What's New: An Online Update for Frommer's Washington, D.C.

What's New in Washington, D.C

Washington, D.C., is the place to be every four years during the third week of January, but expect a record crowd in 2009, when the whole world, it seems, hungers for this particular change in administration.

If you hope to visit Washington during the inaugural week, here's what you need to know: Most of the city's hotels are already booked and those that aren't are charging a rate that is twice or three times their usual price. You may have better luck with hotels in nearby suburbs, like Arlington, Alexandria, and Bethesda; check the Destination DC website, www.destinationdc.org, for help in finding a hotel room in the greater Washington area.

Inaugural events hold out more promise. The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC) has printed 240,000 tickets to the swearing-in at the Capitol and distributes the tickets in January to the Senators and Representatives of the 111th Congress. So contact your congressional member to obtain tickets; you then have to visit your member's office to pick them up (go to www.senate.gov or www.house.gov to find the link to your legislator's office). The incoming Presidential Inaugural Committee, which forms after the November election, coordinates ticketing and planning for the inaugural parade, the official inaugural balls, and other events. Parade and ball tickets are not available until late November and December. My best advice for obtaining these tickets is to regularly check the JCCIC's website, http://inaugural.senate.gov, for updated information.

Washington, D.C. is also home to state societies, who often host their own inaugural parties and balls, for which they are selling tickets. Access the National Conference of State Societies (www.ncss.typepad.com) to find the link to a particular state society page. Traditionally, the inaugural event hosted by the president-elect's home state society is the one that most revelers want to attend. The Texas State Society's Black Tie and Boots ball also has always been a hot ticket, but maybe not so much this year.

The truth is, though, that you don't have to score a ticket to an official inaugural festivity to have a hot time. The whole city is a party scene during inaugural week. Make the rounds of bars, especially those in posh hotels, like the St. Regis, the Willard, and the Four Seasons, and then follow the crowd.

Where to Dine

Keeping with this all-American theme, you should know about a new restaurant that has opened up a few blocks from the White House. Founding Farmers (1924 Pennsylvania Ave. NW; tel. 202/822-8783; www.wearefoundingfarmers.com), is the love child of 40,000 American family farmers, ranchers, and fishermen, whose collective backs the restaurant. The long menu features oysters Rockefeller, deviled eggs, cowboy king steak, fried chicken, and other national favorites. The overall feel here is upscale country, with handcrafted wooden farm tables and displays of jarred vegetables adding a homey touch.

D.C. will soon welcome two more celebrity-chef restaurants (You'll remember that Alain Ducasse's Adour recently opened here, joining Wolfgang Puck's The Source, and Eric Ripert's Westend Bistro). San Francisco-based Michael Mina debuts Michael Mina Bourbon Steak in Georgetown's Four Seasons Hotel in December, and Gordon Ramsay plans to open a restaurant, yet unnamed, in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel located in Tysons Corner, Virginia, just outside D.C. (One does wonder, has Ramsay actually visited Tysons Corner? It's really a shopping suburb within the residential suburb of McLean -- a nice place to live, but not so fun to visit).

Exploring Washington, D.C.

Just as the black-tie galas end and life in the capital settles down a bit, another grand American celebration gets underway. The city honors Abraham Lincoln on the occasion of his February 12 bicentennial by staging "Living the Legacy: Lincoln in Washington, D.C.," a citywide, cross-venue tribute that lasts from January through May. Hotels, restaurants, museums, and theaters are getting into the act. Among the highlights are the re-opening of Ford's Theatre after an 18-month renovation, with the staging of a world premiere play about Lincoln, The Heavens Are Hung with Black; special exhibits at the Library of Congress and at various Smithsonian museums of documents, photographs, and artifacts belonging or related to Lincoln; Lincoln look-alikes running around; hotel packages, like the Hyatt Regency Washington's Ford's Theatre deal, which includes tickets to The Heavens Are Hung with Black; and restaurant offerings, like the Willard Hotel's re-creation of Lincoln's second inaugural dinner, which took place at the Willard on March 6, 1865. Go to www.lincolnindc.com for more details.

Meanwhile, a beloved D.C. hangout is proliferating. Busboys and Poets, the hipster's politically correct bookstore/café/bar/performance space/activist soapbox, has just opened a second D.C. location in the Penn Quarter (1025 5th St. NW; tel. 202/789-2227; www.busboysandpoets.com). Word is that this Busboys is less pretentious and more welcoming than its original, at 2021 14th St. NW, near U St.

And a beloved D.C. institution has returned. After a two year hiatus, the Georgetown Flea Market (1819 35th St. NW; tel. 202/775-FLEA; www.georgetownfleamarket.com) is back and open for business every Sunday, 8am-5pm, in the schoolyard of Hardy Middle School, in upper Georgetown. The outdoor market, which opened here in 1972, features about 100 vendors purveying antiques, vintage clothes, china, and assorted other objects; locals of every income level love to barter here.