For as long as there has been baseball, there have been guys (and girls) trying to turn their love of the game into a good date. Unfortunately, look around RFK on any night and you see alot of "dates" stuck with watered-down beer and bad hot dogs. Sonoma, on Capitol Hill, is two metro stops or a 20 minute walk to RFK and an answer for all us looking for that great night out. Now a night at the game can include the great food, wine, and atmosphere of the famous California wine country.

This is the place for 40 wines by the glass, in a state-of-the-art nitrogen system that keeps every drop fresh. They are available by the "taste" (3oz.) for around five dollars or by the glass for around ten. Bottles are reasonable, less than 40 for Truth vineyard's "Lindsey's Cuvee" a red that reeks of currant and berries, with a trace of pepper. Not all of the wine is Californian, the Italian Ajello Furat packs a juicy dry plum / cherry taste. There's good summer beer too, including Paulner Hefewiezen and Italy's Birra Moretti on tap.

What goes better with great wine than inexpensive cheese and wine boards for sharing. The cheese is offere by type, including "cow", "sheep", "goat", and blue". The meat is even better, and would make Tony Soprano proud: including thin sliced sopressetta, thick bresola and duck sausage. Trust me, you won't miss your RFK hot dog.

Sit outside, with a view of the Library of Congress, or check out out the second floor lounge with the fireplace and low-key couches. This is a place to share small plates, drink great wine and enjoy one of the friendliest staffs and best menus in the city. Your date will thank you.

Sonoma -223 Pennsylvania Ave SE (one block from Capital South Metro)

202-544-8088

www.sonomadc.com

For the second year in a row the Nats start the season out of town. Like the opening day of the NCAA basketball tournament, the opening day of baseball traditionally falls on a weekday and requires a strategic 1pm "business lunch". It absolutely requires a great bar and can go as late as 4, let's face it; you'll probably be out of the office until the next day.

This event calls for a special place with a 35" flat screen, tin ceilings, great burgers, unusually good beer on tap, and maybe a brand new pool table tucked in the back.. A great get-away bar should be out of the way where no one knows about it to prevent being spotted by back-stabbing co-workers.

A perfect fit for all these things and more is the pioneering Temperance Hall, in the up and coming Petworth neighborhood. Just north of Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights at 3634 Georgia Avenue, there is always plenty of parking and sits just a block south of the Petworth Metro on the Green Line. Although less than fifteen minutes from downtown in a car or on the metro, you'll never be spotted by Steve from accounting.

Walk in past the booth in the display window, check out the second-hand chandeliers hanging over the bar, and examine the strange gold cherub statutes perched behind the bartender. It's an authentic prohibition-era re-creation of a vintage space, a part of owner Joe Englert's strategy of restoring great old spaces in reviving DC locations.

Bartender Tamara pours great regional beers on tap, including Alagash White from Maine and Delaware's Dogfish Head 60 IPA. But the real focus is the 9 types of Rye Whiskey, the most popular prohibition libation. Don't leave without at least one taste of the Micheter's Single Barrel Rye, its ten years old and has aged really gracefully. Chef Corey's almost gourmet food ranges from the outstanding ricotta-lemon-eggplant appetizer to the crispy eggplant sandwich and the outstanding bacon avocado burgers.

The crowd is the rarest of DC scenes, a mix of old and new and black and white, with an internet jukebox that seems to please everyone. Most importantly, everyone seems interested in the Nats, a perfect neighborhood place to skip work for the out of town opener or any game‚Äö

Temperance Hall
3634 Georgia Avenue NW
202-722-7669
www.temperancehalldc.com/