The Jockey Club, a see-and-be-seen restaurant for politicians and power brokers for 50 years, will make a grand return to the same place where it started, in the historic Fairfax Hotel in D.C.
The Fairfax Hotel, which opened in 1927, has been redeveloped as an ultra-luxury senior living community called Inspīr Embassy Row. Omega Healthcare Investors and Maplewood Senior Living acquired the property after the hotel closed in 2021, and have converted the 174,000-square-foot, eight story building into 174 luxury senior living apartments.
The flagship restaurant will be named The Jockey Club, and will bring back a veteran Jockey Club chef and some of its classic menu items. The Jockey Club opened in 1961, and closed in 2011.
The Jockey Club hosted eight U.S. presidents and their first ladies. Maplewood said the revival preserves the legacy of the Fairfax at Embassy Row Hotel building at 2100 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.
“At The Jockey Club at Inspīr, we will blend the best of the Jockey Club’s classics with innovative, health-conscious dishes that cater to our residents’ sophisticated palates and nutritional needs,” said chef Richard McCreadie.
The restaurant will include custom art by local D.C. artist Stanley Agbontaen, and American artist Kevin Sloan, with five large scale jockey-themed paintings by Sloan. Agbontean’s commissioned pieces feature jockeys on horseback.
Inspīr Embassy Row is the sister property to Maplewood’s original Inspīr-branded senior living community, the Inspīr Carnegie Hill, in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
The community offers independent living and several levels of assisted care. Maplewood describes the property as akin to staying at a luxury hotel. The units range from studio to three-bedrooms. It is set to open in December.
In addition to politicians, the former Fairfax Hotel was popular with celebrities, with guests over the years that included Frank Sinatra, Liza Minelli and Jack Nicholson.
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