Quasi-Open Bar

Myopenbar.com is an eager-to-please reference site for the thriftiest drinkers among us, guiding visitors to open bars in some of the nation's biggest cities -- New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami included.

So what better time than now to jump on the D.C. bandwagon? A temporary version, dc.myopenbar.com is up and running just in time for the inauguration.

The catch? Here in Washington we've become accustomed to really open bars -- the kind sponsored by some behemoth policy institution and held in a clubby room where waiters walk around with delicious mini crab cakes and the like.

MyOpenBar won't quite tell you how to find those -- it's mostly populated with regularly held events like the $2 beer happy hour at Toledo Lounge and the great $1 mimosa deal at Utopia during Sunday brunch. And very few of the listings are free.

Still, we'll take all the cheap drinks intel we can gather. So, welcome, MyOpenBar -- we think you'll find D.C. is your kind of town.

-- Ellen