Columbia Heights, Washington, from the cascade to 11th Street

The 13-basin cascade on Meridian Hill is running again. A $16m National Park Service restoration refilled the long-dry fountain and reopened the lower plaza on 14 May 2026, and the Sunday-afternoon drum circle that has met on the upper south lawn since 1965 started up again once the works finished.

Meridian Hill Park and the Sunday drum circle

Start at the upper plateau, where an equestrian Joan of Arc stands above the slope. Meridian Hill Park (Malcolm X Park) falls away from there down a terraced Italianate hillside, the 300-foot stone cascade stepping through its 13 basins between balustrades of exposed-aggregate concrete to the plaza at the foot. Walk down one side and back up the other: the water reads differently from the top of the terraces than from the bottom. Entry is free.

Come on a Sunday afternoon. The drum circle takes the upper south lawn and anyone who turns up can play. If you have one hour in Columbia Heights, spend it here.

16th Street mansions and All Souls Church

Three of the sights stand on or just off 16th Street, and you can get into all three without paying.

The Mexican Cultural Institute (16th Street) occupies a 1911 Beaux-Arts mansion on the embassy row stretch, nine minutes' walk from Columbia Heights Metro. Entry is free, with no ticket and no RSVP, and the queue is rarely anything to plan around. Take the grand marble staircase first. Roberto Cueva del Río's mural of Mexican history wraps it floor to ceiling, and it is the reason to walk in. Rotating shows of Mexican art fill the rooms beyond, and the Institute also programmes concerts and cooking classes. It closes Sundays and opens Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. only, so a weekday visit gives you the longer window.

On Crescent Place, the Meridian International Center keeps two John Russell Pope mansions, Meridian House and the White-Meyer House, by the architect of the Jefferson Memorial and the National Archives. Meridian House turns a long shuttered limestone facade to the street, with a gravelled forecourt lined with pollarded linden trees. This is the best surviving piece of Meridian Hill's gilded-age phase. Weekday site tours run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. by appointment only, arranged through [email protected]. The grounds and the ground floors are otherwise free to walk into. Ring before you set out, because it is a working event venue and private hires close it without notice.

All Souls Church, Unitarian (16th & Harvard) is red brick and white stone with a tall columned portico, modelled on St Martin-in-the-Fields. Its 1822 bell was cast by Paul Revere's son. As of September 2026, bell-ringing is suspended for steeple repairs and the white tiered steeple stands under scaffolding. The church matters as a civil-rights landmark as much as an architectural one. Visitors are welcome around services and nothing is charged.

The Tivoli corner at 14th and Park

GALA Hispanic Theatre at the Tivoli Theatre (14th & Park) took on a 1924 Italian Renaissance Revival cinema and runs the neighbourhood's cultural programme out of it. The facade is cream terracotta with arched windows, and a lit vertical TIVOLI blade sign marks the corner after dark. The house seats 270, which puts the back row close enough to follow faces. Productions are in Spanish with English surtitles, so a visitor with no Spanish can follow a whole evening. The 51st season, titled "Imagine. Resist. Revolt.", runs through 2027. The 22nd Flamenco Festival runs 5 to 21 November 2026.

On the same corner, the Columbia Heights Farmers Market (FRESHFARM, Civic Plaza) (14th & Park Road) fills the brick plaza with white canopy stalls, the Metro escalator canopy and the DC USA block standing behind them. It trades Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. from January to March. The stalls run year-round, winter included. Mexican food comes off a taco griddle, and flowers, piles of produce and live music fill the rest of the plaza. Browsing is free, and SNAP/EBT and WIC are matched. Come at opening, and give it an hour if you want to understand who lives here.

Eating on 14th Street

Thip Khao (14th Street) is Seng Luangrath's 2014 original and still the city's defining Lao kitchen. Woven bamboo sticky-rice baskets, the thip khao the place takes its name from, sit on the tables of a narrow warm-lit room, and the curry noodle bowls arrive scarlet. Ask for the jungle menu if you want the food as hot as Laos serves it. The menu is built for family-style ordering. It takes reservations and the room is tight, so book ahead. Closed Tuesdays. $$.

