Johnna's Pick of the Week: POV (D.C)

With a view like this, who really cares how the food tastes??? Well, we do, but the view could definitely distract you while gazing the tapa-style menu. POV is the new, hot spot to the District and has become the see or be seen venue for a Friday or Saturday night. The new District fetish sits at the top of the same place where the old Hotel Washington used to be which has been renamed the acclaimed W Hotel. Funny how D.C. is the last to get one of the worlds trendiest hotel chains in the city, but we can finally say we have one under our belt.

Recently, we threw a surprise party for someone super special to us and the W came under the radar when trying to choose the perfect venue. What we quickly realized about the District was how conservative and somewhat boring a lot of venues were, which quickly positioned us at the W Hotel. The W offered everything we needed: fun, pizazz and fresh. At first we were reluctant to go all the way, however, because with a hotel like the W comes the W type attitude (*Translation= High Snobbery). This ceased after we told them what we were looking for, working with and needed it done ASAP.

We were welcomed into the POV with open arms (*Our disclaimer is we were throwing an event here) and lounged on the low couches that lined the outside balcony. From here is where the magic happens. You can literally touch the White House from this point, we even had the pleasure of watching the helicopter land in the lawn in which we couldn’t make out whether it was actually Michelle Obama or one of their staffers. Really, at that point we didn’t care, we were mesmerized at all we could see of the District in our peripheral vision: The Washington Monument to our left, the White House right in front of us and the bustling Downtown city center to our right.

The food. It took us three paragraphs to get to the food which gives some indication of how there is so much more going on in this hotel and restaurant that you could get blindsided on the food. We tried to stay unbiased. We tried our hand at the samosas, the calamari and the crusted shrimp which were all pretty good tapas alongside the refreshing drinks from the bar. It wasn’t, however, until we hosted our event that we knew this spot was working with something. It is on the rare occasion that we go out and really like somebody else’s mashed potatoes, but the W has some good mashed potatoes. Everyone at the party was uber impressed with the food which is unusual at hotel events. Some comments included “delicious mashed potatoes”, “shrimp….was on point” and “the steak was nice and tender”. Some things we could’ve done without: some of the attitudes that your introduced to (*Mind you these are thoughts pre-party plans) and the soups (*lose the canned recipes).

We do not know if this spot is feeling like they have something to prove or what, but they’re doing a good job at making their mark as one of the top hotels in the District. POV has changed the atmosphere of what used to be at the top of the old Hotel Washington (*Translation: pure boredom pre-POV) and made it into the place to enjoy a good cocktail or two while peering into about 50% of the Districts top sites. From this Point of View, we don’t see why anybody would want to miss out…

Picture source