Wings War @ Capitol Lounge

After 6 years, the first Annual Fire Party

Tuesday night sirens rang again at 231 Pennsylvania Ave. SE as guests celebrated at the Capitol Lounge. The Capitol Hill treasure where badge clad budget weary staffers, along with wide eyed interns that look barely legal hunt for cheap beer and even cheaper wings, the crowd celebrated the lounges resurgence and the winner of the first annual Fire Breathing Wing Eating contest. Contestants were chosen at random to compete for a prize package worth $600, including gift certificates, sporting tickets, concert tickets as well as special engraved plaque that will hang on the walls of the Capitol Lounge with other political memorabilia such has Nixon signs, Kennedy campaign badges and the paradoxical Marion Barry campaign sign that reads “Making a Great City Even Greater.”

Nichole Remmert has lived in Washington for ten years, works in fundraising is editor of The Hill is Home and helped organize the event. Nichole told us that the response to the fire wing eating contest was so overwhelming they had to cut the list off. The contestants were chosen on a first come first serve basis with an additional walk-in sign up list in case some don’t show. When asked if she had any favorites Nichole who organized the event said, “it’s anyone’s contest, you better bring your A-game.”

Cadillac, MC and DC firefighter and said he would provide support those who needed it. ‘I’m just going to tell them you got to keep pushing yourself, stay focused. It’s all about winning you have to represent yourself properly tonight.” Cadillac also talked to us about the DC Burn Foundation.

The foundation was founded in 2004 by Jason Woods. He recognized a need because there wasn’t a lot of support for the families of fallen fire fighters. The Burn Foundation provides aid and support to all burn victims in the Washington Hospital Burn Center, not only firefighters. The organization does a great deal of outreach as well participating in the children’s burn camp later this year in September and the international association of fire fighters burn camp. The organization also helps police officers. A Capitol Hill police officer was injured in a motorcycle accident early this year. Injuries to the skin suffered in a motorcycle accident are similar fire related injuries. The Burn Foundation was able to help the officer’s family by providing support to his family while the officer was in the hospital. “It’s those simple needs that are over looked,” he told us.

7 Contestants who took the Fire Eating Wing Challenge – Source: http://twitpic.com/6drizc

Around 8:00 o’clock at Capitol Lounge, seven contestants began ten minutes of fire wing eating. The contestants were to devour eighty-wings in ten minutes. The crowd scoffed at first, “eighty wings in ten minutes that doesn’t seem like that much” one spectator noted. There were the professional “eaters”, Jay Gorman and Michael Longo both had participated in several eating contests involving wings, cakes, strawberries, hot dogs, hamburgers.

They started the competition ferociously, standing to their feet and attacking the helpless wings like tigers in the jungle. Then there were the grazers, I’m not sure if they were actually competing or if they entered the contest for a free dinner. The contest, disturbing to say the least, seven guys drenched in wing sauce. Hands, arms, faces covered in buffalo sauce. I thought to myself that probably feels like a chemical peel.

Eight minutes in with two minutes on the clock there were two clear front runners were the two seasoned competitors Jay and Michael. It came down to the wire. Gorman took the title eating fifty-three wings in 10 minutes with Longo not far behind eating forty-eight wings. I spoke to the winner Jay Gorman after the competition, Jay said he felt okay but his mouth was on fire, “the heat really slows you down,” he said.

Jay Gorman, Winner of the Wing Competition

Capitol Lounge donated a portion of last night’s proceeds to the Burn Foundation. Cadillac himself burned fighting a fire in April. Cadillac and other firefighters were crushed when they fire heard of the fire but he’s glad to see them back.

The Capitol Lounge suffered extensive fire damage in 2005 after an employee left a cigarette unattended. Just two years later the Capitol Lounge experienced yet another fire purportedly started by yet another lit cigarette thrown into a garbage dumpster. Leaving Washingtonians left with no argument as to why there should be no smoking in bars. Obviously drunk people forget to extinguish their cigarettes and some forget all together what flammable means. These unfortunate people helped begin a two year string of bad luck for one of the Hill’s best happy hour destinations. After the bar suffered its second fire in two years in 2007 damage was mostly limited to the back patio and there was a communal sigh of relief for those who didn’t know what to eat on Tuesday and Wednesday without the chicken wing and taco specials.

The Lounge today looks much like it did before the two fires. There have been much need upgrades to the bathrooms, but some things stay the same. The bartenders, loyal patrons and Hill babies, as I like to call them, keep Cap Lounge amongst the hottest dive bars in the City. A place where everyone who has worked on the Hill has been yet those who have moved on from the Tuesday night wing special scene can still share something with the badge clad crowd celebrating tonight.

If you are interested in learning more about the Burn Foundation or would like to make a donation go to www.dcburnfoundation.org or www.dcfd.com

- Caryn Freeman

Caryn Freeman is a contributor to ClotureClub.com and can be followed on twitter @CarynFreemanDC or her personal website thecaxtonpress.com.

Enjoy our review of last nights Wings War @ Capitol Lounge, check out other articles written by Caryn.