Washington Social Diary

DPC spinning his tales of Manhattan lore in an interview with Carol Joynt of Nathan's Georgetown for her luncheon guests yesterday in the nation's capital.

The New Jersey countryside as seen through the digital lens of JH as we zoomed down to Washington yesterday morning (leaving Penn Station at 8:10 a.m.) to visit Carol Joynt at her hot restaurant “Nathan’s” in Georgetown.

It was a toss between do we fly or Amtrak? Amtrak. The Acela, express stopping in Newark, Metropark, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore and then the nation’s capital. This photo articulates the trip perfectly. A “business class” seat for $168: includes ample legroom, wide and reclining seat; cellphone friendly, an outlet for your laptop and the beautiful Eastern seaboard countryside (every inch of it) out the window.

The Susquehanna. About 9:30 with the weather thinking about what kind of day it’s gonna be. Oh beautiful for spacious skies ...

Union Station, Washington, D.C. The Acela arrived on time at 10:50. I’d never seen the interior of this great monumental to rail travel. Built to last, obviously, its interior is very contemporary in its services and retail outlets.

You exit the great hall of the station and off in the distance is the Capitol Building. To this American, it encapsulates who we are and what we stand for. It also reminded me of a conversation that I had with a senator a couple of years ago (a Democrat incidentally) in which I asked why it was so easy for a big campaign contributors to get such handsome financial results paid for by our (my) taxpayer’s money, yet often so difficult for taxpayers to get the same generous results.

He was stumped and apologized for not being able to give me an adequate answer. I remain under the impression that this great building still belongs to US, the great American taxpayer/citizen, despite the current state of affairs.

Another view of Union Station on a beautiful Wednesday in Washington with the temperature in the mid-70s. “You’ve got to remember you’re in the South now,” someone reminded us.

On the taxi ride into Georgetown: Monuments, temples and tributes to the Founding Father’s spirit and vision of America. It is impossible not to be reminded of so many matters of American history when seeing these architectural creations.

The walls of the dining room of Nathan’s are decorated with wonderful photographs by David Kennerly who was the official photographer of the Gerald Ford Administration. On the left is that great moment when five our of our presidents were together, and on the right is the man who might have been, whose presence would have very possibly altered the composition of the photo on the left.

Carol Joynt, the proprietress of Nathan’s. Started by her late husband J. Howard Joynt III who opened the place in 1969, inspired by two of New York’s folkloric eateries (and watering holes), “21” and PJ Clarke’s. Elegant yet pub-like casual, and very welcoming. Zagats 2007 describes it thusly:

On Georgetown’s busiest corner, this “great local joint” with a “very Washington”, “old-school club” look attracts loyal locals who “always feel comfortable” either at its “great people-watching bar” or in its “cozy” back dining room; “reasonably priced” American fare and a “fabulous brunch” keep regulars returning, and even foodies who insist it’s “not for serious diners” find it “fun”; N.B. owner Carol Joynt interviews a ‘who’s who’ of news-making personalities at her popular ‘Q&A Cafe’ lunches. Howard Joynt died of pneumonia at age 57 in 1997. Carol, who had had a long and successful career in broadcast television news, took over the restaurant and to keep the memory of the man she’d met twenty years before.

Richard Nixon on the ivories. He was not versatile; usually it was a few bars of “The Blackhawk Waltz,” but his playing was earnest and determined, and winning.

Hillary in a moment we all experience (“aye-yi-yi” or something like that. To this eye it’s a rather sweet shot of a very attractive woman having an “eek” moment. There are others, I was told who won’t sit at the table. To which I can only say: didn’t your mother ever tell you? For shame.

The interview in process.

I like to talk. I’m a yakker. In public it takes me a few minutes to warm but but Carol is an excellent interviewer because she’s curious but kind, and of course always looking for a little nugget of gossip (like the rest of us). Discreet is a good word for all of us but the lowdown when it’s direct and sensible is always good for a moment’s distraction in this whirling dervish of a life we’re living at the beginning of the 21st century. Visit Nathansgeorgetown.com.

They were a wonderful audience, encouraging me with some laughter and apparently as interested as the interviewer. People is what we all want to hear about. The information is valuable even if just food for thought, as it may have been for this patron who was taking some notes. The whole interview was videotaped and will be online on Carol’s website in the next couple of days, along with the archive of her previous interviews.

