Lots of changes since I was first taken to the Hay-Adams House (as it was then called) in 1974. Back then, the hotel restaurant had the same dark wooden panelling as the lobby has today. The place itself was one of the snootiest restaurants you could find. The atmosphere was hushed and reverent, and many of the clientele were politicians, etc. I was taken there by a business colleague and his wife, and the prices and service were both out of sight (literally, in the case of his wife, who received a menu with no prices marked, a practice met with more often in those days than now).

We had an excellent meal. At the end of the main course, my friend's wife decided that she wanted to take a doggy-bag home with her, which highly embarrassed my friend, who told her that "you just don't do that in a place like this". Nevertheless she insisted, and back came the most immaculately presented doggy-bag, impeccably wrapped in silver foil and covered with ribbons, etc, which of course compounded his embarrassment. I have never forgotten it.