“Richard Nixon actually created the Environmental Protection Agency,” said the suit-and-tie clad guy to his companion at the barstool next to me. He was right. But also, so very on-brand for where I was: about a block away from the White House at Old Ebbitt Grill, the oldest tavern in Washington, DC. I’d popped in for a late dinner of steak frites on my first evening in the US capital. Overhearing buttoned-up lobbyists and civil servants spout o‡ political minutiae is exactly what I’d imagined would happen at a wood-panelled, white-tableclothed restaurant where taxidermied heads of horned animals grace the walls. Here, locals knock back glasses of bourbon and talk about their favourite sport: politics.
This is the Washington, DC portrayed on TV shows and in films; a place of cigars, red meat, whiskey and backroom deals. Those things are still part of the fabric of this city of almost 700,000 — especially the backroom deals — but they belong to an artery hardening DC that’s fast being watered down. In the past decade or so, the former US crime capital has developed other tastes. A fresh generation of Washingtonians have created a blossoming city that’s better than ever, full of new breweries, distilleries and immigrant chefs shaking up the restaurant scene.
This story is from the May 2022 edition of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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This story is from the May 2022 edition of National Geographic Traveller (UK).
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