The W Washington D.C. general manager Meade Atkeson knows that his newly rededicated property faces stiff competition along Pennsylvania Ave. The Park Hyatt, the Four Seasons, and the Mandarin Oriental are less than two miles away, and the Trump International Hotel is just around the corner.
And then there are the city’s newer additions, like the Eaton DC or the Line Hotel, two hotels that add events and engagement for the community to their amenities.
Following a $51 million renovation, the Northwest hotel is ready for its next act with a reinvigorated food and beverage program.
“In this town we were kind of ‘it’ for so long,” Atkeson says. “I’ve been to the Eaton, and I think they do a great job with their popups. Same thing with the Line. We’re going to have more frequent activities than they are,” Atkeson says, including weekly live music.
Now, the hotel has a new restaurant and bar on offer, plus a new look for its popular POV rooftop hangout. Here’s a look at what else is new for the W hotel.
At hearth: a food program
Cherry is the new fine dining restaurant on the W’s main lobby, replacing Pinea, which closed last year. Here, chef William Morris prepares specialty dishes like grilled avocado and grilled scallops, both of which still boast the smoky flavor of the kitchen’s 15-foot custom-built wood-fired hearth oven—which it claims is the largest in D.C. Even the peaches used in the salad course are smoked.
Morris says that absolutely everything served in Cherry, even the desserts, at one point or another touches the grill (with the lone exception of the pea soup).
“I don’t have gas in this kitchen,” Morris says of his staff stoking a fresh conflagration each morning. “So many people say it’s this ‘fad’ of open-fire cooking and this current infatuation. It’s not current; it’s the oldest way humankind has ever cooked.”
Morris grew up in Alexandria, and sources cherry, hickory, red oak and white oak from southern Maryland for his kitchen’s Josper oven. The smoke lends a barbecue flavor to not only entrees such as the rockfish but also the fruits he gets “as locally as possible.” That’s his philosophy for all of Cherry’s ingredients, including his fish from the Chesapeake and meat from farmers just outside the city.
“You’re not buying products, you’re building a relationship with the farmer,” says Morris, who came aboard the W in January. “I see what they believe in, what their land looks like. Because that makes a difference. I have a mentality that you have to think locally to think globally.”
Appetizers range from $12 to $20 for the tuna crudo with charred melon from the hearth. For entrees you can keep it simple, with the aforementioned rockfish for $30 and, at the higher end, $75 for a 14 oz. ribeye.
“If you start with a beautiful product, you’re going to end up with a beautiful product [and] it’ll let you know when it’s ready,” Morris says. “I don’t want to manipulate everything too much. It’s pure cooking.”
Beers at the office
Visitors can head to W’s hip new beer bar, Corner Office—formerly the whiskey bar Root Cellar—where 38 taps of suds from near (Atlas, DC Brau) and decidedly far (New Zealand, Scandinavia) are on offer for guests to enjoy along with wood-fired pizzas. Garth Welsh, the W’s director of beverage and food, is so serious about this undertaking that all his servers in Corner Office must be certified cicerones—kind of like beer sommeliers.
“We want to have people who can speak to the menu in an educated manner,” says Welsh, himself a certified cicerone originally from Australia.
Part of that education comes in the variety of barrel-aged brews that Welsh has sourced for Corner Office, including one made especially for them by D.C.’s own Right Proper Brewing Company called Baron Corvo, a Biere de Garde aged in an amaro barrel.
Corner Office’s outdoor patio is set up for bocce and will be ready for curling when the cold weather (eventually) returns. There are hops vines growing outside, which Welsh says will eventually be made into hops-flavored iced tea.
Furthermore, he says the new beverage program includes experimenting with spent grain from beer brewing to use not only in pizza dough but in doggie treats for four-legged guests.
Rooftop cocktails
In the elevator to the top floor, the ceiling boasts a starscape said to be identical to what was overhead when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. The elevator doesn’t go quite to the stars, but does deposit guests at POV, the rooftop bar whose entrance is enlivened with a mural by artist Gaia of Baltimore.
Inside, dangling from the rooftop are cloud-like lights meant to increase the feeling of being among the heavens. The redesign incorporates floor-to-ceiling retractable glass windows to either let in or keep out the elements.
Mixologists are offering up bespoke cocktails—designed by the Amsterdam-based consultant known as Cocktail Professor—like the Bipartisan ($20), an elixir of Don Ciccio Ambrosia, creme de violette, gin, lemon, orange bitters, and bubbles that is served as two glasses on opposite ends of a scale—one of blue liquid, the other red. Another concoction, the President’s Book of Secrets ($20), comes with a flask containing rum, walnut, agave, and earl grey, and served with a glass sitting inside a piece of wood resembling an open book.
While enjoying one of these craft cocktails you take in views of the Treasury just across 14th Street and, beyond, the White House. It’s described by W staff as “the best view in the city,” and with the Washington Monument, Reagan Airport and the Air Force Memorial also visible to the south, it’s hard to argue. The VIP “Terrace” area offers even more stellar views and bottle service.
