The Oak Room and Bernadette’s Bring a New Old-School Appeal to Georgetown
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Georgetown has never wanted for history. Clyde’s has been pouring since 1963. Martin’s Tavern has fed presidents for the better part of a century. But what the neighborhood hasn’t had in a long while is a grand American dining room — the kind of white-tablecloth institution that feels like it was built to outlast everyone in it.
That gap is the whole idea behind The Oak Room, which opened in June at 1218 Wisconsin Avenue NW. The latest concept from Ten Five Hospitality, which is the same group behind Mother Wolf in Miami, occupies what was once the longtime Georgetown fixture, El Centro. But now, the address has new life, and it’s helmed by chef Tim Hollingsworth, the former French Laundry chef de cuisine, who brings his storied background, taste, and style to the heart of Georgetown.
The Oak Room isn’t the only thing you’ll find on premise: Head upstairs for Bernadette’s, a candlelit supper club with grower Champagne, a 1920’s Steinway, and live music three nights a week. Two concepts, one building, two very different nights out.
“We wanted to design something that made people feel like they were in a different time and place,” says Dan Daley, managing partner at Ten Five. “It’s meant to feel worn and lived in, that it’s been around for 100 years.”
We sat down with Daley to find out everything you need to know about The Oak Room and Bernadette’s before you go.
The Resy Rundown
The Oak Room
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Why We Like It
Georgetown finally has a great American dining room. French Laundry alum Tim Hollingsworth cooks the best versions of the classics you already order inside a space designed to feel a century old. -
Essential Dishes
The airy Parker House rolls; a beautiful heirloom tomato salad; crab cake with Old Bay aioli; prime rib with jus and horseradish crème fraîche; and an ice cream sundae to close. -
Must-Order Drinks
The Tokyo old-fashioned, Mezcal Yuzu, and a pour from the 400-bottle list, which goes surprisingly deep on American wine producers.
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Who and What It’s For
A proper night out like an anniversary, a deal, or simply a steak and a martini done right. During warmer weather, head to The Garden, a seasonal space in the back for rosé, spritzes, and weekend brunch. -
How to Get In
Reservations drop 14 days out at 9 a.m. Walk-ins are always welcome, too. -
Fun Fact
That brick vaulted ceiling looks like it survived a dozen renovations. It was built during construction.
1. The Oak Room was built to feel like it’s always been here.
Step inside and you half expect the room to be shrouded in cigar smoke. White tablecloths, smartly dressed servers, the low buzz of a busy bar — it conjures would-be memories of the 1920s. The art reads like Dutch still lifes reminiscent of a Vermeer or Rembrandt, the stemware is delicate, and the plates are etched in reds and blues. The room is brimming with eye-catching details without feeling stuffy.
For Daley, that lived-in quality is the point. “A great American dining room is about every element working together — the bustle of the room, the soft lighting, the music, the style of service and of course the food,” he says. “Guests should feel like they’ve walked into a place that has always been there.” Even the artwork was chosen to feel collected and inherited rather than installed for opening day.
2. Tim Hollingsworth cooks the best version of what you already know and love.
Hollingsworth was the youngest chef de cuisine in French Laundry history, and for The Oak Room, his brief was refreshingly plain: Take quintessential dishes everyone knows and make them the best in the room. That means a crab cake with Old Bay aioli and a Caesar with torn croutons and anchovy dressing, alongside steakhouse staples like creamed spinach and mashed potatoes.
The restaurant’s steak program was built through meticulous research. “We have tried no less than 100 variations of different steaks from different farms, globally, domestically,” says Daley. Four or five cuts anchor the menu at any time, sourced largely from Brandt Beef, a Holstein-only ranch in Southern California. The centerpiece is that koji-and-pepper prime rib. From the raw bar come seafood plateaus, clam ceviche, and Daley’s own favorite — the coupe de la mer, a chilled seafood cocktail of poached shrimp, raw scallops, lump crab, Clamato, lime, and avocado. Portions run large.
