Shut up, drink it: Hanging out with the owners of Dixie’s

You’ve seen it on M Street, you’ve been too scared to use your fake ID there to buy a bottle of Burnett’s and for those who haven’t had the pleasure of getting to know these guys your prayers have been answered, here’s what you need to know about Dixie.

I walked into Dixie’s at 3pm on Friday to talk about crazy experiences, fake IDs and most importantly, the characters they come across: everyone from homeless people to White House staff, and even Georgetown students (apparently a shoutout to the Rugby Team was crucial, I don’t know what you guys are doing in there but you’re definitely racking up the sales).

Sean Clark, co-owner of Dixie and self-proclaimed Mayor of Georgetown, sat down with me to answer some questions and yes, I found out which fake IDs you shouldn’t even bother using.

Why did you decide to buy a liquor store right next to a university, was it for the experience or to put it bluntly, the booming business?

Honestly, I grew up in this area and Dixie Liquor is a landmark so when the opportunity came along, we jumped on it. People tell me stories of bumping into other people wearing Dixie Liquor shirts all over the place, my Mom even met someone in Hawaii wearing a Dixie Liquor shirt and they knew me. It’s like a Cheers, everybody knows everybody and so many people have made friends through hanging out here (whether they’re friends that they remember or not).

What’s the most popular hard liquor and how much of it do you sell?

Burnett’s for sure, we sell around 20 cases a week. When it comes to Georgetown Day or Homecoming we don’t even count, we just back a truck up and watch it go.

How many fake IDs do you see a week and what’s the worst one you’ve seen?

We probably see around three a week but the worst one has got to be the one that fell apart in my hands, I could see it splitting in half.

(To demonstrate the amount of fake IDs they get, they literally took out a trash bag full of them and laid them out on the counter and all I can say is, some of you really need to find some better IDs, since when does an American National card exist?!)

Who’s the youngest person who has tried to buy alcohol here?

I couldn’t tell you how young they are but some of the kids look really young, like 15 of 16. I don’t know if they’re really young looking freshman or just high school kids.

You’re known to be super chilled out. If someone bought a bottle and asked you to take a shot with them, would you take it?

Yeah, you’re not going to deny anybody, it’s a gift. They pay for a bottle and give you some, that’s great. We also have tastings here once in a while to try a new bottle so we do drink in the store .

What’s the funniest experience you’ve had working here?

We have some great times here, honestly we forget half the stuff that happens in here. It’s usually such a crazy environment that we’ve been neutralized to what a normal person would think was crazy.

We once had a homeless guy come in here and try to trade us a hawk for some alcohol, honestly I didn’t even believe him until he put a shoe box on the counter, opened it up and a baby hawk popped out – just so you know, I took the hawk and gave it to animal rescue (see, all around great guys who might not take your fake ID away if you’re nice enough).

We also have a regular customer who seems to be homeless who walks in here with a cat on his shoulder every once in a while, he’s always a good time. And of course, the celebrities, Ron Jeremy [the porn star] walked in to do a sample tasting and ended up staying here for four hours with a line of people waiting to see him.

President Bill Clinton has also stopped by a few times, George Clooney came in once to buy a bottle of water and we have a lot of White House staff who come in here to buy alcohol. You never know who’s going to walk in here and what’s going to happen.

If you haven’t already figured it out, get down to Dixie Liquor and leave your salmon shorts and crappy fakes behind.