Sunday’s with Spike

Last week Daily Candy’s weekend guide informed me that every Sunday this summer Chef Spike of Top Chef Fame and Good Stuff Eatery on Capitol Hill would be grilling burgers at the Capitol Skyline Hotel. For just $10 you can get a burger and a day at the hotel’s retro pool.

Basically whenever Lottie see’s the word pool she get’s excited, and then when you add something like “all you have to do is (insert action here)” Lottie will probably do it. She loves being able to go to pool’s in DC since they are pretty hard to come by. Well not that hard, but still a big change from growing up across the street from the WSTC where she could go to the pool anytime from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Daily Candy and the hotel’s website said the grilling/tanning festivities commenced at 12pm, so at 11:58pm on the dot Maggie, Kathleen and I were ready and waiting to enter the pool area. We were the first to arrive, thanks to a sweet parking spot for the Lesbaru right outside the hotel. We paid our $10 (cash only fyi), got our wristbands and frolicked out on to the pool deck.

The pool area was sweet, sorta a Hotel Roosevelt, swingin 60’s vibe, and since we were basically the first we got our pickings of the chairs. Though the vibe was old school, the pool was clean and everything looked new. Don’t let the ughly architecture of the hotel fool you, they’ve done a wonderful job!

There were even fun toys in the pool to play with!

We chose some lovely chaises along the deep end, near Spike’s grill station. The chairs were quite comfortable and the orange towels were a great touch. Spike and friends were just setting up, so we lounged for awhile and I snapped a pic with him (his idea, probs because my Wayfarers are so dope).

Eventually a bartender came over and messed up our drink order about 72 times, but that was okay, we were so happy to be there. Apparently he was hungover from last night, or so he told us the 37th time he had to bring us something.

All the drinks were under $5 and quite tasty. Sangria was served up with plenty of fruit and wine, stoli blueberry cocktails with lemonade and pomegranate juice were refreshing, and the $3 diet cokes weren’t that bad, you pay for the atmosphere, right? Though, next time I would bring a water bottle.

After about an hour we got our burgers and they were delish. Grilled up just right, topped with some cheese, and served with chips and a pickle. We all remarked that we’d probably never eaten burgers in our bikinis, but whatever, we were on “vacation” for the day.

The rest of the afternoon was spent sipping sangria, having Miller time, discussing girl things, reading trashies (US Weekly etc) and jumping in the pool once or twice. The place did get pretty busy, so if you are planning on coming and want a chaise get there by 1pm at the latest. The only con was that the DJ music was a little loud. The tunes he played were good, but it would have been hard to take an afternoon nap! To commemorate the inaugural pool day we snapped a group shot at the end.

See you Sunday. We’ll have a fun day.

Photo Credits: Kathleen’s Canon Powershot, Lottie’s Cord