Yeni Wong is an enthusiastic Washingtonian with gumption. She has lived in Washington for thirty-plus years—and something she has learned in all that time is that this is one great city to visit.
I recently had the opportunity to talk to Yeni about this great city and reveled in the chance to traverse the District to rediscover old favorites as seen through the eyes of a Washingtonian and dig up treasures I never even knew existed.
“Designed by an idealistic Frenchman, constructed upon dredged marshland, named for a fledgling nation’s founding father, and established as the seat of the US government, Washington, DC, is a fitting Main Street for an upstart nation,” Yeni said. “Today’s Washington is a capital of interconnected neighborhoods and identities, a quixotic place of grand boulevards and marbled monuments seaming into age-worn cobblestone streets and gossiping-on-the-front-stoop neighborliness. At the heart of this so-called ‘capital of the free world’ is a small town far more romantic than most politicians would admit.”
“Washington,” said Yeni, “is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.”
The first time you set eyes on the city, you get what she meant. Everywhere you look, there’s a sublimely distressed architectural landmark crawling with monuments, memorials, museums, galleries, charming row houses, and grand federal buildings. Capitol Hill is dotted with restaurants and nightspots. It’s almost too much, and that’s before you get to the National Mall.
“First-time visitors to Washington, DC, are often surprised to learn that it isn’t the dysfunctional city they’ve read about in the news,” Yeni said. “Here is the Potomac River, gleaming as it curves past marble memorials. There is the National Mall, majestic with its museums. And then there are the neighborhoods—Capitol Hill, Dupont Circle, Georgetown, and so forth—abuzz with restaurants, bars, and boutiques. The District of Columbia, the nation’s capital, has more than enough to fill a weekender’s itinerary.”
“There are lots of people who claim to be a Washingtonian, but only some people are,” she said.
Here’s Yeni’s itinerary for three perfect days in one of the world’s most vibrant capital cities:
Day 1. The first thing that strikes you when you approach Washington, DC, is the Capitol building. So start your day off with breakfast on Capitol Hill. Hop on the Metro and head for Eastern Market, DC’s oldest and continuously operated fresh-food market. Market Lunch here is famous for its blueberry-buckwheat pancakes, which are best enjoyed at the busy counter or outside at a picnic table. A few blocks away, no-frills Pete’s Diner—a favorite among members of Congress and their staffers—offers visitors an authentic taste of “the Hill.”
Most tourists are drawn to the city’s spectacular array of admission-free Smithsonian museums, but the US Botanic Garden is an overlooked pleasure in the shadows of the Capitol. Created by Congress as an instructional garden, this is an oasis of roses; medicinal plants; native, exotic, and endangered flowers; orchids; shoots and seeds; ferns and the occasional carnivorous plant; and more. You could while away an hour in the National Garden alone, with its butterfly garden and the First Ladies wWater gGarden, which explores the history of White House residents and their gardening interests. Also on the grounds is the lovely Bartholdi Park, where visitors can pick up horticulture tips. No gift shop, no restaurant. Just flowers and more flowers.
By 4:30 p.m., locals are lined up for the first seating at Rose’s Luxury, a cultish little Barracks Row spot that has a distinct Charleston vibe. Head upstairs to the bar for a cocktail served in gorgeous mismatched barware. Try the rosewater cocktail, with a generous splash of rye. The fried oysters are among the best you’ll find in any city, and don’t miss the confit jerk chicken.
By evening, head north to bustling H Street, where gentrification has been slow but steady, to begin the rest of your evening. Start at the Chinatown Garden, where tables fill quickly, and reservations are recommended. Residents know to sidle up to the bar for a bourbon and innovative Chinese cooking, including shrimp and scallops in bird’s nest; shredded crispy beef, Szechuan style; or sizzling beef with black pepper sauce. The bartender can be a little cranky at first; engage him on the wine list and chicken- and- pineapple kabobs, and he’ll be your best friend.
By ten o’clock at night, you can sample fun bars and good pie, thanks to revitalization. Start at the Biergarten Haus—try a König hefeweizen—and then head to the H Street Country Club, a multilevel space with table games and an elaborate miniature -golf course with Washington-themed holes, like one with a replica of the Washington Monument. Round it out at the Pug, a local bar that smells vaguely of a high school party and also the place where diners wait for a seat at the wildly popular Toki Underground restaurant upstairs, which annoyingly doesn’t take reservations but does serve sublime Taiwanese food.
