The Park Hyatt of Washington, D.C. Redux
and Redux and Redux ...

FrommerLuxuryTravel
	by Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer

How little we imagined when we checked into the Washington, D.C. Park Hyatt for a weekend more than three years ago, what a special connection we’d develop to the place. It was Groundhog Day; the critter did not see his shadow, and the mood in the nation’s capitol was upbeat. George W. Bush had been sworn in as the country’s 43rd president a few weeks before, and the festive aura of the inauguration still lingered. Even though the calendar said February, yellow pansies were blooming out on the lawn, and the entire neighborhood – the section of northwest DC across Rock Creek from Georgetown -- had the feel of an area on the march.  It has decidedly arrived since then, the last undeveloped plot diagonally across from the hotel, a parking lot during our first visit, was well on its way to becoming a luxury rental at the time of our most recent stay: Memorial Day weekend, 2004.

There turned out to be many stays between Groundhog Day 2001 and Memorial Day 2004, our returns prompted by a range of reasons most of them having to do with the fact that our two sons live in the area.  It was during that first weekend that we met the lovely young women they since have married. Introductions took place in one of the splendid hotel suites that typify the Park Hyatt; we enjoyed our first dinner as a sextet in the incomparable Melrose Room where we discovered the cuisine of Brian McBride whose crab cakes are touted among the cognoscenti as Washington’s best.

When it came time for us to host the pre-nuptial dinner for each of our sons and their fiancées, we were in the fortunate position, rare for out-of-towners, of knowing at once where to stage the event. The first wedding, a little over a year ago, was a large affair with guests from all across the country. Our party was held in the beautiful Windsor Park Room just off the lobby where the crowd of 75 enjoyed cocktails and passed hors d’oeuvres (our friends still remember the miniature blini with Seruga caviar) followed by an elegant sit-down dinner. Entertainment came in the form of our favorite American standards sung by a popular Washington singer who accompanied herself on the piano. Many of the guests were staying at the Park Hyatt for the entire weekend and joined us in our suite afterwards where the party continued into the wee small hours.

As the second wedding was a smaller, more intimate affair, we held the pre-nuptial dinner for both immediate families in the Melrose Room proper, its gallant and attentive manager Anil Pareek arranging for our group to be seated in an alcove that was part of and at the same time apart from the rest of the restaurant.

It was a rare late May night for Washington – clear skies, cool temperatures and low humidity which Anil suggested we take advantage of by having the cocktail hour out on the landscaped patio with splashing fountain fronting the Melrose Room. It was fortunately also a Saturday night when live music is part of the Melrose scene. And as far as the bride and groom were concerned, the combo was playing just for them.

We were able to create a dinner menu from the standard offerings, selecting three options for each course. Of course one of the entrée choices had to be the aforementioned crab cakes, another was a creative vegetarian option: roasted, stuffed Vidalia onion (for both our sons and one of our daughters-in-law), and yet another tender, succulent filet mignon.

There are many reasons we hope to return to the Park Hyatt again and again – the splendid accommodations, the outstanding cuisine, the standard of exceptional service set by general manager Paul Pisarz, the quality art that adorns its public spaces: a tapestry by Picasso(!), lithographs by David Hockney and Frank Stella, paintings by Georges Braques and Kenneth Noland among others that makes a stroll through the lobby akin to visiting a museum of modern art.

But the biggest pull of the Washington D.C. area and by extension   the Park Hyatt is none of these. Rather it is to be in the company of the   newest member of our family who just celebrated her birthday. She is five   months old.