Being Destination Event Planners, we get to visit many places! This time, a corporate event in DC provided us with an opportunity to visit the nation’s capital and explore an area that had previously been fairly undeveloped.
Our hotel location for this visit was the Intercontinental on the Wharf in D.C. Which overlooks the Washington Channel, directly off of the Potomac River. The Wharf is a vibrant area, filled with restaurants as well as a few shops. It is home to the Capital Yacht Club – where a myriad of yachts, large and small are housed. The weather was quite perfect while we were there and the location was accessible to many parts of town. All in all, I was quite happy with our accommodations. Waking up with the ability to walk outside and immediately gaze upon the water was really quite lovely – and they do a great job maintaining the area. It is very clean, well kept, and the overall design of the space both architecturally as well as from a landscaping perspective is perfect.
We dined at a few different spots. Because the Wharf area is a bit touristy, it was pretty expensive there. All the restaurants in that area were pricey and appeared to be smaller chain restaurants. The Blue Bottle coffee was a welcomed pick me up in the morning. Other spots we visited included Hank’s Oyster Bar, where we had a few seafood items like oysters, clams, and lobster deviled eggs. The oysters were great – nice and cold and tasty; but the space is not very inviting and it smelled like a dirty dish towel. In addition to that, the staff was less than helpful. Overall, our experience was unappealing.
Next we stopped at Lupo Marino for some late night pizza and a glass of wine. This was a much better experience, and our bartender was friendly and cordial. We didn’t feel like an inconvenience which we always appreciate.
The following morning, it was time to go to work at DC United Audi Stadium. What a great stadium. The entire staff was fun and a pleasure to work with. Our assignment was to engage with students interested in STEM educational activities. Our client, Group1001 asked us to assist with booth set up and management. Group1001 are huge supporters of STEM. Particularly as it relates to athletics – from soccer to car racing; another passion of the Group1001 organization. As such, our STEM activation includes a VR experience that features Indy race car phenom Zach Veach. The kids at the event absolutely loved the VR – it was a fun day for everyone and we hardly call this kind of event work! We also found a spot to sneak away for some wings and other Asian fare. What a welcome surprise. Just a few blocks away we found this tasty treasure. By the way, if you’re wondering how we find so many great restaurants – it’s simple, I do one of two things – either I check Eater.com or I google best restaurants near me; or both.
On our final full day, I got up early and went for a walk along the water. It was gorgeous outside – I found a comfy chair overlooking the water and watched planes take off and land at Ronald Reagan airport, which is a stones throw away. Later that day, we played tourist a bit. The Wharf is also home to a number of seafood vendors who all sling a variety of seafood including crabs, of course. So we bought ourselves an ungodly amount of crab and seafood to eat but quickly learned there aren’t really places to eat the food at the Wharf. We ended up having to bring everything to our room and we never did find the tools needed to eat the crab so we had to improvise with knives and a cork screw that doubled as a crab ‘cracker’. That was a downer – it would be nice for the Wharf area to have something set up for consumption on the water.
On our final night, we met up with wedding clients who we worked with in Sonoma in 2017. We had reservations at Tail Up Goat – a Michelin restaurant near Adams Morgan. This was my first Michelin restaurant that I’ve ever dined at and I loved it. Our waitress was lovely, the service was impeccable; their cocktail program is on point, and every single item we ate was spectacular. After dinner, we headed over to Jack Rose where they have one of the largest selection of whisky in the country. Yet again – it was well worth the visit. The joint was jumpin’ and these folks know their whisky’s.
So that was our quick trip to DC. One of the many reasons that we love being destination event planners is that we get to explore this beautiful world that we live in! We will be back again and we will definitely stay at the Intercontinental.