My friend Jeff Stein at Congressional Quarterly has this great find about Jim Steinberg, the current likely favorite to become Obama’s national security adviser:

Long before he became one of Washington’s most respected foreign policy hands, the affable Steinberg did a stint as a bartender at Columbia Station, a popular joint in D.C.’s funky Adams Morgan neighborhood. Steinberg had just graduated from Yale Law in 1978 and was studying for, well, the bar.

How’d Stein know about Steinberg’s history behind the bar? A TWI EXCLUSIVE: He worked at Columbia Station too. Maybe it was a better place in the late 70s, because right now it’s one of the million 18th Street bars to avoid unless you like — how did that Washington City Paper writer put it? — “all the ass-grabbing, vomiting, and fighting.”

Maybe Steinberg has opinions on proper pairings of beer and/or cocktails with meals, instead of the traditional wine option. Alas, national security adviser isn’t a Senate-confirmable post, so we may never know.