Letena Ethiopian Restaurant (3100 14th Street NW) is Yamrot Ezineh's kitchen, a bright compact café named a Washingtonian 100 Very Best for 2026. Injera platters arrive mounded with coloured lentil and vegetable stews, with Ethiopian coffee service alongside. Order the lentil samosas. Washington has the largest Ethiopian community outside Ethiopia, and this is a sound place to start reading it. Walk in. The room is small and the turnover is quick. $$.

Taqueria Habanero (north end of 14th Street) cooks Puebla-style and carries a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Corn tortillas are hand-pressed onto the comal behind the counter, and the birria tacos come with consommé. The painted room is small and fast, and it works as a walk-in. It costs less than anything else here. It stands at the Columbia Heights and Petworth edge, 10 minutes' walk north of the Metro. $.

Tamashaa (14th Street) is the dress-up dinner, a dark jewel-toned room of patterned tilework and brass with a long cocktail bar down one side. The cooking is regional Indian and theatrically plated, goat vindaloo and tandoori cornish hen among it. Pick it when you want one proper sit-down meal rather than a counter and a plate. $$$.

Drinking and shows on 11th Street

Queen's English (11th Street) puts Henji Cheung's Hong Kong cooking in a tiny teal-green room with an open chef's counter, and Sarah Thompson's natural-wine list runs beside it. The whole crispy branzino comes under sweet chilli and crab butter. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand in the 2026 guide. Reservations are essential and parties above six are hard to seat, so split a larger group or eat elsewhere. The covered patio out front takes dogs. Closed Sunday and Monday. $$$.

El Chucho (11th Street) is the warm-evening default, a graffiti-muralled bar with an open rooftop deck under string lights and the skyline running over low rowhouse roofs. The plates lean Oaxacan and the margarita list is long, frozen and draft. The roof is worth it from late spring to autumn, and in those months you should book it in advance. $$.

Wonderland Ballroom (11th & Kenyon) has been going 22 years and is where the neighbourhood drinks. Pours are cheap downstairs in the red-brick corner pub, and upstairs a kitsch-cluttered ballroom puts DJs on a small stage. The kerbside streatery was removed in July 2026, and the patio is now the big fenced one round the back, packed through summer. Weekend nights get rammed. Dogs are fine on the patio. $.

BloomBars (3222 11th Street NW) is a non-profit arts room with no bar and no alcohol. The shopfront is hung with painted murals, and inside there is mismatched seating with folding chairs set in a semicircle around a small stage. It helped make 11th Street what it is. Donations are pay-what-you-can. The Garden Open Mic starts at 8:30 p.m. on Mondays and is the easiest evening for a visitor to meet people who live here. The room is modest.

Where to stay

The LINE DC (Adams Morgan) is a converted 110-year-old neoclassical church 15 minutes' walk west of Columbia Heights Metro, through Adams Morgan. The lobby is cavernous, with salvaged organ pipes mounted on the wall and a boat hull suspended overhead, and it is worth walking into whether or not you sleep there. It is the nearest hotel worth crossing town for. $$$.

HighRoad Washington DC (Belmont Road) is the budget base for this corner of Washington, a restored Victorian mansion with bay windows and a stoop, 20 minutes' walk from Columbia Heights and a few minutes from Meridian Hill Park's west side. Inside, 10 dorm rooms of three or six pod-style bunks, each bunk curtained, sit alongside 30 en-suite private rooms, and a party can take a whole dorm. $$.

Opening days and booking

Thip Khao closes Tuesdays, Queen's English closes Sunday and Monday, and the Mexican Cultural Institute closes Sundays. Reserve Thip Khao and Queen's English before you travel, book El Chucho's roof in warm months, and email [email protected] for a weekday tour at Meridian International Center.

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