It's not often that the diplomats and politicians coming through D.C. are able to get the full Washington experience. Sure, maybe they can experience the monuments on their way to the Hill, but it's difficult to make a trip to Compass Coffee, DC Brau and other local stops on the quick in-and-out schedule.
That's where The Darcy near Logan Circle hopes to come in.
A part of the Currio Collection by Hilton, the luxury hotel is more than just a high-end stop for the night. Fitzwilliam Darcy's hotel, which opened in late April, provides a glimpse into his time living in England before he returns to D.C., and the building strives to emulate an English-style mansion.
To bring the story to life, Director of Sales and Marketing Kelly McCourt brought in a number of local startups to help.
"Everything is very much about being local," she said in an interview. "I wanted to make sure our hotel guests could get a touch of a local Washingtonian experience."
There's the collaboration between Ivy City-based distillery Green Hat Gin and Element [Shrub]. Green Hat partners with the hotel for its daily cocktail hour in the lobby of the hotel, while Element [Shrub] provides the syrup for many of the drinks. Each of the two have their products available in the in-room mini bars for purchase.
Then, you have places like Read Wall, the Shaw-based menswear shop. If a guest forgets a tie or cufflink, for instance, they can call down to the front desk receptionist to have a supply of Read Wall products brought up to their room to try on and borrow for the night. If they like it, they can even buy the product directly through The Darcy.
"Usually you call down and say you’re missing some toothpaste, but this is a step above this," said Read Wall, founder of the menswear shop of the same name in an interview. "The hotel is really cool, and the aesthetic really fits nicely with what we’re trying to accomplish."
That's just a small taste of the local partners McCourt works with to stock the hotel. D.C.'s UrbanStems has a pop-up flower shop every few weeks in the hotel to replicate the classic pop-up flower shops you see in English neighborhoods. Guests can make their own custom bouquets to bring to partners, colleagues and so on, and all of the proceeds go towards local children's advocacy center Safe Shores. Marcel's Chef Robert Wiedmaier is behind The Darcy's seafood restaurant, Siren. Celebrity chef David Guas will open his latest New Orleans-styled bakery, Lil'B Coffee Bar & Eatery, at the hotel in July. D.C.'s Captain Cookie & the Milkman sells a specialty kid's ice cream sandwich and a booze-filled adult's sandwich to hotel guests. Should I keep going?
Even the curtains you see in some of the guest rooms are the same you'll see in President Trump's Oval Office (but McCourt will tell you that was pure coincidence, with the two parties requesting the designer at the same time).
For McCourt, it just makes sense to bring local companies into the mix. It's a part of the ethos of the brand.
"We want to be good partners in the community, we want to support the local market," McCourt said. "To me, it's just part of what we, as a business, want to do. We want to use it as an opportunity to bring exposure to our local startup businesses."
Giving back to the community is a trend in Sage Hospitality, which manages the Hilton chain and the Currio Collection that The Darcy is a part of, McCourt said. And in D.C., the guests are responding well, too. Element [Shrub]'s products are constantly selling out in the mini bar, some of the other kids travel programming is selling out. Guests are heading to Read Wall to get special tailor items of their own.
"I do really believe that people want to bring a taste of D.C. home," she said.
Moving forward, McCourt has her eyes on more local partnerships — although she couldn't say too much about who and what they're looking at.
"It's really important to me, it's really important to our guests that we are able to keep these things going, so you'll see that this is just a part of the life of the hotel moving forward," she said. "We want to be connected to the authentic life of D.C."
Images courtesy of The Darcy
