Why the Lodge Washington is ditching the W brand name and embracing its history

Jonathan Swift is correct however all over again: Everything outdated is new again, this time at the Hotel Washington.

The historic resort, with the renowned rooftop patio that overlooks the White Home and the Washington Monument, was relaunched past thirty day period immediately after a ten years as the uber-hip W. It was trendy, it was loud, and it was a teensy little bit pretentious, if we’re remaining trustworthy. But, now, the unique identify is again, alongside with a renewed emphasis on the hotel’s 106-yr-previous tale — which consists of Ziegfeld Follies dancers, drunk Shriners, presidents, movie stars and Elvis.

“I like to say there are a lot of accommodations in D.C.,” claims typical manager Stephane Vogel, “but there’s only 1 Resort Washington.”

Which is a polite way of declaring: When you have been all around for additional than a century in the nation’s money — a town of tradition, electrical power and affect — you really don’t need to worry far too much about being hip. Primarily these times, when sustainability and authenticity are staying reembraced.

Truth of the matter is, this town is sometimes great but generally historic. Vogel arrived in Washington 23 yrs in the past amid the explosion of artsy, boutique accommodations — which, like lots of dining places, are white-scorching for a year or two, then vanish. In 2021, the W was marketed to the Schulte Hospitality Team, which straight away reclaimed the famous title. Vogel came onboard past 12 months, established to de-hip the lodge and spotlight its long background.

There is a delicate line between respecting the earlier and dwelling in it — most inns are not literal museums. The trick is attaining some thing that looks timeless without having feeling compelled, an aesthetic that several of the grand outdated European accommodations have mastered.

The Beaux-Arts constructing, opened on May 22, 1917, sits a single block from the White Dwelling — earning it the simple preference for anyone viewing the president. VIP attendees have provided Duke Ellington, John Wayne, Will Rogers and Tom Cruise. The cast of the

Read More... Read More

Nina Furstenau’s food writing heightens senses of history, connection

Astute epicures might sit at a table, lift a fork or spoon to their mouths and trace each ingredient in a given dish. 

Place a plate before Nina Mukerjee Furstenau, and she starts tracing lines on a map. She connects dots between people, and across eras. And flashes of memory whisk her back in time, into kitchens where people have not only shared recipes with her but offered their stories.

“I can’t help myself,” Furstenau said. “When I look down, I’m seeing history. I’m seeing food identity, and who feels what foods represent their culture. It just deepens the experience for me.”

Furstenau applies this perceptive palate in her latest book, “Green Chili and Other Impostors,” available via University of Iowa Press next week. Within its pages, the Columbia-based food journalist deepens, then extends, understanding of cuisine as culture by visiting distinct Bengali communities in Kolkata and around India.

More:Meet Columbia artist Khia Thompson, who sounds out a fresh voice at Orr Street Studios

A journey from ‘Heartland’ to heritage

Nina Furstenau

Furstenau’s previous book, 2013’s “Biting through the Skin: An Indian Kitchen in America’s Heartland,” won the M.F.K. Fisher Grand Prize for Excellence in Culinary Writing for its soulful look at her childhood as a first-generation immigrant in Pittsburg, Kansas. In Furstenau’s work, the line separating food writing and lyrical biography is quite thin; our living and coming alive is bound up with food and the people who make it, a truth the writer underlines so well.

After the success of “Biting Through the Skin,” Furstenau longed to travel back a generation, to India and the deeper roots of her own relationship with family and food. A Fulbright scholarship propelled her to India for nine months before the pandemic.

In that time and place, absent an American lens, her already-rich vision of the world expanded. 

“Looking at history when you’re standing in Asia is a little different — at least it was for me,” Furstenau said. 

She crossed India’s threshold with an aim fixed in her mind — studying the “heritage foods of Bengal.” As the region opened

Read More... Read More