The Business of Butterworth's, the Hottest New Restaurant in Washington DC
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What makes Butterworth’s a hotspot for MAGA patrons in Washington DC?
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Oddlots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.
And I'm Tracy Alloway.
Tracy, we were down in DC several weeks ago. We were at that uh IAF conference and uh we had a great meal when we were in town.
We did indeed. So
really good meal.
Yeah. We went to a place called Butterworks, which is getting a lot of buzz. Has been getting a lot of buzz for a while. And sort of serves, I don't want to say farm to table, because that's not really it, but like an emphasis on organic. Maybe like rarer cuts of meat. I remember we had bone marrow.
Which you love.
I love bone marrow. The first time I ever ate bone marrow was at an all you can eat buffet in Las Vegas. And it was so it wasn't even the best bone marrow, but like I ended up with a mountain of empty bones on my plate. I
think both of us like like sort of rich fatty food.
Well, it's li I always say it's like sucking the life force out of an animal. It's animal essence.
We had really good fries, which famously and we'll probably get beef tallow, no seed oils, very hip these days. I'm pretty sure we had uh something with foie gras, which I love. I seem to recall there was some left on the plate, and I was like, Does anyone want this? Does it can I take this bite? Can I take this bite? I cannot resist foie gras. Anyway, it was a really good meal. I love doing restaurant episodes because or talk about the food industry. industry because if you want to understand the economy, both in the sort of short term, like where we are in the cycle with food costs and labor costs and how free spending people are, they're a great snapshot and any given time, they're just this perfect combination of labor costs, inputs and rent, which is like the whole economy there.
So
There's also There's
also the supply chain issue, right? And we did that whole episode on Cisco, the dominant food supplier to restaurants in America. I doubt Butterworks uses Cisco for obvious reasons, but like where they actually source their ingredients is a really interesting topic.
Right. This is what I say, which is that like there this perfect combination of the snapshot at the moment and then the big structural things of how the economy works across the cycle. So I really like restaurant episodes.
There's also an interesting cultural element in this. And like everything is cultural and political nowadays, including the restaurant business. Because Butterworth has been described as a sort of right wing MAGA hangout. So we should talk about that too.
Yeah, I'm fascinated by the D C scene because I was like, Oh, they're like Democrat bars, Republican bars. I don't do they mix? You
gotta declare your political allegiance before you walk in.
It's so uh it actually there's something really profound here because I feel like this is happening to brands of all types, right? Yeah is this the right coded brand or the left coded brand, etc. But in DC People have to choose sides. You have to choose sides. But anyway, it's funny, you know, because we were there and our producer Kel is like, we should go to Butterworth. So I was like, Oh, there's the MAGA restaurant. Great, I wanna check it out. But when you go in, you know, it's not like there's you know, you wouldn't know it. Let's say from the inside. People
aren't wearing red hats and stuff.
But you would never know it at all. You you would never like at least the night we were there, I didn't see any like White House notables that I recognized, although apparently they do hang out there from time to time. But it's not like designed.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What makes Butterworth’s a hotspot for MAGA patrons in Washington DC?
0:00–6:19
2
How does Bart Hutchins source ingredients from Amish and Mennonite farms?
6:19–12:41
3
Why does Butterworth’s change its menu daily instead of offering a static burger?
12:41–20:11
4
How are labor shortages and rising wages affecting kitchen staffing at Butterworth’s?
20:11–26:44
5
What impact have rising food‑costs (e.g., beef‑tallow fries) had on Butterworth’s pricing strategy?
26:44–33:29
6
How do reservation systems and peak‑demand spikes influence service flow at the restaurant?
33:29–40:57
7
In what ways does lighting and Instagram‑ready décor shape the dining experience?
40:57–48:11
8
What does Bart see as the biggest macro‑economic challenges and opportunities for boutique restaurants post‑COVID?
48:11–54:38
Speakers
8 identifiedMore from Odd Lots
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