Ever wonder what it’s like to have a friend who’s a bartender? When you go to their house, do they serve you a Sazerac or hand you a banquet beer from the fridge?  

Longtime D.C. bartender Adam Bernbach is trying to replicate what it would be like to hang at his house with his Lazy Omakase pop-up inside Mount Pleasant’s Suns Cinema on select Thursdays. He puts them on with the help of fellow bartender Eddie Kim.

“It’s informal. It really is like being over at my house,” Bernbach says. “That’s where the Mario Kart comes in.” 

The screen that typically shows movies inside Suns Cinema, an intimate screening room with a bar, is used for playing the Nintendo game on Lazy Omakase nights, the next of which is tomorrow from 7 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.

“Omakase” is the Japanese word for “at the chef’s whim” and generally refers to a multi-course sushi tasting menu. Bernbach’s cocktail tasting menu includes three drinks for $29. Tomorrow night’s menu has a Chartreuse theme. The herbal French liqueur made by monks has long been among bartenders’ favorite elixirs. 

“I’m crushing on Chartreuse really hard,” Bernbach says. At home he makes a hot drink that combines homemade pineapple ginger brew with Chartreuse that he’s been itching to serve to the public. “I was just waiting for a day cold enough to make sense, then decided to do a whole menu with Chartreuse.”

Tomorrow night’s cocktails are:

Hot Drink

Green Chartreuse, Pineapple, Ginger, Dried Herb Tea

Stirred Drink in the Style of an Old Fashioned

Amontillado Sherry, Yellow Chartreuse, Preserved Meyer Lemon, Tumeric

Highball Drink

Porter, Green Chartreuse, Orange, Cacao Nib, Mint Mix Soda 

Bernbach most recently ran the popular cocktail bar 2 Birds 1 Stone, which closed over the summer. He also creates cocktails for Estadio and will be a part of the forthcoming restaurant Oyster Oyster. These bars call for very specific cocktails that tie in with a theme. 

“With Lazy Omakase I wanted to do something that was very personal,” Bernbach says. He draws the cocktail menus just like he did at 2 Birds 1 Stone.  “It’s kinda goofy. Everything about it is a fun, silly thing, but the drinks are good.”

After tomorrow night, the next two Lazy Omakase’s are scheduled for Jan. 10 and Jan. 24. Bernbach says he anticipates there will be two events in February as well. 

Suns Cinema, 3107 Mount Pleasant St. NW; sunscinema.com