Georgetown’s most imaginative dinner reservation is hiding upstairs behind the right door on P Street.
A 20-Seat Dining Room Turns the Page on Ordinary Nights Out
La Bohème is an intimate 20-seat dining room in Georgetown where the seasonal prix fixe changes with a theme drawn from art, literature, and music. This summer, the theme is pure fantasy. “Enchanted Summer: The Return of Tolkien” debuted July 8, and Executive Chef Jennifer Castaneda-Jones has built a Modern-American menu around the beloved worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Each course arrives with a story and a reason, told tableside, so dinner unfolds like chapters in a book. Moreover, the experience is a genuine invitation to pick up reading again. Guests choose four courses for $99 or six courses for $135, with choices within every course. Consequently, no two tables share quite the same journey through the Shire!
Every Course Tells a Story Worth Savoring
The menu reads like a well-worn paperback. Breakfast and Second Breakfast open the evening with starters such as Sam’s Po-Tay-Toes, a layered potato mille feuille with smoked trout roe, and Shire’s Meat Pie wrapped in golden hot water crust. Supper follows with braised rabbit from the Kitchen Garden of Tom Bombadil or troll-roasted lamb loin with romesco. Dessert delivers the finale every fan wants: Mount Doom, a guanaja lava cake glazed in morello cherry. Familiar storylines meet genuinely accomplished cooking, and the kitchen never lets the whimsy outpace the craft. Seasonal add-ons, including caviar supplements, reward the adventurous. Above all, this is thoughtful food that respects both the source material and the diner.
Sommelier Pairings Keep the Evening Moving
Owner and advanced sommelier Elli Benchimol curates wine and cocktail pairings matched to each theme, and her talented team brings them to life. Sommelier Dave Kahler, alongside Anna Rojas-Quispe, keeps the pacing lively and the storytelling flowing from pour to pour. Wine pairings run $55 for four courses and $85 for six, while cocktail pairings are $65 and $95. Meanwhile, the servers are friendly, warm, and genuinely relaxed, which makes the small room feel like a gathering of old friends.
Beat the heat with a tasting menu this transporting, then spend the weekend revisiting The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or the animated 1980s classics. Few DC restaurants send you home this inspired!
Reserve Your Seat Before the Fellowship Fills the Table
Reservations for parties of one to six are available now on Tock, and @labohemedc previews each seasonal chapter on Instagram.
The Washington Lobbyist visits, tastes, and reports firsthand so readers always know where DC’s most memorable tables are waiting. Therefore, let this be your sign: gather your fellowship, book the upstairs room, and let us know what you think when you return from Middle-earth.
