The Steak-Filled Room

Power-Lunch Hot Spots for Cutting Deals and Trading Juicy Gossip

Besides the meat on their plates, what diners typically focus on at the Palm steakhouses are the caricatures of its regulars covering the walls. At the D.C. location on 19th and N streets, those continually smiling faces include Vernon Jordan, Joseph Califano, Bob Strauss, James Carville and Roger Cossack.

"This restaurant stares back at you when you look in," said Tommy Jacomo, who has run the place for 34 years. "It scares the hell out of you." He then rang a little bell on the host stand, indicating he thought his line was a zinger.

Jacomo was taking on the lunch rush, checking off reservations and showing people to their tables, when Cossack, a legal analyst on ESPN, came strolling in. "Tommy!" Cossack said. "Roger!" Jacomo replied. They hugged and kissed each other on the cheek. One waiter called out, "There he is -- Roger the Dodger!"

Cossack, a former defense attorney and prosecutor, made his way to his table as other political, business and about-town notables were making their way to similar tables in dozens of other steakhouses around the District. It is a daily ritual anywhere in America that there are deals to be made, backs to be slapped and egos to be fed. But perhaps no city is as well suited to steaks as Washington, thanks to the nexus of politics and business and the hefty expense accounts they support. The Palm, Charlie Palmer, the Prime Rib, Morton's, Capital Grille and their ilk serve as clubs where deals are marinated, celebrated and -- most frequently -- gossiped about. In Cossack's case, he said he was paying off a bet on a football game.

Jacomo is fond of repeating an old restaurant cliche -- "This is where the elite meet to eat" -- but steakhouses also reflect a "simpler concept," said Edie Ames, the president of Morton's (and the only female chief in the big leagues of this male-dominated industry). "People like steak," she said. "They like steak and potatoes."

But that doesn't explain why regulars keep eating it at the same pricey places. "I don't know," said Carville, who is often at the Palm three days a week. "I mean, why do I have 20 pairs of socks and wear the same two?"

Pressed for a better answer, he said: "Tommy. I just love him. He's one of my best friends. It's about the people there. A lot of the banter back and forth in there -- you follow the sports or whatever. There's real fun between everyone."

Jordan, another regular at the Palm, said: "It's seeing and being seen. It's a happening." Not long ago, Jacomo said, Jordan was having lunch at the Palm when one of those happenings broke out in the back half of the restaurant. Sitting at a table near Jordan was John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the United States; sitting farther away, the justice's security detail. It is fair to conclude that some restaurant-goers went back to work with stiff necks. "Everyone looks around and whispers," Jacomo said.

One way to tune into the tastes of Washington's political elite is to look at the spending database on PoliticalMoneyLine.com. The list is by no means exhaustive, and it's not necessarily a guide to the city's best food; Michel Richard's famed Citronelle doesn't show up on it for the 2006 election cycle. But it does show that beefy tabs get run up at steakhouses like Charlie Palmer.

Located on Constitution Avenue near the Capitol, Charlie Palmer Steak is known for its more progressive interpretations of macho steakhouse fare. For example, it serves pheasant. During the 2006 election cycle, the organization Nancy Pelosi for Congress spent more than $10,000 there. That's pocket change compared with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: On March 17, the organization rang up a tab of $50,028.

The Capital Grille has a more Republican bent, at least in the recent election cycle. Located on Pennsylvania Avenue a few steps from the Capitol, the restaurant is part of a chain owned by Atlanta-based Rare Hospitality, which also operates the less glamorous Bugaboo Creek and LongHorn Steakhouse chains. During the 2006 election cycle, the Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee visited the Capital Grille four times, including one event that totaled $7,500. The congressional campaign of Virginia Republican Eric Cantor visited four times for meals costing $7,106. A group called Friends of John Boehner -- he's now the House minority leader -- dropped $3,793 on one meal.

Other beneficiaries of political money: the Caucus Room, co-owned by Democratic lobbyist Tommy Boggs; Sam & Harry's, directly across the street from the Palm; and Morton's on Connecticut Avenue.