Washington, DC

Experiencing an exciting urban renaissance, the US capital is awash with ‘Wild West’ breweries and distilleries, as well as a wave of restaurants championing cuisines shaped by immigration

- By David Farley. Photographs by Scott Suchman and Alamy

“Richard Nixon actually created the Environmental Protection Agency,” said the suit-and-tie clad guy to his companion at the barstool next to me. He was right. But also, so very on-brand for where I was: about a block away from the White House at Old Ebbitt Grill, the oldest tavern in Washington, DC. I’d popped in for a late dinner of steak frites on my first evening in the US capital. Overhearing buttoned-up lobbyists and civil servants spout o‡ political minutiae is exactly what I’d imagined would happen at a wood-panelled, white-tableclothed restaurant where taxidermied heads of horned animals grace the walls. Here, locals knock back glasses of bourbon and talk about their favourite sport: politics.

This is the Washington, DC portrayed on TV shows and in films; a place of cigars, red meat, whiskey and backroom deals. Those things are still part of the fabric of this city of almost 700,000 — especially the backroom deals — but they belong to an artery hardening DC that’s fast being watered down. In the past decade or so, the former US crime capital has developed other tastes. A fresh generation of Washingtonians have created a blossoming city that’s better than ever, full of new breweries, distilleries and immigrant chefs shaking up the restaurant scene.