Butterworth's Club

Tuesday

Kelly Chapman

MAGA tourism in the heart of DC

On Friday night I arranged for a group to meet at Butterworth’s for a small dinner. I joke that I’ve become the Butterworth’s Whisperer, chaperoning curious and skittish liberal friends to DC’s Trump-era living museum for lamb tartare, cozy lighting and dissident ambiance. I needn’t waste too much time describing the scene. The restaurant has been profiled more often than the new Pope. Suffice it to say the fries are sliver-thin and seed-oil-free, the martinis flow like water and there are always at least a couple of Republican who’s-whos to point at in the dining room. Nothing to be afraid of. Some nights there’s even a party if you show up at the right time, as I did a couple of months ago during the Conservateur’s “Make America Hot Again” event.

Butterworth's

Monday

Roger Kimball

Wine highlights from Inauguration Day

I write a few days after the Big Event in Washington, DC on January 20, 2025. For us deplorables, it was a celebratory occasion. I am told that non-deplorables entertained different feelings that day. Since they had been used to having the run of our capital city, I can understand their sentiments. But, perhaps by some process of selfselection, very few non-deplorables were in evidence at the haunts I visited during my stay. Every hotel, restaurant and event space I stopped off at was full of red caps — yes, those red caps — and the mood was almost giddy with anticipation and glee. It brought to mind a passage from one of my favorite Psalms, number 23: Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

wine

Tuesday

Cockburn

Where Trump’s Washington will actually be hanging out

Where will conservatives and Donald Trump's disciples spend their non-working hours in DC for the president-elect’s term? The Washingtonian provided a list by Jessica Sidman last week, but by Cockburn’s estimation, it’s not totally over the target. Contenders on Sidman’s list include the Big Board, Cafe Milano, Capital Grille, Dirty Water, RPM Italian, Royal Sands Social Club, Shelly’s Back Room and the Waldorf Astoria — which used to be the Trump Hotel DC but was sold back in 2021. Shelly’s is Cockburn-approved, especially for the cigar smokers. Rudy Giuliani has been spotted in there before. But Cafe Milano, Capital Grille and Dirty Water are not necessarily “hangouts” for conservatives or the MAGA crowd in particular.

washington trump

Friday

Cockburn

Election night plans… soirée or flee?

Clinton dips in the Lake You can’t teach the Big Dog new tricks… Bill Clinton cemented his reputation as the Harris campaign’s least helpful surrogate this week in an appearance where he branded Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Arizona, “someone who is physically attractive.”“Bill Clinton has officially turned into every other married man over the age of sixty-five in Scottsdale — embarrassing themselves by publicly hitting on women thirty-three years their junior,” a Lake staffer told Cockburn. Lake is only two years older than Monica Lewinsky.

election