The Station

On Sixteenth Street Northwest, two blocks from the White House andthree from the Washington Post building, sits the sumptuous Neo-Renaissance-style Hotel Lafayette. It’s a fancy place, with open flamelanterns flickering by the entrance and ushers in long coats and top hatsgreeting you by name when you walk through the door. Inside, they haveeverything on file so that even before you’ve made it across the lobby, theconcierge is offering you a dram of your favorite single malt or one of thehand-rolled Cuban cigars you mentioned liking on a previous visit.Don’t worry about smoking laws here. Don’t worry about any laws.