3. The bar rewards the classicist and the curious in equal measure.
The cocktail list has fun with familiar favorites. The Old Fashioned selection alone spans a range, from the House (100-proof rye, demerara, orange, Angostura) for purists, to the Tokyo, a lower-proof, dessert-leaning pour built on Japanese whiskey, crème de cacao, and matcha. “That’s the one I send to someone who says they don’t like Old Fashioneds,” says Daley. “It usually changes their mind.” And for something different from the dedicated margarita section, the Mezcal Yuzu layers mezcal, gin, yuzu sake, falernum, and cayenne.
The 400-bottle cellar covers the expected ground — Burgundy and Bordeaux are staples — but the section Daley is proudest of is the American varietals. The list runs deep through Napa, Sonoma, the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the Willamette Valley, anchored by a 1979 Heitz Cellars Cabernet pushing 50 years old.
And through the back sits the seasonal warm-weather wine bar, The Garden, which is a separate space built to English-garden proportions. “We wanted guests to walk outside and feel like they couldn’t possibly be in D.C.,” Daley says. It pours rosé and spritzes from late spring into October.
The Resy Rundown
Bernadette’s
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Why We Like It
Accessed by a separate staircase from The Oak Room, it’s a candlelit supper club drawn from great European rooms like Harry’s Bar in Venice. Enjoy grower Champagne, a restored 1920’s Steinway, and live music Thursday through Saturday. -
Essential Dishes
The prime wagyu French dip, which you can only get here; steak au poivre; chilled seafood; and the wagyu cheeseburger. -
Must-Order Drinks
The Cherry Blossom with rye and sakura blossom tea, and a glass of Stéphane Coquilette ‘Inflorescence’ grower Champagne.
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Who and What It’s For
It has speakeasy energy without any of the hiding. Come for a nightcap or the whole night for an evening of music, martinis, and late dining, before or after dinner downstairs. -
How to Get In
Reservations drop 14 days out at 9 a.m. Walk-ins are always welcome. -
Fun Fact
The Steinway arrived from a friend’s house in the Hamptons. Getting it up the stairs intact was its own small feat.
4. The upstairs supper club, Bernadette’s, turns dinner into theater.
No visit to The Oak Room is complete without a detour up to Bernadette’s, and the room makes its case the moment you walk in: Red velvet cushions, brass and antique mirrors, lighting warm enough to make everyone look their best, and that baby grand at the center of it all. Live music runs Thursday through Saturday, always a pianist and a vocalist. Daley points to Bemelmans Bar as the north star. “You walk in, you experience the room, and you feel something,” he says. The set list runs from Nina Simone to Rihanna, jazz and soul with upbeat momentum.
The room shifts as the night does. “At 8 p.m, it’s a supper club — candlelight, dinner service, a set that’s still uptempo but sits underneath conversation,” Daley says. “By 11 p.m., the music turns up a notch.” The menu mirrors downstairs but runs smaller and later, with grower Champagne as the through line — 40 options, weighted toward small producers rather than the big houses. The food menu is divided into three sections: raw bar, appetizers, and house signatures, along with a single dessert. Start with evening with shrimp cocktail before beef tartare with cornichon or bone marrow with endive marmalade before the prime rib French dip. Finish it all with the soft-serve sundae with hot fudge and bourbon caramel.
5. Ten Five is only getting started in Georgetown.
Daley makes no secret of his affection for the neighborhood. “It’s the oldest neighborhood in D.C., one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the country,” he says. “Over the years it’s gotten a little sterile with all the commoditized retail on M Street, and we want to help bring back the experiential dining scene and a bit more of the character that used to exist there.”
The group has already signed the space of the former nearby Irish pub, Rí Rá, though Daley is holding details for now. Given The Oak Room and Bernadette’s, it’s worth watching what comes next.
The Oak Room serves dinner Tuesday through Sunday, with brunch in the dining room and The Garden on weekends. Bernadette’s is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, with live music Thursday through Saturday. Both are located at 1218 Wisconsin Avenue NW, with separate entrances.
Lulu Chang is a Washington, D.C.-based food and travel writer whose work has appeared in Resy, Eater DC, InsideHook, Hotels Above Par, USA Today, and more. Follow Resy on Instagram.
