Round Robin Bar

This is the place where, it’s said, the term "lobbying" was first coined. Those wanting a quiet word in President Grant’s ear used to hang around in the lobby of the Willard InterContinental Hotel hoping perhaps to stand the president or one of his advisors a drink in the Round Robin Bar. The lobbyists may have moved on but you’ll find that the bar is still reminiscent of an old-fashioned gentlemen’s club. Take a seat in the dark green, round space and see how many of the portraits of previous guests you can recognize: Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne and President Abraham Lincoln, who lived at the hotel for two weeks before his inauguration, are among the distinguished subjects.