The Columbia Room will join forces with PX next month, creating cocktail heaven

It's a pairing that will get cocktail fans salivating: For one night only, Columbia Room bartenders Derek Brown and J.P. Fetherston are taking over PX, Todd Thrasher's Old Town speakeasy.

On March 10, to mark the fifth anniversary of the Columbia Room, Brown and Fetherston will present a Columbia Room-style menu with four drinks for $50, as well as a la carte cocktails for $13.50 each. The set menu includes a Cold Apple Toddy, based on a recipe that Brown discovered while researching Henry William Thomas, a bartender at the famous Washington saloons Shoomaker's and George W. Driver's in the 19th and early 20th centuries. "It's complicated because the apples back then were different, and things like powdered sugar are different today," Brown says, but notes that "every cocktail menu from that time had four essential drinks, one of which is the apple toddy."

Brown also promises a drink "dedicated to the grand pappy of DC Cocktails, Todd Thrasher." Dubbed "Sincerity is the Most Imitated Form of Flattery," it includes Riesling, Amontillado sherry, and is "infused and whipped pineapple cream." (The drink is a nod to a cocktail Thrasher created during a guest bartending appearance at the Columbia Room, which was topped with pisco- and pineapple-infused foam.)

As always at PX, seating is limited. Reservations are available on PX's Web site.

One of the most decorated cocktail bars in the area, the Columbia Room closed on New Year's Eve, along with its sister bar the Passenger. While the Passenger is still searching for a new location, the Columbia Room has a future address above Jeremiah Langhorne's forthcoming Blagden Alley restaurant, the Dabney. But until it opens, hopefully by the end of this year, the Columbia Room will pop-up at local bars.

PX, corner of King and Columbus streets, Old Town. www.barpx.com. No phone.