In good company in Washington, D.C.

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA ggouveia@westfairinc.com

Perhaps it was the holiday itself — more contemplative than celebratory — or the (now resolved) debt ceiling crisis, but Memorial Day weekend found Washington, D.C., in a subdued mood. Yes, there were the tourists national and foreign, the wreaths laid at the war memorials and the chairs lined up for concerts, including the one on PBS May 28. But there were also less people in the city than on patriotic holidays past, said waiters and professional drivers alike.

Like other cities — and many individuals — Washington has found it challenging to come back from Covid, they said. But also like other cities, Washington is in the midst of a transition and a building boom — everywhere there are projects by the Bethesda, Maryland-based Clark Construction — that have priced some of its residents out of the market.

In town for a family wedding, we made our usual pilgrimage to the National Gallery of Art, where the gift shops and exhibits seemed smaller and where some spaces were closed for renovations or installations — including “Canova: Sketching in Clay” (through Oct. 9), in which, judging from the catalog already on sale, the 18th-century master’s anguished clay models belie the cool neoclassicism of the finished marble products. After a break for a hazelnut-based gelato and an iced decaf latte in the Cascade Café — hey, life is uncertain; eat dessert first — we made a diagonal beeline across Constitution Avenue to The Capitol Grille, part of a restaurant group whose Northeast locations include one in Stamford. There a dinner of two appetizers — a cup of New England clam chowder and lobster-laced crabcakes served with corn relish — was spot-on.

Thus fortified we hiked back to our hotel to take its full measure. Like its sister hotel in Washington, D.C, the Kimpton Monaco, Kimpton The George has been owned by San Francisco-based IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) since 2015. A boutique hotel, The George lies in the Capitol Hill Historic District, a couple of blocks from Union Station — we walked with our bags as the Red Cap attendant at the station said a cab would be a waste of money — making it perfect for the business traveler.

As you might expect, The George is about all things President George Washington. The rooms, whose blue, gray and white palette has a crisp colonial quality, are accented with abstracted portraits of Washington and wife Martha and images of their Mount Vernon home in Virginia. Behind the king-size bed, a wall conveys some of the writings by the General, as he was known on his estate. The lobby even features a mascot, a Boston Bull Terrier, named Mr. G after You Know Who.

The hotel’s physical strengths, however, can also be something of a weakness. The gray and blue palette — so continental in the rooms — makes the hallways look like dormitories. (Perhaps a fresh coat of white paint, with the gray and blue serving as accents on the doors, would brighten them.)

And the hotel’s proximity to Union Station means that it is removed from the National Mall and the city’s action. (It’s more of a business district, with the D.C. headquarters for both NBC News and Fox News a stone’s throw away.) Then, too, the restaurant was not open for lunch on Saturday and not at all on Sunday the weekend we visited, although there was a happy hour every night.

Still, the yoga mat in each room — on which lime butterflies flit among pink reeds on a blue background — had us at hello, as did the warm, helpful staffers, among the most service-minded we’ve encountered, who pointed us to neighboring, off-thebeaten path treasures. At Art and Soul, an eatery in Yotel hotel with a youthful vibe, brunch offerings and Southern comfort food, we indulged our passion for blueberry pancakes. At the Corner Bakery, around the corner from The George, we enjoyed latte and a cinnamon-cake muffin and wished we had more time to explore its entrées. But by far the hidden gem of the area — hidden because so many people are rushing to get from Union Station to their destinations — is the adjacent Smithsonian National Postal Museum. This superb space marries a neoclassical exterior with state-of-theart displays that fuse art, technology and history as you learn the role that stamps have played in our nation’s development, beginning with the Stamp Act, a tax levied on the colonists by Great Britain in 1765. Though repealed a year later, it would foreshadow the issues that drove the break with England.

Given that the museum was built over a former baseball field, it’s no wonder that it’s offering a show on “Baseball: America’s Home Run” through Jan. 5. The postal service’s many baseball-themed stamps are supplemented by historic telecasts, uniforms and other memorabilia involving such greats of the game as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente. It was moving to see Maris break Ruth’s single season home run record of 61 in 1961 all over again. A nice touch: The museum provides free postcards that you can send to displaced children.

Venturing farther afield during wedding weekend, we discovered other jewels, such as La Piquette, a French bistro in Cleveland Park in the shadow of Washington National Cathedral, where our companions raved about the eggs benedict and steak frites, while we savored the cream of cauliflower soup and a zesty al dente pasta dish made with North Carolina shrimp, basil, tomatoes, olives and garlic.

Another gem is the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America, whose Spanish colonial style courtyards and gardens are a favorite of event planners and visitors alike.

But it was The George that would remain the touchstone throughout our D.C. stay. People tend to be especially kind — perhaps a better word is protective — of women of a certain vintage traveling alone. At The George the service was always impeccable, with all our needs immediately met, from a pot of hot water to a cell phone charger to last-minute wedding safety pins. Coming in late from a whirlwind of wedding activities, we always had a sense we were returning to a home away from home.

Leaving one day, we suddenly realized that the door hanger for privacy or service contained a saying by Washington: “…’Tis better to be alone than in bad company.”

In Washington and at The George, we were always in good company.

For more on Kimpton The George, click here. https://www.hotelgeorge.com