Days after America’s 250th, Round Robin went dark for two months to get a high-end facelift. The oak-paneled circular bar steeped in history reopened last Friday, September 11, without any announcement from its Willard Intercontinental Hotel parent. Since
then, fans have found out the old-fashioned way — word of mouth — as every one of its 20 bar seats and close-by tables were taken this past Tuesday night.
Round Robin 2.0 is the latest win for the 335-room hotel. Stephen Starr is behind the 2025 reboot of its American grill, Occidental, marking the restaurateur’s arguably most impressive restoration project yet.
Open since 1847, back when President James K. Polk was in office a block away at the White House, Round Robin touts the title of the oldest bar in the city that’s still situated in the same spot (1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW). Centuries later, the newly revised Round Robin tucked off the Willard’s lobby continues to cater to power players and the political elite on both sides of the aisle. Its late barman Jim Hewes — who started stirring behind the circular bar in 1986 (the year the Willard reopened after a big restoration) and never left — is credited with making the most Mint Juleps of any mixologist in the country.
While the drink remains relevant, with around 20,000 served to date, its outdated backdrop was due for an update. A full-blown makeover that retains its stately status includes modern touches like LED-lit rings showcasing the bottles of booze in the center. The formerly egg-white room is now a handsome hunter green, making its gold-leaf ceiling pop.
A newly installed acrylic portrait of Henry Clay – the 19th-century Kentucky statesman and “Julep evangelist” – now oversees a bar that continues to send out its famed cocktail ($27), served in a silver cup with sugar, mint, crushed ice, and, as of this year, a bourbon you can’t find anywhere else in the world. The proprietary single-barrel blend fromWoodinville Whiskey Co. also builds its Old Fashioned ($34) and a Manhattan honoring former President William H. Taft, a “judge who enjoyed his straight with two cherries,” reads the description. (His wife, First Lady Helen Taft, gets her own newly commissioned portrait posed against the Tidal Basin.)
The food menu also got a refresh, bigger than before, with starters ($22-$28) like Maryland crab cakes, escargot, and grilled octopus with chimichurri. Turn the page for French onion soup, a Black Angus burger, and lobster rolls, plus entrees like steak frites, mussels, and New Bedford scallops.
The historic bar’s quiet comeback is a bright light in a sad week for Washingtonians who just lost a timeless institution of another kind: On Tuesday, the Trump-led board of the Kennedy Center voted to shut down the 55-year-old cultural institution for two years. It could possibly be demolished, making it “Trump’s most grotesque obsession” yet.
Some things haven’t changed at Round Robin; framed drawings of American greats like Buffalo Bill and Woodrow Wilson live on, now relocated to the walkway leading to the bar. And there’s still a lonesome TV stuffed in the same corner near the bar, which was randomly replaying Sunday’s Bears blowout game for reasons unknown on Tuesday night.
Hours start at 4 p.m. (and 1 p.m. on Saturdays) and run until midnight.
