Inside the historic Willard InterContinental Washington, just a few steps from the Whitehouse sits the iconic Round Robin Bar, a small circular bar that has quietly witnessed nearly two centuries of American political history.
The bar dates back to 1847 when the Willard Hotel became one of Washington’s great gathering places for politicians, military officers, journalists and writers.
The Round Robin earned a reputation as the “Oval Office of Bars” because senators, diplomats and power brokers often gathered there after hours to negotiate, gossip and occasionally settled disputes over whiskey.
One of the bars most enduring legends involves Kentucky senator Henry Clay, known as “The Great Compromiser”. According to hotel tradition, Clay introduced the Mint Julep to Washington at the Round Robin during the 1830’s, bringing barrels of Kentucky bourbon with him from home. The drink became so associated with the bar that it remains a hotel’s signature cocktail today.
Over the last 179 years, the bar attracted an extraordinary guest list. Abraham Lincoln stayed at the Willard before his inauguration. In 1861, while assassination threats circulated through Washington. Writers like Mark Twain and Walt Whitman frequented the hotel and presidents from Ulysses S Grant onward were known to pass through its lobby and bar rooms.
The Willard itself became so central to Washington politics that many historians believe the term “lobbyist” gained popularity there in the late 1800’s because advocates and deal makers waited in the hotel lobby, hoping to catch legislators and presidents.
In modern times much of the Round Robin’s living history has been preserved by longtime bartender Jim Hewes, who began working there after the hotel reopened in 1986. Hewes became famous not only for serving classic cocktails, but for acting as an unofficial historian of Washington drinking culture. He often told guests that Henry Clay used mint julips as social lubricants for political compromise, proof that bourbon diplomacy existed long before cable news.
Today, the Round Robin still looks like much as it did generations ago, polished mahogany, portraits of famous patrons, leather chairs and the distinctive circular bar at its center.
Tourists arrive for history, political insiders still arrive for quiet conversations away from cameras.
In a city where buildings constantly change the old bar remains one of the few places where Washington’s past still feels close enough to order another drink.
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