Clockwise from top left: John Lange, Frida Burling, and Leslie Wheelock; Braun Jones, Carol Joynt, and Jim Kimsey (Good morning Nancy Bloomer!); Jeff Dufour (D.C. Examiner columnist); Debbie Casey and Katrina Piano.

Deb Jones, Linda Donovan, Mariella Trager, Alisa Kenworthy, Fran Kenworthy, and Nancy Taylor.

Walking along M Street reminded me of the Old City of Philadelphia and Lewisburg Square in Boston where we are still in the thrall of the ancients brought as up to date as the rest of us yet still rich in heritage.

The recent acquired residence of George Stephanopoulos and family. A mansion in Georgetown terms, considering of the size of the house and the meteoric career of its owner I could only think of Henry James or maybe John O’Hara; not Edith Wharton.

Moving right along on our tour with the literary inspiration of Mr. Stephanopoulos’s house, we came to the house where Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman resided and entertained the new President Clinton on the night of his inauguration. The house to the left was also owned by the Harrimans and used for offices and for guests who came to stay. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s foreign policy advisor resided there for a time. After Mrs. Harriman’s death, the house was sold with many of its contents.

This was the house which Jacqueline Kennedy moved into with her two small children after the assassination of her husband President John F. Kennedy.

Mrs. Kennedy only remained their for 10 months. The constant parade of sightseeing buses and curious (albeit sympathetic) citizens having a look just got to her and she moved to New York where she lived for the rest of her life. The house today is watched over by George Washington. He’s got his eye on you, Mr. and Mrs. America. Don’t forget what he stood for; he hasn’t.

The large (for Georgetown) and impressive residence of Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn. Built at the end of the 18th century, Robert Todd Lincoln, Abe and Mary Todd Lincoln’s most prosperous child once resided here.

You can see what a beautiful day it is. The red-haired man in the green tweed jacket standing with our hostess Carol Joynt, is Outerbridge Horsey. Mr. Horsey is one of the premier architects of contemporary Georgetown.

He is also a direct descendent of another Outerbridge Horsey, born 1777 who served in the US Senate, The Delaware House of Representatives as well as Attorney General of Delaware. Today’s Mr. Horsey is a friendly and charming man (we ran into him as he was heading home with a bag of groceries for his wife) who looks like an early American patriot dressed in late 20th century garb. The house in this series belongs to deborah gore dean, a popular Georgetown antiques dealer.

The Colonial as it is called was a private Girls Seminary at the outbreak of the Civil War. On the day of the Battle of Bull Run, (or Manassas) many Georgetown citizens went down to the riverside to view the battle, almost as if it were a romntic lark. It was at hot July 21, 1861 and the battle was brutal and bloody.

They brought the wounded and the dying up the hill to the Seminary which was immediately transformed into a hospital for the duration of the war. There are still neighbors who’ve claimed to have heard and been haunted by the ghostly screams and moans of the dying soldiers in the Colonial.

The residence of former New York investment banker and present rare book dealer Kinsey Marable (presumably no relation to Outerbridge Horsey but nonetheless of ancient American ancestry).

The mews that was once a lane of slave cottages in antebellum Georgetown and are now precious and very expensive pieces of residential real estate.

L. to r.: The home of William H. Dean, President and CEO of the M.C. Dean Electronics Intelligence Corporation; The home of Mr. and Mrs. Smith Bagley. Mr. Bagley is a Reynolds Tobacco heir as well as a prominent supporter and fundraiser for the Democrats.

A multi-tasking young Georgetown mother killing two birds with one stone, or one cellphone. It was a perfect summer-like afternoon and time for young mothers to exercise as well as get the little ones out into the fresh air as well as carry on the infinite cellular conversations that have overtaken the entire planet with Georgetown no exception.

The Georgetown resident of best-selling Washington reporter Bob Woodward. It is here, it is said, that Mr. Woodward writes all those best-sellers. Once you know the occupant of a house, it is impossible to not look at it with a different eye, for what is a house without its occupant. This is obviously the house of a very prosperous person. It also has a certain Victorian hauteur that appears to have been cared for meticulously (like the author’s style of “reporting”). The author’s most recent best-seller casts an additional, somewhat clouded image on the house. At least to these eyes. Again, like Mr. Stephanopoulos’ impressive domicile, a would-have-been candidate for James. Or O’Hara. Or James M. Cain.

