THE HISTORY OF CLYDE`S RESTAURANT GROUP

THE HISTORY OF CLYDE’S RESTAURANT GROUP
1963
THE WAY M ST. WAS
1968
Georgetown in the 1960s was not the bustling haven for upscale shopping and
tourism that it is today. It’s hard to imagine a dapper Harvard grad sitting down
for a beer with a few burley bikers in a small watering hole on M Street, but that’s
exactly what happened when the young Stuart Davidson decided that Georgetown
deserved it’s own neighborhood saloon. The eccentric aristocrat would lease the
two-room B&J Restaurant, rename it after the River Scotland, and transform it into
a place for diners and drinkers who, like himself, “would rather eat in a saloon than
drink in a restaurant.”
THE TRADITION BEGINS
The very same summer that brought the “I Have A Dream” speech to Washington,
Clyde’s opened and immediately began transforming the city’s bar scene. When
fall arrived, John Laytham, a bright, ambitious graduate student was hired as
a dishwasher at the company he would never leave. Introducing Georgetown
to Sunday brunch would not only win Laytham a coveted spot as a bartender,
but became one of the many reasons why, in only five years, he would become
Davidson’s sole partner and co-owner.
1970
THE BID THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
In 1970, the former boarding house stand-around bar, Old Ebbitt Grill, stood a city
block away from the White House. What started out as a trip to bid on a collection
of antique beer steins at a tax auction for the oldest saloon in the city ended up with
the duo becoming its new owners. Davidson and Laytham’s business acumen was
paired with just the right aesthetic sensibility that would transform the Old Ebbitt
into the busiest saloon in DC, and one of the top-grossing restaurants in the country.
ClydesRestaurantGroup.com
1975
A GOOD IDEA BECOMES AN ICONIC GROUP
1985
The success of Clyde’s and the Old Ebbitt Grill inspired the intrepid owners to test
the strength of their neighborhood bar concept outside of the District. The hope
was that their cache in the region would extend beyond the city and embrace the
region’s rapidly expanding suburban communities. Clyde’s of Columbia, Maryland
opened in 1975 and became a fixture of its community. Five years later, a 21st
century Virginia roadhouse in Tysons Corner, Virginia would join the family and
celebrate the unmistakable style that had come to define the newly-formed Clyde’s
Restaurant Group (CRG).
THREE LEGENDS JOIN THE FAMILY
Now with four successful properties located throughout the DC metro area, Clyde’s
Restaurant Group turned its sights back to its birthplace. Revitalizing the 1789
Restaurant, the popular Hoya bar, The Tombs, and the Art Deco nightclub F. Scott’s
involved a takeover that would preserve the identities of the three properties but
upgrade their facilities, services and menu. Not unlike the Old Ebbitt, the properties
underwent a top to bottom renovation. 1789’s French cuisine was traded out for an
upscale American regional menu rooted in classical culinary traditions, while The
Tombs would carry the Clyde’s pedigree with a menu of classic bar food, entrees and
homemade desserts.
1987
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
In 1987, Davidson and Laytham’s next transformation would be internal. By moving
primary training for service and management personnel to a single corporate
training center in Georgetown, the company would initiate an exhaustive training
effort that would yield better consistency and reinforce the quality that had
made them a success. Next was to confront the ’91 recession head-on. Despite the
economic uncertainty, Clyde’s of Reston, Virginia in the new Reston Town Center
opened and soon thereafter, The Tomato Palace in Columbia, Maryland would be
Clyde’s foray into family dining.
1995
LOSING A LEGEND, BEGINNING A NEW ERA
Clyde’s of Chevy Chase, Maryland would be the last restaurant designed by the
late John Richards Andrews, the independent architect that had become known
throughout the city as “Clyde’s Architect”. Every one of the Clyde’s properties was
infused with the spirit of Laytham’s signature saloon dining and Andrew’s ability to
create gathering places with a sense of history. However, Andrew’s final creation
with Laytham would depart from the bar-focused dining rooms of their previous
collaborations by offering Chevy Chase’s mixed-age audience an experience of
“yesteryear’s travel”. Despite the loss of Andrews, the century would close by taking
his inspired craftsmanship to the next level.
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2002
NEW IDEAS FOR A NEW CENTURY
2005
Exactly 35 years after Davidson unlatched Clyde’s on M St., the doors would open at
Clyde’s at Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Five fabricated habitats memorial
case an evolution from restaurants to full-scale sensory experiences. When Tower
Oaks Lodge in Rockville, Maryland opened in 2002, yet another Clyde’s habitat was
on display, this time overlooking a 21-acre nature preserve and built inside a 200year old, two story timber barn from Vermont. Both the Marc Center and Tower
boosted perceived value at no cost to the customer.
BACK HOME AND OUT TO BROADLANDS
2006
2011
their next restaurant directly in the middle of the newly renewed Penn Quarter
and Chinatown’s colorful Friendship Gate on 7th Street. Only a year later and
thirty miles northwest of Georgetown, Clyde’s would open Willow Creek Farm in
Broadlands, Virginia in 2006. As with Chinatown, Loudoun County was becoming
an attractive commercial wellspring, whose tech and telecom professionals were in
need of an inviting dining and bar experience.
AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
Up next, and radically different than their previous concepts, The Hamilton pairs
live musical entertainment with a high-volume, high-energy, American bistro.
Located just blocks from the White House at 14th and F Streets, this two-level
musical emporium is an exploration of imagination, where guests will find talent
both on stage and in the kitchen. With the opening of this venue, Clyde's
Restaurant Group has proven, once again, that they can transform any space into
a bustling, dynamic experience that goes far beyond dining.
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