Willard InterContinental

The Willard is the capital’s most elegant and old-fashioned hotel, and it’s still the unofficial center of Washington. Every president since the middle of the 19th century has been a guest, along with countless foreign diplomats and heads of state, and all manner of American legislators, lobbyists and assorted bigwigs have curried favor and struck deals with one another in this grand old hotel’s lounges and executive suites.

A recent renovation has tightened up some of the fraying edges of this place, but done nothing to change its essential character — that peculiarly Washingtonian blend of neoclassical austerity lightened by slightly frilly French and English influences. Guest rooms are loaded with reproduction furniture and rich fabrics, including custom-made wool carpets and ornate window treatments. The best rooms look out onto Pennsylvania Avenue with views of the Capitol.

Politics is at bottom a business like any other, and the Willard’s business facilities are world-class, with plenty of meeting space, a capable business desk, wireless internet in the public spaces and ethernet connections in the guest rooms. The location is absolutely central, two blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue and it’s a short walk to the monuments and museums of the National Mall.

More informal business is transacted in the Willard Room restaurant and the Round Robin bar — the former serving New American and New French cuisine in a stunningly opulent dining room, and the latter the kind of classic clubby bar where deals are made over cocktails and cigars. Legend holds that the mint julep, hitherto a simple country cocktail, was introduced to Washington high society from behind this very bar.