Here's a look at the best new Washington restaurants, hotels, party rooms, corporate event venues, conference centers, and private rooms to open this summer. These new and renovated Washington venues can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, meetings, business dinners, cocktail parties, conferences, weddings, and more.
Philadelphia-based chef Jose Garces opened Argentinian restaurant Rural Society downtown in July at the Loews Madison Hotel. Designed by AvroKO to evoke both gaucho style and urban Buenos Aires, the 150-seat restaurant’s decor includes vintage photographs, rustic wood tables, leather banquettes, and wood-paneled walls. Groups can gather in Rural Society’s three tack-room-inspired private dining rooms, each with its own bar. The larger private dining room is designed to look like a tent, and the walls are lined with trophies and awards.
W Washington D.C.’s popular P.O.V. rooftop bar and lounge overlooking the White House debuted a redesigned space this month. The new design from Nemaworkshop includes a red, silver, and blue color scheme, with a red-tape wall as a humorous nod to D.C. bureaucracy. Railside seating lines the P.O.V. Outdoor Terrace, which offers unencumbered views of the city and monuments, while the V.I.P. bar seats 50 guests. Inside, a new bar stands in front of a wall-size brass mural of Benjamin Franklin, John F. Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln. For receptions, the terrace holds 250 and the lounge holds 150.
Legal Sea Foods opened a 5,560-square-foot outpost in the pre-security area at Reagan National Airport in June. The 150-seat restaurant includes concourse-level dining for 42 guests. Upstairs, a glass-enclosed private dining room holds 20 guests. Other spaces on the second level include a 30-seat dining and lounge area and a 46-seat bar. Grizform Design Architects designed the restaurant with the golden age of business travel in mind, adding 1960s and 1970s influences such as dark and light European oak, custom saffron leather seats, and translucent smokey gray acrylic panels—while also incorporating modern amenities such as electrical outlets at bar seats.
Austin, Texas-based Tex-Mex chain Chuy’s will open its first Northern Virginia location in Fairfax in mid-September. The kitschy decor will include a room with a hubcap-covered ceiling and a room decorated with metal palm trees (similar to other Chuy's locations, pictured). The restaurant seats 206 diners, including at the bar and on the patio. Individual spaces include the Hubcap Room, which seats 76; the Art Room, which seats 40; and the main dining room, which seats 50.
After 20 years in business, power dining spot the Oval Room received a dramatic interior renovation. Martin Vahtra of Projects Design Associates of New York added a white Carrera marble bar and flooring, contrasted with dark mahogany wood accents. An abstract painting by American artist Jennifer Bartlett is the focal point in the main dining room, while faux leather, art pieces, and fabrics in burgundy and deep brown serve as decor accents. The restaurant seats 70 for dinner in the main dining room, 40 in the Green Room, and 10 in the intimate Curtain Room; it holds 250 guests for receptions.
The Roaring '20s era and silent films inspired the design for cocktail bar and Japanese-influenced restaurant Chaplin’s Restaurant & Bar. SwatchRoom designed the interior scheme for the 83-seat restaurant, which incorporates gold and red accents and artifacts from film and entertainment. The restaurant’s upstairs holds 50 people, and a patio seats 80.
InterContinental Hotels Group opened the second location of its wellness-focused Even Hotel in Rockville in July. The 167-room property includes a 1,200-square-foot athletic studio with a flex meeting space to accommodate group events for 24 people. The hotel’s Cork & Kale Market and Bar offers meals tailored to guests’ dietary needs, and each guest room has an in-room fitness zone.
The 14-story Hyatt Place Washington D.C./U.S. Capitol opened in June in NoMa, located just two blocks from the NoMa/Gallaudet U Metro station. The hotel has more than 200 guest rooms and 1,600 square feet of flexible, high-tech meeting and function space. The Hyatt Place’s Meeting Places 1 and 2 can each hold 67 people for banquet-style events, and the rooms can be combined to seat 134 people.
Later this fall, chef David Guas plans to open his second Bayou Bakery location in the historic Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital on Capital Hill. Bayou Bakery will be the first retail operation and restaurant to occupy the center’s Carriage House, built in 1866. Conservation and restoration is key to the venue's design, and original architectural details such as stable doors, wooden hay chutes, and exposed brick will remain. It is expected to seat 50 guests inside and 24 guests outside.
New York-based GRK Fresh Greek opened its first location in Washington in Golden Triangle, near Dupont Circle. The fast-casual restaurant seats 75 inside, with private dining space for 16 available downstairs. In addition, a patio seats 36 diners. GRK’s sleek design incorporates colorful wall panels and soft lighting to evoke modern Greek culture.
