File:Metropolitan Square - Washington DC - Old Ebbitt Grill.JPG

English: Old Ebbitt Grill restaurant sign on the west side of Metropolitan Square in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The restaurant is one of the oldest and most notable upscale restaurants in the city, and powerful lawyers, lobbyists, and government officials lunch there every day (and have cocktails every evening). The restaurant and bar occupy the nortwestern corner of Metropolitan Square, at the corner of G and 15th Streets NW. Metropolitan Square is a 12-story hotel and office building complex that occupies the entire block between F and G Streets NW and 14th and 15th Streets NW (due east across the street from the United States Treasury Building). The complex was proposed in November 1977 by developer Oliver T. Carr. After several years of legal battles, Carr agreed to retain the Beaux Arts western facades of the Keith-Albee Building and the Metropolitan National Bank Building. Carr retained architect Vlastimil Koubek to design the new building behind the facade, and hired the New York City firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill as consulting architects. Construction on the new building began in 1980. After the demolition of Rhodes Tavern in 1984, the old facade was extended south to the corner of 15th and F Streets NW.