Old Ebbitt Grill

Though the Old Ebbitt Grill just opened in its current iteration in 1983, it’s been a Washington, D.C. institution since 1856 when innkeeper William Ebbitt opened his boarding house. Here presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Ulysses S. Grant bellied up to the bar, and—among tourists and locals alike—it remains a D.C. favorite. Grab a seat at the grand wooden bar, order a raw seafood tower, sip on a Gin Rickey and soak up the history.