Local hotel rolls out the red carpet for curling and its fans

Brian Reymann's plans to transform his downtown D.C. hotel into a curling mecca began with the idea that he could maybe get a plastic curling set to put in his bar. And somewhere along the line, Reymann wound up arranging for volunteers from Utica, N.Y., to descend upon D.C., exchanging texts with the chief operating officer of the United States Curling Association, sleeping three hours a night and canceling his anniversary trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, in favor of hosting a three-day curling exposition.

His wife, no doubt, thinks this is hilarious.

"Tell her I love her," Reymann requested, when I got him on the phone.

Reymann is an assistant general manager for the Hilton Garden Inn at 14th and I streets NW, a hotel that has a reputation for being, let's say, fun-loving. Obama Bingo during the State of the Union, that sort of thing.

Remembering how curling seems to be all the rage every four years, Reymann thought his location should embrace the sport this year. About a month before the Opening Ceremony, he headed to his computer and searched online for "curling supplies," hoping to find a kiddie set. This led him directly to George Phillips of Dakota Curling Supplies. Which, it turned out, was a good place to start.

"It was as if I Googled 'nuclear fission,' and the first person I called was Enrico Fermi," Reymann told me.

Almost immediately, Phillips was volunteering to go to the Elks Lodge in Manitoba and pick up some 13-pound stones for Washington's Hilton Garden Inn. Phillips -- a former Olympic judge and fixture in the American game -- insisted Reymann should call Rick Patzke, the COO of the United States Curling Association.

Reymann dutifully called Patzke at home, and said he wanted to cut a deal to become the official hotel of the United States Curling Association.

"Hilton? That's great!" Patzke said.

"I said, 'No, no, no, no, just our hotel,' " Reymann recalled.

Patzke wasn't sure whether the federation should designate just one Garden Inn from downtown D.C. as its official hotel, so they agreed to call it "an" official hotel.

"And from there," Reymann said, "the curling floodgates opened."

Someone from Pittsburgh agreed to set up 20 percent scale synthetic ice sheets in the ballroom. Volunteers streamed in from the Potomac Curling Club. The Grand National Curling Club said they'd provide the 42-pound stones. (Reymann asked how much it would cost to ship them from Utica to Washington; "we're just gonna put 'em in a pickup truck and drive 'em to you," his contact said.) Coca-Cola agreed to underwrite much of the cost and to donate 100 percent of the proceeds from any of their products sold to USCA.

"We're all about being creative to promote the sport," Patzke said, when I reached him in Vancouver, B.C. "The sports landscape is so crowded, that we know we have to somehow stand out."

So now, every TV in Washington's Hilton Garden Inn bar is tuned to curling. The staffers are all decked out in USA Curling gear and discuss the game with their guests.

"Everyone I've come across in the curling world has been gracious, kind, funny, generous, just truly unbelievable," Reymann told me. "Everyone's having a good time with it."

The weekend expo of free curling starts Friday at 6 p.m. and continues through Sunday. There will be those four mini-sheets in the hotel ballroom, live curling on TV in the ballrooms and lobby lounge, and demonstrations and videos in the theater.