Washington DC area bars where you can be a kid again: Slot cars
Here’s an innovative idea… If your business is slow on a particular night, set up a lot car track!
Every Monday night, the Reef sets up a 100 foot+ slot car track and invites customers to take their scale cars for a spin.
At the Reef’s weekly Slot Car Mondays, scale is everything. Not just the scale of the cars, which is your standard Matchbox-size HO, but the size of the track itself: more than 100 feet, arranged in two circuits in a custom-built enclosure, smack in the center of the main barroom.
Mondays were kind of slow, he says, so bartender Matt Larson. purchased a basic Mario Kart-themed set for $20 and set up the short track on the bar to let customers have some fun. But when operations manager Frank Peele, a longtime slot car enthusiast, saw the set, he and other staff members decided to go all in, buying cars and track to build up the collection.
The Track changes every week, but there’s usually one smaller track, generally a loop with an overpass, and a much-larger version that, last week, had an 11-foot straightaway (!!!), multiple overpasses and sharp curves where it’s very easy to jump the track.
Four people can race at once and there are lots of cars to choose from.
The Reef also has a menu featuring mini-miniburgers about the size of a half-dollar, served with toothpick-esque fries. So, you can have a little snack as you are building up your slot car racing skills.
On Monday nights, slot car racing is the featured attraction, some nights there’s a wait to play, but other times you can have the run of the place.
Go now before this spot gets crowded…
Mondays from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. The Reef, 2446 18th St. NW. 202-518-3800. http://www.thereefdc.com.
source: Washington Post
