Bar Crawl Over Holidays Keeps Vienna Friends Connected In Hometown

VIENNA, VA — After graduating from James Madison High School in 2013, a group of friends went their separate ways at college while remaining close. Today, they live everywhere from Northern Virginia and New York to California and Seattle.

But the group of friends reconvenes each year to catch up and reminisce with a holiday tradition: a bar crawl through Vienna.

The friend group started through school and youth sports, and it ultimately grew to 12 through mutual friends. It was the milestone of turning 21 in 2016 that led the friends to first organize their own holiday bar crawl. Since they were all attending different colleges by that point, they decided to hold the bar crawl when they'd be home.

"The holidays are always that time we come back to our families and come back to the Town of Vienna," Brad Mann, one of the friends, told Patch.

So the bar crawl was born. Over the course of a day, the friends start at Mann's parents' home and make their way up Maple Avenue to different Vienna restaurants to have drinks. The friends even create T-shirts for each bar crawl, deciding on the final design through a group vote. Even when some of the friends can't make it one year, they usually connect through FaceTime and will make it the next year.

Along with Mann, the group of friends includes Will Sparrow, Alex Lowe, Nick Sienicki, Nick Brunori, Erik Euler, Logan Appleby, Patrick Murphy, Collin Church, Dan Tobin, Albert Chang and Phillip Davine.

The most recent lineup of restaurants for the bar crawl was Anita's New Mexican Style Food, Bear Branch Tavern, Caboose Tavern, Vienna Inn, Foster's Grille, Taco Bamba and Hawk & Griffin.

"What's so nice about it is we know the owners and the staff," said Mann.

To add to the fun, different parents from each friend join them at each restaurant in the bar crawl. They even sometimes get shout-outs on the street from friends as they make their way around town.

The 2022 bar crawl was special for the friends, as they paused it for the previous two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But they stayed in touch and were able to restart the bar crawl "now that the dust has settled a little bit" with the pandemic, according to Mann.

"Naturally, that was hard and took a lot of communication and effort, but I'm glad we got back to where we were before," said Mann.

For Mann, the bar crawl is a way for the friends to reminisce and see what's changed in Vienna. He said some restaurants they've visited have come and gone, including Outback Steakhouse and Tequila Grande. But it's still a positive experience seeing growth in Vienna and new favorite restaurants like Hawk & Griffin.

One memory that sticks out to Mann has been bar crawling in all kinds of weather, from rain and snow to freezing temperatures like those seen over Christmas with the Arctic cold front. He recalls the friends bundling up at times to stay warm during the trek through town.

"Nothing's going to hold us back except a pandemic," said Mann.