it for a birthday party I didn't make it up there yesterday. The menu includes nachos, quesadillas, chips and salsa, and empanadas. All Mexican, although our friend Sam, who is from Mexico, thought this was slightly weird. The beer selection was ok, the prices were normal for DC and they actually had a pretty big mixed drinks, wine and margarita selection for a sports bar.

The clientèle was also interesting. It was a pretty fair split male/female and while the males were definitely there to watch the game, I got the feeling a lot of a dressed up girls were there to meet a man. I would say that 98% of the bar was cheering for USA but we did have one table of people cheering for Ghana. This made the game even more interesting and I was happy to see that even after Ghana won and the 8 of them went wild, sportsmanship prevailed.

We have been watching at home and there is a difference watching with a huge group of strangers. The energy that came from having that many people intently watching the game was fun and exhilarating. The energy and collective reactions were amazing. I can only liken it to an amazing theatrical experience. When the entire audience gasps or sighs or cries there is something so uplifting and humanizing about the togetherness of it all.

For those of you who don't follow the game USA lost to Ghana 2-1 in overtime.

After the game we met my uncle and his daughter for dinner at Paragon Thai in Cleveland Park. Highly recommended. The food was delicious, the service was great and the prices were good. Here is their website. I had the spicy eggplant, but apparently their curry is to die for.