A Winter Holiday Hotel: The St. Gregory
By • December 23, 2024 0 434
This winter, making the gratifying transition from frosty outdoors to toasty indoors is guaranteed at the St. Gregory Hotel. The West End property’s top-to-bottom renovation in 2018 — by Philadelphia’s Boxwood Architects and New York’s Bill Rooney Studio — gave the lobby an eye-catching centerpiece: a contemporary gas fireplace from European Home.
That freestanding hearth, opposite the front desk, punctuates the smooth segue from the hotel’s 10,000-square-foot, multilevel lobby to its newly revamped restaurant, Ellington Park Bistro.
The St. Gregory Hotel. Photo by Richard Selden.
Lighting up the large windows to the left of the St. Gregory’s M Street entrance canopy, the elegant, high-ceilinged restaurant — which boasts emerald velvet booths, a semicircular marble bar and pottery displayed on tall shelving — is named for Edward Kennedy Ellington, the immortal “Duke.”
On the hotel’s 21st Street side, a greenhouse bay pops out next to a patio with striped umbrellas facing a vest pocket of urban forest: Ellington Park. The famed pianist, bandleader and composer was born nearby in 1899; the building on Ward Place, then called Ida Place, home of his maternal grandparents, no longer exists.
Fittingly, the St. Gregory’s namesake is the patron saint of musicians (singers and choirboys in particular). Pope from 590 to 604, he is also the patron saint of students and teachers, meaning the hotel’s location a few blocks from the George Washington University campus is appropriate as well as convenient.
On its corner at 2033 M St. NW — near where New Hampshire Avenue cuts through M and 21st Streets to form Ellington Park — the St. Gregory is handy not only to Foggy Bottom but to Dupont Circle and to Georgetown. It is an advantageous choice for Georgetowners needing to book housing for holiday guests, who will want to explore the District as well as spend time with their hosts.
Dining options just across Ellington Park include Planta Queen for vegan and Eat BRGZ for you-know-what. Also close by are branches of Tatte Bakery & Café and infamous pink Georgetown bagelry Call Your Mother, the latter on the southeast corner of 21st and M.
The St. Gregory Hotel. Photo by Richard Selden.
Surprisingly, the nine-story St. Gregory was built in 1965 as an office building. Its conversion to a 156-room hotel was completed in 2001. The current guestroom décor is pleasingly modern and minimalist — comfortable but with a hip, “boutique” touch.
The hotel is one of four D.C. properties that are part of the Philadelphia-based Independent Collection of hotels and resorts (“Stay Independent. Stay Inspired.”), the others being Capitol Hill Hotel, Hotel Madera near Dupont Circle and the Morrow Hotel in NoMa.
Looking for a spot to celebrate Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve on the town? Consider the St. Gregory’s Ellington Park Bistro, which is offering contemporary French prix-fixe dinners on those dates.
