The Lobby

The Lobby at 1660 33rd Street NW is on the residential 33rd Street Georgetown block that runs between M Street and the Volta Park area, in the section of the neighborhood that has a residential character distinct from the commercial corridors below. The name references the lobby as the gathering space within a larger building, which in the neighborhood restaurant context suggests the role the establishment plays for the surrounding residential community: the local gathering place where the neighborhood collects for a drink and a meal.

The neighborhood restaurant format at The Lobby serves the Georgetown resident who wants the accessible dinner out without the journey to the M Street or Wisconsin Avenue commercial districts, providing the local alternative in the quieter residential setting that the 33rd Street address occupies. The 33rd Street block is in the residential Georgetown neighborhood above M Street, in the section between the Georgetown University campus to the west and the residential streets that run toward Dumbarton Oaks to the east.

The American food and bar program that The Lobby serves covers the neighborhood restaurant categories: the comfort food entrees, the bar snacks and shared appetizers, and the cocktail and beer selection that converts the neighborhood restaurant into a neighborhood bar for the customer who comes for the drink rather than the meal. The distinction between the two functions is less relevant at a neighborhood gathering place than at a destination restaurant, where the food is the primary draw.

The residential setting on 33rd Street gives The Lobby a more relaxed character than the commercial-street restaurants nearby, which is appropriate to the neighborhood restaurant function: the local gathering place should feel like the neighborhood it serves.

Hours run from 4pm weekdays, noon on weekends, with late closing on Friday and Saturday. The Georgetown residential neighborhoods north of M Street, which include the blocks along 33rd Street, Volta Place, and the streets approaching Dumbarton Oaks, are populated primarily by long-term Georgetown residents, the diplomatic community, and the professional class that has lived in Georgetown long enough to develop the neighborhood routines that a restaurant like The Lobby serves. The neighborhood restaurant for this population is not a destination but a regular: the place where the owner recognizes the regular customer’s face and the drink order is anticipated. The 33rd Street address at 1660 is in the section between M Street and the residential blocks toward Dumbarton Oaks, giving the bar and restaurant the residential neighborhood setting that the format requires. The walk from the surrounding Georgetown houses to The Lobby is the kind of neighborhood convenience that the urban residential community values: the dinner out that is a ten-minute walk rather than a parking search. The casual American food program that The Lobby serves is calibrated for the neighborhood restaurant use: the comfort food entrees that the regular customer orders on the weeknight out, the cocktail and the bar selection that convert the restaurant visit into the neighborhood evening, and the weekend lunch service that the family and the couple use for the midday meal. Hours run from 4pm weekdays and noon on weekends.