Best-selling author Jane Stanton Hitchcock (“Social Crimes,” “One Dangerous Lady,” pictured here with her adored Coco-loco, in the sunroom (which overlooks the garden and the pool) of the Georgetown house she shares with her husband, political commentator William Hoagland.

Mrs. Hitchcock is one of the few American novelists today writing about the socio-political economics of the contemporary American upperclasses, or more precisely, moneyed classes. She has a very outgoing personality and loves “the story.” Her natural effusiveness belies a keen and unerring eye for the details that make up “the story.” The Hoagland/Hitchcock house is Victorian and during the 1920s it was occupied by Sinclair Lewis and Dorothy Thompson. Hitchcock even found a “SL loves DT” framed by a heart and written on a wall.

This contemporary looking house was, according to Outerbridge Horsey, was the cause of changes in the residential laws (wrong word, right idea) of Georgetown because when it was completed in 1948, the neighbors HATED it. It was so NOT Georgetown (as you’ve been witnessing it). So, IT will never happen again.

But aside from its lack of cultural/architectural credentials, it has historic prominence because of its original owner, Joe Alsop, the Roosevelt cousin/New England patrician/political pundit/Washington gadfly who entertained President John F. Kennedy in this house on the night of his inauguration as well as the “Camelot” crowd of his short but luminescent administration on many many occasions. Later Mr. Alsop married Susan Mary Patten, the widow of one of his best friends. Mr. Alsop was not exactly the Marrying Kind, if you catch my drift, but the alliance enhanced and extended the widow Patten’s social and political assets which were already refined and prominent.

Irene ("Ir-en-a") Danilovich whose husband Ambassador John Danilovich is the CEO of Millennium Challenge Corporation, in the garden of her Georgetown house built by the late Joe Alsop. The Danilovich's adoring their mistress.

The dining room, re-designed for the Daniloviches by Outerbridge Horsey, the man we’d met just minutes before on the street.

The library.

Right and below: The living room. It was in this room that the glory days of Camelot were celebrated for “one brief shining moment.” Jack Kennedy had been in the habit of visitng Joe Alsop’s for a late night drink and a cigar and a discussion of many things well garnished with wit and humor as well as the theatre of the moments of the powerful. And the hijinks.

The mirrors on either side of the sofa were in the house then, reflecting all that was going on. Imagine if they could talk.

The street from the Alsop/Danilovich house.

DPC and Jane Hitchcock playing “Can You Top This?” the roadside version of “And then I Wrote.”

Anticipating celebrating the autumn holidays and traditions.

After leaving Hitchcock and Danilovich, we walked Carol Joynt over to her house where JH photographed her staircase with the leopard-pattern runner inspired by CZ Guest – after her “Q&A Café” interview. Hides a multitude of sins and spillages not to mention the occasional dog accidents.

After leaving Carol Joynt, we walked several blocks up the hill to Dumbarton Oaks, the brick mansion built in 1800 that was acquired in the 1920s by Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss, a very wealthy diplomat and art collector. The Woodses commissioned Beatrice Farrand to design the gardens which three quarters of a century later remain fantastic. The estate was also the scene in the 1940s for the international conference out of which was created the United Nations. The property was bequeathed to Harvard University after Mrs. Woods’ death in 1969 in her 90th year.

After our brief tour of the spectacular grounds of Dumbarton Oaks, we walked back down to M Street and Carol Joynt’s Nathan’s restaurant which was just getting warmed up for the evening with the staff lining things up for the crowd that would enjoy its camaraderie. We hailed a cab for Union Station (with JH stopping to get a shot of the Old Stone House) which is the oldest building still standing in Georgetown, said to have belonged to a misogynist whose ghost allegedly till haunts the house. Later at Union Station, having got our tickets for the return to New York, we looked down on the food hall for ideas. A lot of us are way overweight.

We depart the great day on the Acela express to New York with warm autumn sun setting over Washington. A fascinating day, and a beautiful one too.

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© 2006 David Patrick Columbia & Jeffrey Hirsch/NewYorkSocialDiary.com