Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, the 99-room, Beaux Arts-style Jefferson, Washington, D.C. reopened after a two-year top-to-bottom renovation. Four blocks from the White House, the circa 1923 hotel has eight intimate spaces for gatherings that can accomodate as many as 85 guests. And like the pre-renovation Jefferson, the reconfigured ground floor is filled with alcoves and nooks for semiprivate meetings.
Just inside the lobby , iron gates guard the entrance to the 60-seat restaurant Plume, which serves American fare with French influences. The room’s focal points include elaborate plaster detailing an an artfully restored barrel-vaulted glass ceiling. For semiprivate dining, there are two skylit atriums, each with a limestone fountain. A nearby hall leads to the 18-seat Private Cellar dining room, which has walls and floors of reclaimed heart pine, 1,400 bottles of wine on display, and a wine dumbwaiter modeled after a rig designed by Thomas Jefferson for his study at Monticello.
The hotel's largest event space is the 689-square-foot Pavilion Room, which accommodates 45 for a banquet or 85 for a reception. Nearby is the 22-seat Parlor Boardroom, accented with forest green silk wall coverings, gold tones in the drapes and carpeting, and high-backed velvet chairs. Two original leaded glass chandeliers hang over the massive wood table. For small meetings there are the cozy, wood paneled East and West Jefferson Cabinet Rooms, which hold three to four guests each and are furnished with brown leather sofas and chairs.
Public spaces on the ground level include the Book Room, with 800 leather-bound volumes and a semiprivate booth for four, and Quill bar and lounge, which is decorated with 18th century maps and features an amber-colored bar of molded glass. The top floor of the eight-story hotel has a 1,900-square-foot Presidential suite and a 1,100-square-foot bridal suite, both with nine-foot ceilings and French doors for city views.
