More Irma Relief Options “If you are thinking of where to head out for a cocktail over the next few weeks please consider one of these great spots!”

1827 Adams Mill Road, NW

From Tail Up Goat’s Jill Tyler:

“We moved to St. Thomas in the summer of 1989. Just a few weeks after we arrived, Hurricane Hugo hit. Our roof peeled away from our home and we took shelter in a closet and held a mattress over our heads. I was in kindergarten.

It’s strange how you adapt, what becomes normal. We didn’t have power for months. Our roof was a blue FEMA tarp. To bathe, my parents dipped buckets on ropes into our cistern to pull up water, and we showered with cups and buckets. We used Coleman camping stoves to cook and Coleman camping lanterns for light after the sun set. We had a cooler that we kept perishable food in. My mom stood in lines outside of grocery stores to wait to get to shop from the picked-over shelves. This was life for months.

I’ve lived through the devastation of these terrible storms, as well as the more minor inconveniences of the smaller storms that have made their way through the Caribbean. Hurricane Marilyn raged over when I was in sixth grade. Once again, the roof was gone and we lived without power. This time, my parents sent my sister and I stateside to live with an Aunt until normalcy returned to the island.

And last week there was Hurricane Irma — the biggest of them all. I finally got to speak to my mom five days after the storm passed. They are lucky their boat (their home) stayed afloat. She thinks only about 10 of 90 boats anchored in Hurricane Hole made it through the storm.

My parents spent the storm on land at a friend’s house. Parts of the home survived — other parts blew away. She said the devastation is unlike anything she has ever seen. Many people lost everything they own. Homes are completely gone. It will be months before power is restored to those that are lucky to still have homes. It will take years for people to recover.

I’ve heard stories of friends barricading themselves inside closets and bathrooms as the roof and walls of their homes began to disappear. The first-hand accounts from friends give me goosebumps; many people thought they were going to die in this storm.

With my hometown community in need I turned to my DC restaurant community and reached out to as many folks as I could think of and asked them to join us at Tail Up Goat by putting a Caribbean inspired drink on their menu for at least the next 4 weeks with $1 from each drink sold benefitting organizations like:

St. John Rescue

 

My hope is it will be next to impossible to go out in DC over the next month and not see and then subsequently order one of these special cocktails.
If you are thinking of where to head out for a cocktail over the next few weeks please consider one of these great spots! They’ll all be slinging drinks for a cause. I expect the list to keep growing. Go out for a cocktail! Take a photo of yourself and use #dcdrinksforvi when you post!

Convivial
Himitsu
Rose’s Luxury
Boundary Stone
All Purpose
Red Hen
Room 11
2 Amys
District Winery
Hazel
Osteria Morini
Chez Billy Sud
Sally’s Middle Name
Atlas Restaurant Group
Petworth Citizen
Hill Prince
DGS
Whaleys
Bourbon
Doi Moi
1905 Bistro + Bar
El Camino
Kyirisan

Owner – Service Director
Tail Up Goat“