Rooftop EATS at the Graham Hotel

Rooftop EATS at the Graham Hotel occupies the rooftop level of the Graham Georgetown boutique hotel at 1075 Thomas Jefferson Street NW, providing one of the few rooftop dining and drinking experiences in the Georgetown neighborhood. Georgetown’s Federal-period architecture and the height restrictions that govern the historic district generally limit rooftop commercial activity, which makes the Graham Hotel’s rooftop bar a relatively rare format in the neighborhood’s hospitality landscape.

The Thomas Jefferson Street address runs parallel to the C and O Canal below M Street, giving the hotel and the rooftop bar a position in the Georgetown canal-level neighborhood that is distinct from the M Street commercial district above. From the rooftop, the views include the C and O Canal area, the Georgetown residential neighborhood, and the Washington skyline in the distance, which provides the elevated perspective that the Georgetown streetscape typically does not allow.

The American food menu at Rooftop EATS serves the hotel guests and Georgetown visitors who use the rooftop for the elevated dining experience rather than the formal restaurant setting of the hotel’s ground-level options. The casual American format is appropriate to the rooftop setting, where the experience of being outdoors at the top of the building in the Georgetown canal neighborhood is itself the primary draw, with the food and the cocktails providing the accompaniment.

The cocktail program at the rooftop bar serves the evening drinking occasion that a rooftop setting generates: the aperitif before the Georgetown dinner, the post-dinner digestif with the canal view, and the full evening at the bar for the hotel guest who wants the Georgetown rooftop experience in the summer months.

Hours run from 4pm weekdays and noon on weekends, with late closing on Friday and Saturday. The Graham Georgetown hotel’s rooftop bar occupies a specific niche in Georgetown’s hospitality landscape: the elevated outdoor space in a neighborhood where the Federal-period architecture and the historic district regulations have generally limited the development of rooftop commercial space. The height of the Graham Hotel above the canal-level Thomas Jefferson Street allows the rooftop to see above the Georgetown streetscape that the pedestrian at street level cannot rise above. The hotel rooftop bar format serves two customer populations: the hotel guest who wants the Georgetown elevated experience without leaving the property, and the Georgetown local or visitor who seeks out the rooftop specifically for the views and the outdoor evening experience. Both populations are served by the combination of the cocktail program and the American food menu that makes the rooftop a complete dining and drinking destination rather than just a viewing platform. The Thomas Jefferson Street address runs parallel to the C and O Canal, which means the rooftop views at Rooftop EATS include the canal neighborhood below: the narrow canal, the Georgetown Waterfront Park at the canal’s terminus, and the residential Georgetown neighborhood that rises up the hill toward M Street. Hours run from 4pm weekdays and noon on weekends with late closing on Friday and Saturday.