Eaton DC - Washington, D.C.

Opened in September, 2018, Eaton DC is a hotel on the southeast end of the downtown area of Washington DC, and was recognized with one Michelin key in 2024. Situated just a few blocks from the White House, the hotel is located in a building that was formerly a bus terminal and at one time a printing press. Nowadays, Eaton serves as a hub, both physically and ideologically, for community, creativity, and culture.

The hotel itself is situated in a relatively convenient location for travelers coming here to enjoy the more popular aspects of Washington DC. As mentioned, the White House is blocks away, as is the subway, which can get you around town (and to Reagan Airport) with relative ease. As a side note, the DC subway, at least the line which stops near Eaton, was surprisingly clean and free of the issues that plague public transit in other places. But I digress, the hotel’s location is not bad if you are here to see anything around the Mall, although it might be quite a walk if kids are in the picture.

Apart from the location, other positives were the amenities offered by the hotel, which appear relatively adequate per the website, although we did not partake in much; more on that later. The rooms themselves, although not my personal taste, maintained a bohemian aesthetic that had a lot more flavor than your typical hotel decor. In some ways though, it was fashion over function, as I couldn’t for the life of me figure out some of the light switches, not to mention the in-line rocker switch for the chandelier that couldn’t be accessed without climbing around the table and scooting a heavy bench away from the wall. The bathroom looked neat though.

The way we ended up here was based on relatively high ratings across several sites, and an opportunity for added perks when we booked through one of our credit cards. Seeing that Eaton had a Michelin key sold us over other hotels in the same area that were in a similar price range. After having stayed at hotels of this (alleged) caliber, including other Michelin key-holders, we thought we had a good idea of the comfort and service that awaited us.

We didn’t.

For those who are used to conventional higher-end hotels and luxury hospitality, you should temper your expectations. This place is all about spreading their social justice programming (a rather Orwellian term, used profusely throughout their website) and all that goes with it, and then serving as a hotel. Nowhere to be seen was any sharp, buttoned-up, at-your-service, um, service. Instead, it felt a little like walking through the art department at the local college (minus the smell of pot in the air). Basically anything of traditional Western value is checked at the door to make room for every historically marginalized community, with special attention to blacks, indigenous people, and the alphabet-soup-plus community, all in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion. If that is your jam, however, Eaton DC should be at the top of your list, right after your land acknowledgement.

I suppose the first indicator that things were, let’s say, of a “different” standard than what the high ratings suggested, was something we noticed when we first arrived. Uber dropped us off in front of the “a” Hotel, at least according to the 80% burned-out sign on the front. Just a minor flaw though, so we shuffled our luggage into the lobby, unassisted, and over to the front desk. Behind the front desk stood a shelf, adorned with a pride flag, which was full of minerals, presumably to ward off bad vibes and any socially conservative notions that may have accidentally drifted in. After a moment, a concierge appeared and proceeded to greet us and look up our reservation. His demeanor was kind and pleasant, although I got the impression as if we had just woken him up, like he was mentally shifting gears from something totally unrelated to hotel-concierging. Within a short moment though, we had our keys as well as several vouchers for the adjoining cafe, Baker’s Daughter, which would be our solution for breakfast while we were here. After that, we headed for the elevators and up to our room.

Once we got off the elevator and past the propaganda on the walls, we checked out the room. As I mentioned before, there was some thought put into the bohemian decor, not to mention the “programming” in the selection of books and vinyl available for our enjoyment. Aside from the miss on some functional aspects of the space and the not-so-plush bed, the room was comfortable and we were able to get settled in and managed to get some rest. One thing I had noticed on the way through the hallway though, was that each door had a spotlight shining on it, but the lights were different hues, some warm, some cool. To me, this seemed like an oversight and looked quite sloppy, especially for what should have been, by most accounts, a nice hotel. Again, not a major issue, but careless and unfortunately par for the course.

The rest of our stay there was relatively uneventful, as we were out sightseeing most of the time. One thing we were interested in discovering at the hotel though, was Allegory, the hotel’s “concept” cocktail bar. We had a property credit, and we figured it would be put to good use for a nightcap after a long day out around the DC area. To our surprise though, there was some sort of function going on that night, which had taken over the whole floor where the bar was. It did not seem to be a one-off event though, more of a weekly thing if I had to guess. Regardless, it was a regular loud party, which was the opposite of the intimate cocktail lounge that we had hoped to find, so that plan went out the window. The breakfasts at Baker’s Daughter were OK, but on our last day, we did witness an attempted shoplifting, which was thankfully thwarted by someone whose keen eye noticed what was going on and stood up to it.

Suffice to say, we will stay elsewhere the next time we’re in DC. On a positive note, the rooms were clean and got the job done as a place to sleep each night, but beyond that, the experience was not for either of us. All things considered, I’m surprised at how this property received a Michelin key, but then again, like their stars, the scoring is somewhat a mystery. Regardless, there is better value elsewhere in DC, Michelin key or not, so if you have a choice, choose accordingly.

Reference:

Eaton. (n.d.). Eaton workshop. https://www.eatonworkshop.com/en-us/