On Tuesday, the place seemed eerily empty. You could book a room for next weekend for less than $400. A week ago, the minimum rate was twice that.
I asked a waiter if the place was busy. “Not yet,” he replied. “But it’s going to be crazy if he wins. I mean, it’s going to be crazy no matter what. We are going to have, like, a thousand holiday parties booked in this place,” he said, sounding a bit like the nominee.
Are all the good holiday party dates taken? “Not yet,” he said.
The restaurant is BLT Prime by David Burke, a second choice because the Washington restaurateur José Andrés backed out of his agreement to open a Spanish-Japanese eatery after Mr. Trump’s immigrant-bashing campaign kickoff speech. At lunchtime on a recent weekday, 17 people were eating in a space that seats 120. Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post’s restaurant critic, titled his review “Gilded Touches on Yet Another Steakhouse.”
Ms. Trump swept up the steps into the restaurant. Half the diners stood up. They weren’t customers, somebody in the entourage said, but employees.
I paid my bill and walked back to the office. There was an email from the Hillary Clinton forces, lambasting Mr. Trump for using a campaign ad to promote his new hotel. In the ad, Mr. Trump posed with smiling employees, including those I saw eating in the restaurant. There were no hotel patrons in the ad, either.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/o...side-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=0
I asked a waiter if the place was busy. “Not yet,” he replied. “But it’s going to be crazy if he wins. I mean, it’s going to be crazy no matter what. We are going to have, like, a thousand holiday parties booked in this place,” he said, sounding a bit like the nominee.
Are all the good holiday party dates taken? “Not yet,” he said.
The restaurant is BLT Prime by David Burke, a second choice because the Washington restaurateur José Andrés backed out of his agreement to open a Spanish-Japanese eatery after Mr. Trump’s immigrant-bashing campaign kickoff speech. At lunchtime on a recent weekday, 17 people were eating in a space that seats 120. Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post’s restaurant critic, titled his review “Gilded Touches on Yet Another Steakhouse.”
Ms. Trump swept up the steps into the restaurant. Half the diners stood up. They weren’t customers, somebody in the entourage said, but employees.
I paid my bill and walked back to the office. There was an email from the Hillary Clinton forces, lambasting Mr. Trump for using a campaign ad to promote his new hotel. In the ad, Mr. Trump posed with smiling employees, including those I saw eating in the restaurant. There were no hotel patrons in the ad, either.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/24/o...side-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region&_r=0
