Eaton Workshop Brings a New Kind of Hospitality to Washington, D.C.

At Eaton Workshop, hospitality is a conduit—not just for comfort, but for cultural and civic imagination. With locations in Washington, D.C., and Hong Kong, the brand has a penchant for defying convention. Inside its walls, one finds far more than the usual amenities: coworking spaces, a radio station, an activist-in-residence program, soundbath wellness classes, and Allegory, its in-house cocktail bar where storytelling is served by the glass. Guests may check in for the hotel experience, but they will find themselves in a space that invites, and pulses with, deeper engagement.

“Our cultural programming acts as a bridge between social awareness and community engagement,” says Harvey Thompson, general manager of Eaton Hong Kong and managing director of its D.C. outpost. “We’re intentional about presenting work that uplifts underrepresented voices and sparks meaningful conversation.” That work takes many forms: Pride exhibitions co-curated by trans artists, poetry readings for the D.C. community, and sound installations that center disability narratives. The events are not accessories to the brand—they are its purpose. “We’re not here to be performative,” Thompson adds. “We’re here to listen and to hold space.”

Eaton is often described as a hybrid entity, but it might be more precise to call it a third space: one that consciously resists the binaries of public/private, profit/activism, guest/neighbor. In both its physical layout and institutional ethos, Eaton is built for convergence. Allegory, for instance, is less cocktail bar than creative playground—an intimate space that uses rotating, story-driven menus and community programming to explore social themes. It is, in many ways, Eaton in miniature. “We don’t require our team to come from traditional hospitality backgrounds,” Thompson notes. “We look for changemakers—people who believe in progressing the world forward.”

The programming calendar is a careful mix of structure and spontaneity. Signature events like the Unheard Sound Festival or the Consciousness Festival anchor the year, but Eaton is quick to respond to the moment. After a recent wave of federal layoffs, the D.C. location opened its coworking space to displaced workers and offered free professional headshots. “Real-time relevance is part of our responsibility,” Thompson says.

Eaton operates on a triple bottom line—people, planet, profit—and measures success accordingly. Monthly reports weigh community benefit and in-kind value alongside revenue. “Room occupancy matters,” says Thompson, “but so does whether someone left feeling seen.” Access is built into every layer of the experience. Wellness classes include “pay what you can” spots. Cultural programming is often free and led by local organizers. During the pandemic, Eaton ran a “Pay It Forward” meal program in which guests could discreetly fund meals for neighbors in need. In Hong Kong, the building’s exterior doesn’t advertise products—it hosts billboards that ask provocative questions about environmental preservation and social responsibility. “Community is not a market segment,” Thompson insists. “It’s the reason we exist.”

Even during Pride—often a flashpoint for pinkwashing in corporate spaces—Eaton steers toward substance. In D.C., the newly opened Pride Suite offers an immersive history of queer resistance in the capital. In Hong Kong, the CRIP FUTURE (/) QUEER MARKET centers disabled, trans, and nonbinary artists with unapologetic clarity. Eaton’s long-standing partnerships with grassroots collectives like Black Girls in Art Spaces and Crip Art Collective c.95d8 exemplify its commitment to community not as campaign, but as continual practice. “We’re not trying to speak for these communities,” Thompson says. “We’re making sure they have the mic.”

Eaton Workshop DC is now open at 1201 K Street NW.