Gemini Room

Gemini Room opened in mid-December 2022 in Chophouse Row on Capitol Hill, the debut project of Tanner Mclaughlin and Jackie Proctor in partnership with Burgess/Hall, and it is women- and LGBTQIA+-owned. Its own account of the day-to-night shift is precise: locally roasted espresso, coffee and tea lattes, grab-and-go breakfast staples and seasonal bowls, salads and sandwiches by day; and after dark, shareable bites, house-infused drinks, herbaceous elements, fresh juices, and glassware that will transport you back to '73. The Infatuation put it more bluntly — by day a sleepy espresso bar serving a decent breakfast sandwich, by night a party that can only really be described as groovy, all mod lounge furniture and 1970s vibes. Happy-hour bites run $5 apiece: sweet and spicy chicken bites, pink pickled deviled eggs, fries with aioli, fried ravioli. It opens at 9am Tuesday through Sunday and closes on Mondays.

What makes it genuinely useful is the length and the pricing of the alcohol-free list. There are nine drinks under a heading that simply says Mocktails, and six of them are $8 — which in a Capitol Hill bar in 2026 means a non-drinker can settle in for an evening without paying cocktail prices for sugar. The two that cost more are the ones doing the most work: a bottled St. Agrestis Phony Negroni at $12, and the Clear Sky Sour at $13, built on Pathfinder Hemp and Root with lemon, simple syrup and soda. A word on that name, because it matters to some readers: Pathfinder Hemp & Root is a 0.0% ABV spirit distilled from hemp *seed*, and the maker states plainly that it contains no THC and no CBD — the hemp is the botanical base, doing the job gin's juniper does, not an infusion. The rest of the list is playful and well made: a Fancy Shirley on Toschi cherry syrup, an Ube Orange Cream Soda that uses ube sweetened condensed milk, Everyone Loves a Rickey with coconut cream and lime, a Crodino Spritz, and a Pathfinder Espresso Tonic for the afternoon. A separate non-alcoholic section adds Athletic Brewing's Upside Dawn, two Cultureshock kombuchas and Casamara Club's botanical sodas.