The raw bar counter at Old Ebbitt Grill smells like the Atlantic, which is either a selling point or a dealbreaker depending on who you are. Fourteen types of oyster on a given night, shucked and arranged on ice with no particular fuss, and a bartender who will tell you exactly which ones came from where without making you feel like you asked a stupid question. This is, depending on your definition, either D.C.’s most tourist-friendly restaurant or its most reliable old-guard institution. Both readings are accurate, and neither one is a problem.
The restaurant occupies a large footprint just off 15th Street NW, a block from the White House, in a building that has housed some version of a saloon since 1856. The current location dates to 1983, which in Washington years makes it practically a relic. Dark wood, beveled glass, brass fixtures, hunting trophies mounted above the booths — it looks like a set, which makes some people suspicious. The instinct is understandable. But Old Ebbitt earns its atmosphere by simply continuing to exist and function well, night after night, for decades. That’s not nothing.
There are three reasons to actually go. The first is the oysters. Order a half-dozen of whatever the server recommends from the East Coast selections — something briny, something sweet, something in between — add a cup of New England clam chowder, and you have a better lunch than most of what’s available within walking distance of any federal building in this city. The second reason is the bar itself. It is long, well-staffed, and serves a reasonable martini without ceremony. If the dining room feels loud, the bar remains composed. Sit there after 10 p.m. on a weeknight and you will be surrounded by people who work in politics and are deliberately not talking about politics.
The third reason is the fish. The kitchen does a solid pan-seared salmon and a reliably good soft-shell crab when it’s in season. The menu is American in the most straightforward sense: steaks, burgers, chicken, salmon, nothing that requires a glossary. The Ebbitt burger — cheddar, lettuce, tomato, on a brioche bun — runs about sixteen dollars and is a more honest lunch option than the salads, which are adequate but not the point. If you want a twelve-dollar salad made of ingredients you recognize, this will do. If you want the burger and a beer and a half-hour to read something, this will do better.
Expect to pay somewhere between forty and eighty dollars for dinner with drinks, more if you go heavy on oysters, which you probably should. Brunch on weekends draws lines that wrap around the corner — go during the week or arrive before 11 on a Saturday if you need the eggs and want the atmosphere without the wait. The Oyster Bar Happy Hour runs weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. and again from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., with $1.50 oysters. This is the detail most people skip over, and it is probably the most useful thing in this article.
Old Ebbitt Grill does not need your endorsement, and it is not trying to impress anyone who has already made up their mind about places like it. But if you arrive without a grudge, order something cold from the water, and give the room thirty minutes to settle into itself, it is a perfectly fine place to be in a city that frequently makes that difficult.
