The politics of fine dining

On New Year’s Day, Bart Hutchins was driving a rented U-Haul down the National Mall in search of French-style sausage. In the back of the truck, drinking glasses and patio warmers clattered. In the rearview mirror, you could say, were Hutchins’ past roles: lay church minister, enrollee at Reformed Theological Seminary (briefly), staffer for the Nevada Senate Democrats, Washington chef, and IT consultant in Minnesota.

Now he’s head chef and co-owner of Butterworth’s, a French-Australian fusion bistro on Capitol Hill that’s become a magnet for the district’s conservative movement.

“There are people who were built for politics, but it wasn’t me,” Hutchins said while driving across town to a specialty butcher shop for the sausage he needed for a catering event. “I like to see my work play out. As a chef, you make a dish, and then somebody tastes it, it’s delicious, and then it’s over.”

According to a recent report from Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, a record 92 restaurants closed in the District of Columbia in 2025 by November. Nearly 3 out of 4 mid-priced restaurants surveyed reported a drop in sales. But among those dire stats, Butterworth’s has carved a lane for itself as the MAGA fine dining haven for the nation’s capital.

On any given day, Hutchins mans the host stand beside the marble bar in the center of the restaurant. An eclectic interior sports an antler chandelier, warm yellow light sconces, and a framed photo of Queen Elizabeth II. Unlike many D.C. establishments, Butterworth’s does not try to be political. It does not name its drinks for political figures or feature pun-laden dishes on the menu. Every china plate and cup was thrifted at estate sales and secondhand stores.

The atmosphere is like a club, and wait staff have learned that customers don’t stay still. They greet friends and move in and out of conversations in the booths and at the bar. Hutchins loves it.

“It’s the grand history of the French café, a place where ideas happened, right? All kinds of great artistic and political movements started in places like this,” Hutchins said.

In 2018, President Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant after the owners realized who she was. The same year, a bartender followed White House adviser Stephen Miller down the street yelling at him. Many in the administration flocked to the Trump Hotel for their fancy meals instead.

Trump sold the hotel in 2022, and Butterworth’s quietly stepped into the vacuum in October 2024. Since then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and other right-wing figures like Steve Bannon (who lives nearby) have regularly dined there. In December, the disgraced former New York Republican Rep. George Santos hosted his Christmas party on Butterworth’s second floor.

“Politics are now part of pop culture,” Hutchins said. In the past year, he’s become used to scanning the reservations list to ensure he doesn’t seat political opponents near each other, which also requires keeping an eye on social media to see the latest drama. “I talk to the staff to not treat our clientele like policymakers,” he said. “This is not the place for that. We’re here to provide really good service.”

Staffing was a struggle for Butter­worth’s during its first few months. Roughly 75% of Washington residents are Democrats. Some couldn’t leave the politics in the kitchen.

“I think there’s a certain mindset among the mainstream left right now that is that you can’t even be in the same room with these people without getting the ick on you,” Hutchins chuckled.

The menu at Butterworth’s can change weekly. There are no burgers: Instead, bone marrow and lamb tartare are among the most-ordered items. The stars of the show are the $12 beef tallow frites served with a garlic aioli, to the tune of 15,000 pounds of potatoes in the first year.

Hutchins sources his food from local farms. “With literature, with food, I am always trying to find the primary source,” he said before waxing eloquent about the history of the militarization of French cuisine ranging from the days of Catherine de’ Medici. His hunt also extends to faith—Hutchins is in the process of converting to Catholicism: “I like the deep historical nature of it, the history of the saints, and the continuation of its leadership.”

Hutchins now describes himself as a working-class populist. His turning point away from the political left came during the first Trump administration when his liberal friends refused even to read a tax proposal from Bannon, then a White House policy adviser.

“It became clear that the rhetoric of our party politics are regardless of the facts, policy, or actual solutions,” Hutchins said. “There’s a streak within the left and within the right that I can see myself in. But the mainstream of both parties are aligned with a global economic system that just doesn’t work.”

And yet the GOP mainstream descends on Butterworth’s every night. In the first full year of operation, Butterworth’s hosted 200 private events and averaged 1,000 customers weekly.

That attracts protesters. About twice a month, demonstrators with bullhorns shout “fascists” and “Nazis” from the sidewalk. The protests don’t disturb the atmosphere inside, partly because Hutchins invested in sound-deadening curtains.

“Butterworth’s is one of the stage sets for the reality TV drama that is Washington, D.C., now, and they see it as part of the show,” Hutchins said. “I don’t love that, but it relieved the concern I had. Who would want to eat in a restaurant that people are screaming out front of? Turns out it doesn’t bother them.”

Hutchins also rejects the premise that his customer base will disappear once a Democrat wins the White House.

“This idea that there’s a monolith is crazy. Is this the MAGA hangout? Yes, totally. But it’s a MAGA hangout in the way that it’s a red state, which is to say that on any given night, it’s probably 60-40 at its peak.”

Conservatism now looks different from his host stand, where French 75 cocktails and Guinness pints pour liberally every night.

“For the MAGA crowd, we have to sell more booze and be open later than almost any restaurant in the neighborhood,” Hutchins said. “They are the party crowd right now, and they love to have a good time.”