The Resy Guide to D.C.’s New Old-School Restaurants

D.C.’s longest running hotel is the Tabard Inn, which is also home to an iconic restaurant. A tea room in the 1920s, the restaurant now consists of several small rooms, a patio, and a lounge always aglow from a roaring fire, often full of tunes from local jazz musicians. The dinner menu is classic American, but the restaurant’s real claim to fame is its brunch. With bouncy cinnamon-sugar-dusted donut holes, crumbly scones, shrimp and grits, and luscious cream cheese and lox eggs scrambles, it’s easy to understand the reverence.

Owned and operated by four generations of the Martin family, this beloved D.C. institution has been serving D.C. locals, luminaries, and visitors since 1933. Known for its homey vibe and friendly service, the menu is full of classics of its own making like grandma martin’s meatloaf, a chicken and vegetable stew called colonial Brunswick’s stew, Maryland crab cakes, and a dazzling array of housemade desserts like apple pie, chocolate cake, and bread pudding.

The vision of this Dupont Circle bar is to illuminate “the golden age of cocktails,” a time of extraordinary creativity in the mixology world that ran from the 1860s up until prohibition. This is the era that gave rise to some of our most timeless cocktails: the martini, the Old Fashioned, and the daiquiri. The Golden Age bar sets the scene for celebrating this time period with a dark and dreamy décor, complete with opulent gold chandeliers and vintage furniture. More than that, they pay homage to the cocktails that arose from this epoch. Their menu hosts a traditional Manhattan, a Sazerac, a French 75, and the splendid honey-and-lemon infused Bee’s Knees.

Located in a century-old bank, the Gatsby brings the Roaring ’20s back to life with gorgeous artwork featuring the stars of silent films like Clara Bow and Greta Garbo that adorns the walls of the multiple dining rooms and spacious circular bar. The menu is as continental as the famed book’s protagonist, with spinach and artichoke dip, chicken pot pie, and spaghetti with meatballs. And the desserts represent the best of childhood American sweets, including New York cheesecake, a hefty banana split, and an old-school black-and-white milkshake.

There is no greater association with 1950’s America than the classic diner. The Unconventional Diner, with its open kitchen and aqua-blue booths, showcases diner culture with classic plates touched with a modern hand. Traditional chicken and waffles are elevated with cheddar and chive cornbread waffles, chicken pot pie is reimagined in a popper form, and skillet cornbread comes with a sweet-spicy surprise: habanero-infused honey butter. This is old-meets-new for the win.

Dark and moody, just like the speakeasies of the 1920s, Captain Gregory’s also features a nautical theme representative of the bar’s location in Alexandria, Va., which is a historical waterfront city that was once one of the country’s most important port cities. The drink menu leans into seasonal concoctions and includes the Loaded to The Gunwales (bourbon, burnt sugar, pine bitter), High Seas Diplomacy (rye, passionfruit, coconut), and Royal Banana Syndicate (aged Caribbean rum, banana peels, pecan praline). Thirsty yet?

El Presidente is quite the showstopper. With dramatic burgundy curtains, velvet bars stools perched at a dimly lit spherical bar, and turquoise-hued walls, the neo-retro vibe of this joint envelopes you the moment you walk through the door. Revel in it — your experience only gets better once you start eating. The menu shines a spotlight on Mexican classics from a variety of time periods and geographical regions; there are chorizo nachos, baja tuna tostadas, a Caesar salad which commemorates the 1924 birth of this classic salad in Tijuana, Mexico, and even Oaxacan tlayudas, a legacy of the country’s indigenous communities. The desserts also celebrate the history of Mexican food: tres leches; churros; and a Mexican chocolate ice cream sundae, a nod to the Mexican origins of cacao beans.

There is perhaps no restaurant that represents the history of Washington D.C. the way that Ben’s Chili Bowl does, and alongside it, Ben’s Next Door. The original Ben’s opened in 1958 and soon became a vital meeting spot and safe space for activists during the civil rights movement. Foodwise, the venue is famous for their chili and half-smokes, and it is still owned by the sons of original owners Ben and Virginia Ali. Their sons, Kamal and Nizam Ali, expanded Ben’s Chili Bowl to Ben’s Next Door to continue the family legacy and celebrate Black culture; that menu is full of Southern heavy hitters like chicken jambalaya, jerk penne pasta, fried catfish, and bourbon bread pudding.

Old world Italian comfort food is the name of the game at Carbonara, where the tunes of Sinatra bring a smile to guests’ faces while indulging in mozzarella en carrozza (mozzarella that is breaded and fried and has an oh-so-crunchy exterior and dreamy creamy interior), bucatini carbonara that is made tableside for the ultimate wow factor, and the plumpest spinach agnolotti anyone has ever seen, drenched in a truffle sauce. You may be nearing a food coma, but don’t sleep on the warm molten chocolate lava cake — a classic that never gets old.

The glamorous Art-Deco décor of Maison Bar À Vins will have you traveling back in time to the early 1900s in Paris, a time of splashy elegance. The drinks reinforce the concept: olive oil washed gin is used in the Maison Martini, which is garnished with a blue cheese olive; the Café Tropicale is an espresso martini with passionfruit; and the If You Like Pineau Coladas is made with Oaxacan rum and coconut.

For more than a decade, this much-loved ode to Gallic fare, housed within an historic building, has been one of the city’s top picks for dining with a deep sense of nostalgia and you can feel it in every little detail, from the ceiling that’s fashioned to resemble ash remnants from cigarette smoke to the iconic, bountiful bread bar that looks like it was plucked straight from Paris. Whether you indulge in a spectacular seafood tower or one of the juicy burgers topped with a special house sauce, do know that you should treasure the complimentary bread basket — the cranberry-walnut loaf was recently named America’s best free restaurant bread by The Atlantic.