The Hamilton Gets a Big Ribbon-Cutting

A big, new restaurant requires a big ribbon cutting. The Hamilton got one with Mayor Vincent Gray and D.C council members and Clyde’s corporate officers Jan. 9. Flanked by D.C. Council chair Kwame Brown and Ward 2 council member Jack Evans, Mayor Gray held the big scissors at the center of the downstairs live music stage.

The Hamilton, Clyde’s Restaurant Group’s new 37,000-square-foot restaurant at 14th and F Streets, is making the scene in no small way. It is as big in space and in time as the ambition of the first Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, whose federal department is but a block away with the White House nearby.

The same goes for the food and the music. Under the care of executive Brian Stickel, the menu is an expansive mix: steaks, seafood, salads, munchies, muffulettas and burgers, too. It changes for the time of day, there is a breakfast, brunch and lunch menu and more. There is an Eggs Hamilton on the late night menu. It will be the first Clyde’s joint (the original opened 1963 in Georgetown) ever to serve sushi. And, as in 24/7, the Hamilton which opened Dec. 18 never closes?

In keeping with the restaurant designers of Clyde’s, the artwork is custom, the woodwork perfection and the look and details contemporary but classic. Check out the Lady Liberty hanging lamps. The Hamilton is in the old Borders space, where before that was the flagship of Garfinkel’s department store. It is the 15th Clyde’s restaurant; Old Ebbitt Grill, owned by the group, is one block away on 15th Street.

A lot of patrons can show up: first floor restaurant areas, 400 seats; upstair Loft private dining room, 80 seated/100 standing; live music seating, 260 seats, 100 bar stools. Downstairs, the sound-proofed, high-tech music space has its own menu for “quiet food,” such as sliders, pizza or sushi.