Washington Business Journal By Rebecca Cooper
In a world where people don’t even bat an eye at $14 cocktails, a drink made with local booze that costs less than $8 is nothing to scoff at.
The shockingly affordable local cocktails at the just-opened Hotel Hive in Foggy Bottom are one of many surprises at the microhotel, which checked in its first guests Thursday in time for inauguration. The venue also kicked off its opening with a 200-pizza giveaway from &pizza, which is running the food and beverage operation in the hotel.
The 83-room hotel from developer Jim Abdo of Abdo Development has been nearly three years in the works, as the company converted the no-frills Allen Lee Hotel at F Street and Virginia Avenue NW into a hip spot that owners Jim and his wife, Mai Abdo, hope everyone will be buzzing about.
The hotel opened quietly Thursday, with the management, Modus Hotels, releasing half of the rooms for online reservations earlier in the month. They were all booked within 12 hours, many of them at rates below $200 per night, a feat for inauguration weekend.
The sleek rooms — all of which have their own bathrooms, unlike the Allen Lee, which had communal restrooms — are tucked into every nook and cranny of the building, including into the octagonal tower at the front, which makes for an ultra-bright room with sweeping views. Mai Abdo did the design for the property, with assistance from Akseizer Design Group. (You can see some of the "before" pictures here).
Decked out in mostly white, the rooms, which top out at 250 square feet, have high ceilings with exposed beams and original brick, pulling from the building’s bones. A high-tech system allows guests to control all the window shades at once, as well as the lighting and climate control.
Hotel Hive’s logo, which combines to form a honeycomb look, is integrated subtly throughout the design — on the carpet in the hallways, on the front door — and work by local artists adorns the interior of the elevator shaft, visible through the elevator’s glass walls.
&pizza has been on board almost from the beginning, since Jim Abdo had his first taste of the brand’s signature oblong pies on H Street NE. As part of the partnership, the local fast-casual chain will not only run a location of the pizza joint off the hotel’s lobby, but will also operate the Hive Bar, an on-site bar and lounge.
The Hive Bar will also offer &pizzas to order, including a daily special only available in the lounge, and breakfast pizzas to give the hotel a three-meal-a-day option. There are three breakfast options: an avocado toast, a cinnamon toast with ricotta and banana and an “all-American” with egg, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, onions, shredded mozzarella and, the pièce de résistance, tater tots.
The bar is also the coffee stop for the hotel, with coffee available from Vigilante Coffee in Hyattsville, as well as cold-pressed juices from local juicer Jrink.
It was &pizza founder Michael Lastoria’s idea to do the local cocktail program in the bar, highlighting D.C. distilleries Republic Restoratives, New Columbia and Cotton & Reed, as well as Virginia rye producer Catoctin Creek. The only nonlocal spirit is Tequila Cabeza, a product of Mexico and produced by a New York distiller.
“This is a way to showcase an aspect of Washington, D.C., that we’re so proud of,” Lastoria said. The &pizza crew has been learning the ropes of running a full-service bar in addition to a fast-casual pizza place at its Chinatown location, where it opened &bar on the second floor last year.
“It was a way for us to dip our toes in the water and prepare and work through what our bar program looks like,” Lastoria said.
To start out, the Hive Bar will essentially offer a “three-month happy hour,” Jim Abdo said. Six signature cocktails, including a bourbon Manhattan, a rum daiquiri, a gin mule and others, will cost just $7.27 — less than half the regular $14 cocktail price around the District these days.
After three months, they’ll reassess pricing, though the goal is to keep it as affordable as possible in order to be in line with the hotel itself. (Rooms at the Hive after inauguration weekend start at $84 per night.)
“It’s a big financial commitment for both of us, but is our goal to flip the switch and triple the price in three months? Hell no,” said Abdo. “Look at our tag line: ‘buzz more, spend less.’”
Abdo Hospitality and &pizza are partners in the restaurant and bar part of the hotel business, and the plan for future Hotel Hives is interwoven with &pizza. They haven’t decided where, but Abdo and Lastoria are already eyeing several other cities where the concept could work.