Few perches are more popular at Martin’s Tavern (1264 Wisconsin Ave., NW; 202-333-7370) than table number three, the snug “proposal booth” where John F. Kennedy purportedly asked for Jacqueline Bouvier’s hand in marriage. (He lived a few blocks away from the Georgetown restaurant.) A number of institutions, including Boston’s Parker House Hotel, have claimed that they hosted the engagement moment, and no hard evidence exists to prove where the era of Jack and Jackie actually began. Still, owner Billy Martin believes his father, who passed down the story, as do several Kennedy insiders. On a recent visit, Maria Shriver—JFK’s niece—called the table her “family booth.”
This article appears in the November 2013 issue of Washingtonian.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
