B Side — Restaurant in Merrifield

This review is only for the bar. I haven't had anything from their food menu yet.

I came here once to grab some food; unfortunately, since it was after 10pm, they informed me that the kitchen was closed. However, upon perusing the menus, I noticed they had an egg white cocktail and that piqued my interest. So last night, I came back to try their cocktails.

I've been spoiled by Todd Thrasher (sommelier and cocktail savant of the Restaurant Eve Group,) and his egg white creations, which are needless to say, uniquely exceptional and unable to be replicated by anyone in the DC area. Todd is probably the best mixologist in this area and he and his colleagues can whip up the best egg white cocktails in DC. B Side? Not so much.

When I saw that B Side had an egg white cocktail drink, I thought that meant the bartenders of B Side had experimented and perfected an egg white cocktail that they'd be proud to serve to their patrons. That is clearly not the case. I ordered the 59th Street Bridge, made with Maker's Mark, cabernet syrup, lemon, and egg white.

As soon as it was placed in front of me, I was skeptical. The texture of the drink did not look like anything of Todd Thrasher's caliber. No rich, creamy texture or beautiful foamy cap. Instead, a razor-thin foam layer and no richness or complexity in the drink. In fact, the lemon was overpowering and I felt like I was just sucking a lemon dry. I couldn't even taste the bourbon; it was just plain lemon.

I had to wash down my cocktail with three glasses of water and even then, I couldn't get the sour taste of lemon out of my mouth. I was left bitterly disappointed. My friends had similar experiences and both thought their drinks were some of the worst that they had ever tasted. And both are fairly tolerable of "awful" cocktails. The experience left us all disconcerted. B Side fell short of our expectations. We may come back for food or beer/wine only, but we won't be touching the cocktails with a ten point pole. Honestly, we should have just stayed at Ted's Bulletin and had drinks there. I bet they would have been better than the cocktails served here.

Rustic, hipster-y atmosphere. Low-key and good for holding...

Spent Father's day here with my daughter. Spent about $100, I ordered the duck confit, it was terrible. The skin was all back, completely burnt and the other stuff in the bowl just tasted burnt as if they cooked with a burnt pan and never cleaned it. I didn't taste the duck at all. The waiter was nice enough to take it back and redo it for me, but it was the same result. Did they even cook a new one for me or did they just go to the kitchen and bring it back out? I have no idea...I really wanted to like the restaurant, a friend of mine gave me spicy beef jerky from Red Apron and said they opened a restaurant next door so everything is fresh from the deli/butcher, so I was so excited, but I'm just so disappointed.

3rd complaint to waiter about the duck confit, I just went ahead and ask for the smashburger, it tasted dry.... the spinach salad and the separate ordered fries were the best part out of the whole father's day meal.

Again, I came with high expectations and really wanted to love this place.

I'll come back for sure to visit the Red Apron place, I may give the restaurant a 2nd chance with a different dish, maybe the Phatty Melt, I don't know.

Check out the photo of the Duck Confit, so you know I'm not exaggerating, burnt black charred duck skins and black under the egg and the burnt taste went into the everythinh else in the bowl. Couldn't taste much of anything else but...

B Side is one of those places I found by accident and will now be a destination I seek out. I had a birthday week trip planned for my bf and we had a free evening after checking into our hotel on a Wednesday night. I found B Side on Yelp and we decided to walk the 20 or so minutes in foreign territory to see what this place was all about. SO GLAD WE DID!

I was immediately diggin' the vibe as soon as we walked through the door. Dark, modern and awesome music playing. It only got better from there. We planned to sit at the bar, but even on a Wednesday and semi-late, there weren't two open seats. Totally fine, the whole place offers atmosphere and we were super comfy at a table.

The bartender came over to our table immediately and was quick to answer questions about the wine list. Both wines we selected were delicious and the price incredibly reasonable! We ordered from the late night food menu, which offered the perfect snacks to accompany our drinks. We never ran out of water or wine; the staff had a great team approach to making sure we were well taken care of.

The cocktail & wine list blow any other spot nearby out of the water!

This gem wasn't initially on my radar, but it's now a place I will make a special...