Bourbon Lounge is back, and Georgetown's cocktail hour just got a whole lot more interesting

Bourbon Lounge is back, and Georgetown's cocktail hour just got a whole lot more interesting

For a stretch of years in the late 2000s and into the 2010s, the lounge attached to Bourbon Steak at the Four Seasons Georgetown was the kind of room you went to on purpose. When Bourbon Steak opened at the Four Seasons 18 years ago, its adjoining lounge ran its own reputation for cocktails and burgers. In 2015, it even landed on Washingtonian's 100 Very Best Restaurant list as a separate entry from the steakhouse. That's a remarkable thing for a hotel bar to pull off in this city.

Then the neighborhood changed. Brasero Atlántico, Ox & Olive, and the Oak Room arrived in Georgetown, and the lounge quietly receded into the role of overflow waiting room. You grabbed a drink there if your table wasn't ready. You didn't go for the drink itself.

That changes now. Bourbon Lounge, which is the official new name, reopened on Saturday, August 15, after a $1.5 million renovation and menu overhaul that followed recent upgrades to the hotel's suites and spa. The Four Seasons isn't pretending this is a small refresh. The money and the intention are both on the table.

A room with a point of view

The new look draws from Georgetown's "historic residential salons," with dark wood paneling, a dark stone bar, and velvety "Hollywood" booths. A brass and glass archway now divides the lounge from the dining room. The effect is quieter and more considered than the average hotel renovation. There's no millennial pink, no Edison bulbs, nothing that dates itself.

The adjoining courtyard with its fire pits was updated a couple of years ago, so on cooler autumn evenings, and we are, as of this week, firmly in autumn, that outdoor option is already dialed in. On Pennsylvania Avenue at dusk, with the canal a few blocks south and Rock Creek nearby, it is a genuinely good place to be.

Marc Bromley, Four Seasons Regional Vice President and General Manager, put the ambition plainly. "It's not just going to be a place to spill over into the dining room or a place that if you're waiting for your table, you grab a drink. This is going to be a destination in and of itself," he said. Destination is a word hotels overuse. Here, the $1.5 million behind it makes the claim easier to believe.

The food is doing real work

Some old favorites held their place on the menu, including the prime steak burger at $26 and the wagyu double burger with American cheese at $28. These are not bargain items, but they have always been the lounge's calling card, and regulars would have rioted if they disappeared.

The new addition worth knowing about: the "BBB," or Bourbon Steak Bone Marrow Burger, at $35, built with gruyere, cheddar, spiced pickles, raw and caramelized onions, and a bone marrow sauce. A side of duck fat fries runs $14 and arrives with three dips: pickled ketchup, truffle aioli, and remoulade. It's the kind of bar food that makes ordering dinner next door feel slightly unnecessary.

On the cocktail side, the Four Seasons lounge page already lists what the bar can do with a spirit program: the lead bartender's team crafts a seasonal cocktail menu, including a drink built from wagyu fat-washed Woodinville Bourbon and Cocchi di Torino Vermouth. That's a Manhattan riff that earns its $25-plus price point. A sommelier-led wine list rounds things out for guests who don't want whiskey with everything.

The hours and the access

The lounge runs Tuesday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 11:45 p.m., Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 a.m., Saturday from 3 p.m. to 12:45 a.m., and Sunday from 3 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. Walk-ins only for the lounge; reservations are not available, but groups can call (202) 342-0444.

The no-reservation policy is either a frustration or a feature depending on your personality. In practice it means the room stays fluid, power brokers from K Street one night, Georgetown parents celebrating something the next. That mix has always been part of what made the lounge work when it worked.

Why Georgetown, why now

The Four Seasons Georgetown has operated at 2800 Pennsylvania Avenue NW since it opened in October 1979. The 222-room property was designed by architect David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. It has always attracted a particular Washington clientele: diplomats, lobbyists, the occasional cabinet secretary, visiting heads of state who want Pennsylvania Avenue without the motorcade traffic of the other Pennsylvania Avenue. The lounge was where those guests went when dinner was too formal and the hotel room was too quiet.

Georgetown's bar scene has genuinely gotten more competitive over the past three years. The Oak Room brought a moody European wine-bar energy to the neighborhood. Brasero Atlántico brought the Florería Atlántico group's Buenos Aires-rooted spirit program. Younger, leaner operations are running food worth crossing town for. The Four Seasons is answering with the one thing those places can't match: scale, history, and a fire-pit courtyard that seats more than 12 people.

The BBB burger, with its bone marrow sauce dripping into gruyere, is $35. At the institution that once had a separate Washingtonian Best list entry just for its lounge, that feels about right.

Sources

• Bourbon Steak DC, official site (hours, lounge information)
• Four Seasons Hotel Washington, DC, Lounge page (cocktail program, contact)
• Washingtonian, August 14, 2026, renovation details, menu items, GM quote
• Four Seasons Washington DC press office, Bourbon Lounge redesign announcement
• Mina Group, Bourbon Steak Washington DC (lounge hours)
• Wikipedia, Four Seasons Hotel Washington DC (hotel history, architect)