Day 2. A family-owned, decades-old dive bar extraordinaire, where Capitol Hill’s older and working-class residents pull on Budweisers and scarf down burgers at night, the Tune Inn is also a decent place to start the morning. The coffee is meh—a problem throughout much of the city—but the French toast tastes of nutmeg, theIrish omelet with grits is legitimate, and the service is professional. Expect to pay about ten dollars for breakfast. If you were hoping to spot House Speaker Paul Ryan, hit Pete’s Diner a few blocks away.
Allow about an hour for the Supreme Court. You can tour the small exhibit downstairs, even check out a video on the history of the court. But first, head upstairs to reserve your spot for a lecture inside the courtroom. The lecture lasts approximately half an hour. Then head next door to the national library of the United States, in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. See a Gutenberg Bible, as well as the main reading room (jaw-dropping), and the Great Hall. If you have extra time, check out some of the exhibits as well as the Thomas Jefferson book collection (yes, they’re his original books from his home library!). There is no cost to visit either of these buildings.
One of the city’s greatest troves of stories, artwork, history, and architecture, the Library of Congress, which began as Thomas Jefferson’s personal library, is often skipped over, although there is much to see here. While it is best known for its ornate, main reading room, the library offers a number of exhibits on Civil War history, music, cartography, poetry, and the like.
After the hustle and bustle of the Mall’s Smithsonian museums, like the National Air and Space Museum and the National Gallery of Art, the Folger is a quiet, hidden respite. A “bardophile” paradise, the reading rooms of this library are open only to scholars, although Saturday tours are available; sign up in advance. Open to all at no cost is the world’s largest collection of objects related to Shakespeare and his world, including paintings, etchings, sculptures, books, and manuscripts. The Tudor-style theater, based on the Globe in London, has an intimate orchestra level and balcony tiers that look like they are straight from Shakespeare in Love. Plays run almost nightly.
Sometimes lost in the shadows of We, the Pizza, the competitor down the street run by the Top Chef star, Seventh Hill Pizza, serves up the real deal: crisp, charred, thin-crusted pizza. Try the Eastern Market with goat cheese, tapenade, and mushrooms or the Potomac Avenue with Felino salami and arugula, washed down with a little glass of Grenache or maybe a Purple Haze beer.
By afternoon, stretching from your walk down the National Mall, take a right on Fifteenth Street and head into the Ellipse (grassy park area) once you reach Constitution Avenue. Cross the park and head toward the South Lawn of the White House. This is the most famous and impressive view of the White House. Then, head around to the North Lawn for a much closer view by way of Fifteenth Street, taking a left at Pennsylvania Avenue. Head across the street from the White House for a stroll in Lafayette Park. Then head east to the corner of Fifteenth and Pennsylvania for a quick forty-minute visit to the White House Visitor Center, which offers an insightful and concise history of the building. There is no cost to enter the center.
After sunset, the Kennedy Center is the classic, grown-up place to spend a night on the town. Something that’s fun to do here, and not too expensive, is Shear Madness, a play set in a unisex beauty salon in Washington that involves audience participation. Or hop aboard an Old Town Trolley, leaving from Union Station, for a moonlit tour of the monuments. The guides share all kinds of fascinating trivia, and the memorials are especially moving at night.
Day 3. The indoor Eastern Market has some competition from the more upscale Union Market, but the food purveyors and artisans make this a draw for visitors and locals, who crowd the counter space at Market Lunch for blueberry pancakes or a crab-cake sandwich, the most vernacular of Washington fare. Then check out the market’s wares, including woven bracelets or giraffes made out of aluminum cans. If there is time, zip over to the adorable Hill’s Kitchen, which occupies an 1884 town house, to fill your suitcase with some crazy, colorful kitchenware.
After lunch, end your visit at the Arlington National Cemetery and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Arlington Cemetery serves as a burial ground for Americans who have served or given their lives in armed conflict. While here, you’ll want to visit the graves of Robert Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, whose eternal flame burns continuously. Also visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, honoring those who have died in combat but whose remains are left unidentified. The cemetery is located across the Memorial Bridge on the Virginia side of the Potomac River. You can get there by taking the Metro along the Blue Line.
Finally, I highly recommend visiting the monuments by night for three reasons:
- They are less crowded at night.
- The monuments stay open late, even all night; the museums and other attractions do not.
- They are gorgeous at night. There are 155 total monuments in Washington, DC, so you won’t be able to cover them all.
There are 155 total monuments in Washington, DC, so you won’t be able to cover them all.