RSS FeedW Hotel Debuts Today
An anonymous reader sent in this photo of a worker cleaning the windows at the newly remodeled W Hotel (515 15th street NW). The hotel is set to open today after more than a year of renovations.
The roof deck of the hotel (always popular when it was the Hotel Washington) will be open from 5 pm to 2 am Sunday through Thursday, and 5 pm to 3 am on Friday & Saturday. The W will also feature a steakhouse and a wine bar.
The addition of the W Hotel (and Bliss Spa) is certainly a boon to the neighborhood. We imagine this will quickly become one of the more popular hotels in DC.
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Comments
the marketing pitch calles Chef Jean-Georges of the J&G the “Secretary of Steak” which gave me a good chuckle.
LOL Andy! Of course the boundaries are expanded when convenient, but not when people express their horror is walking north of I Street!!! Some (not all) in the PQ have big ‘ole chips on their shoulders!
@Andy – our boundaries roughly correspond to the geography of the Downtown DC BID. for example, this spring we wrote about the restaurant Potenza which is at the corner of 15th and H Streets NW. we’ve mentioned Siroc on 15th Street also. we’re always looking for people who want to write about less mentioned areas downtown westward to about 16th Street NW.
@Anonymous 12:58 pm – we tweeted today about 13th and L NW which is north of Eye Street. it was quite “lively” this morning. we also covered the opening of the Safeway at CityVista at 5th and L NW in the Mount Vernon Triangle because of the impact it had on those who live downtown. The Triangle does a great job of covering the Mount Vernon Triangle so we can endorse reading what is produced by our colleagues living there.
Super excited about the roof terrace being open again at this location – its one of the prettiest views in D.C.
I live nearby and am soooo looking forward to this. The W Hotels are great to stay in and offer a great neigborhood option for drinks/dinner.
W Hotels are about as much of a neighborhood option as was Signatures restaurant. By neighborhood, you must mean places that accept AMEX corporate accounts.
@ Anonymous 1:09 pm and 7:20 pm – You must have missed the half priced sushi Tuesdays. I mourned the loss of Signatures – my neighborhood Tuesday night sushi option in the early part of the decade. It was so good, I never even cared about eating in the regular restaurant.
MB-I’m with you. I can’t wait to see the new roof. I checked out their website and the pictures of the re-designed space look fantastic.
Went last night. You need to make reservations to go to the rooftop bar, even to stand. Mixed drinks are around $15, and IMHO the W stripped all of the classic elegance from the Hotel Washington and turned it into cheesy contemporary.
I went on opening night. I agree with the last post, there are no traces of the classic Hotel Washington, although for the most part, the new decor was very nice (except for the cheesy digital fake fireplace). The staff stood at the elevators with a guest list for access to the rooftop, which was ridiculous. It’s just going to be another stupid ultra-exclusive-for-no-reason space, which true Washingtonians won’t give a hoot about.
Mewonders why a blog invoking the name “Penn Quarter” does not use the boundaries set by the Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association.
I went on Saturday to meet some friends who were on the rooftop. When I arrived, one of the juiced up doormen wearing an ear piece and sunglasses (at night) told me I couldn’t meet my friends if I wasn’t on “the list.” After trying to reason with him for several minutes, I called my friends who came down from the roof and we all left. The crowd inside the lobby, or excuse me “the living room,” was trying very hard.
It is more like a hotel in Miami or NYC, no real room on the rooftop which is going to be their biggest draw. Why make it so exclusive? The best thing about being in DC is how accessible everything is. They will make far more money by allowing those of us that make under $200K and aren’t directly connected to the “who’s who” around town upstairs. We were turned away because we were not on the list. So we had a drink and laughed at the DJ. Not really necessary, but the music was good. It is a nice change of pace, but if you can’t get in, what is the point?
@pqresident – longtime reader here. I can remember back in 2007 when you wrote:
“The PQ lies in two zip codes only: 20001 and 20004. Not 20005. Anyone claiming otherwise is trying to fool you. Some (not all) realtors like to stretch the truth by fabricating neighborhoods. Who ever heard of Logan East? It’s Shaw. The diamond formed by Mass Ave, New York Ave, Penn Ave, 3rd Street and 10th Street is the broadest definition of the Penn Quarter. Wikipedia stretches it out to 15th Street but we think that includes Downtown.”
I also point to a post written on Oct 30 2007 which provided a link to a map of the DNA. Back in the day, this blog, while sometimes mentioning things outside the DNA generally used the DNA as that basis for a geographical limit to the PQ.
I must have missed the post where we expanded from the DNA to the BID. Not that I’m complaining – just trying to keep my neighborhoods straight.
And as I look up at the top I see written “Your downtown Washington DC & Penn Quarter news dose” – so I guess I really did miss an expansion or something along the way.
To quote that great American Emily Litella – “Nevermind.”
Penn Quarter was a name made up to represent the section in Downtown bounded by Pennsylvania Avenue, 9th Street, F Street and 5th Street. The new W Hotel, formerly the Hotel Washington, is in Downtown Washington, but NOT in the Penn Quarter section!
PQ Living did check out all the spaces in the new W/Washington Hotel last night. the native Washingtonian in us came away with mixed feelings. some, but not all, of the spaces do a good job of blending the old hotel with new style and renovation.
we talked to a few of the staff and security folks. management is trying to strike the right balance between accommodating hotel guests, those with reservations and thsoe walking in. undoubtedly, the ratios will change as the initial buzz dies down. opening weekend was very crowded, we were told.
although not a big fan of mixed drinks, they do make excellent non-alcoholic and alcoholic cocktails alike and have wisely included a half-bottle wine list in the Wine Bar which was the coziest venue on the premises. we think the Wine Bar is the real sleeper hit (we didn’t see any photos of it on the W Hotel website but it’s below the J&G Steakhouse).
more will follow in another post once we do a repeat visit to settle our opinions.
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does this mean that the “next version of PQ Living” is also going to be expanding the boundaries of what is the PQ? I was under the impression that you all considered the western boundary at 13th St.