No.68 Project

Katie Nelson works at the Columbia Room, consistently ranked as one of the top cocktail bars in the country, as Lead Bartender and Service Manager. She graduated Cum Laude from Mary Baldwin College with a B.A. in Music and International Relations. Katie has lived in Saudi Arabia, France, and Oregon, grew up in North Carolina, and is fluent in French. She is a member of the DC Craft Bartenders Guild and has passed the BarSmarts Advanced spirits and mixology course. Katie is also a member of the Guild of Sommeliers and was recently certified by the Center for Wine Origins as a Wine Location Specialist for champagne and port.

Derek Brown is a self-described booze nerd; his love of bartending stems as much from books, maps, and molecules as standing behind the stick. After being named Washington DC’s top bartender by Washington City Paper in 2009, Derek opened The Passenger and Columbia Room with his brother Tom to wide acclaim including Bon Appetit’s Top 10 Best New Cocktail Bars, USA Today’s Top 10 American Cocktail Lounges and GQ’s 25 Best Cocktail Bars in America. Because of the brothers different approaches, the bar is divided in two. The front part is Tom’s raucous saloon and in the back is Derek’s intimate cocktail club, Columbia Room. Read More…