Brown Palace Is Closing the 74-Year-Old Palace Arms

On May 8, you can enjoy a Bridgerton-like experience at the Brown Palace, traveling back to Regency England.

Which could come in handy if you're a fan of that era, since you will no longer be able to "dine amongst Napoleonic artifacts and elevated decor" at the Palace Arms. That's because the elegant, 74-year-old restaurant at the historic hotel is closing "until further notice" after May 4 — and unlike Napoleon, it may never attempt a comeback.

The Palace Arms' Napoleonic-era military prints and antiques — including a set of dueling pistols once carried by Napoleon himself — had been acquired in post-World War II France at the request of then-owner Claude “C.K.” Boettcher; the fancy new restaurant opened in his hotel on April 13, 1950. For now, the decor will stay put, according to Jana Smith, general manager of the Brown, while the space is rented out for private parties. "We're not saying it's officially closed forever," she says of the restaurant, but the hotel is looking at options, including a possible expansion of the popular Churchill's cigar bar.

When Smith arrived at the Brown just under a year ago, the Palace Arms was open five days a week...and business was "dismal," she recalls. She cut it down to three days, but business remained dismal. "Fine dining is more of a luxury than a necessity," she says. "We're hearing it from our sister properties as well. The good news is we kept everyone on the team and were able to fit them into another spot."

In the process, those staffers were spared the fate of the bellmen and doormen who were laid off in March.
Although the Palace Arms will be empty, the Bridgerton event is slated for Ellyngton's, the restaurant in the corner of the hotel that recently reopened after a major renovation. While the laminated tables and metal chairs don't speak of Regency England, there's plenty of marble — so much that the room serves almost as an echo chamber rather than the carpeted, if somewhat shabby, scene of so many past power breakfasts and lunches.

Smith says the hotel is working on the sound, and in the meantime is looking to introduce other events at Ellyngton's, which is again offering its Sunday brunch spread but could add live music some evenings as well.

The Brown Palace dates back to 1893 and has gone through several owners since Boettcher. In 2018, Crescent Real Estate bought the hotel for $125 million and appointed HEI Hotels & Resorts to run the place. Since then, other parts of the Brown have been updated, including many of the suites and public meeting rooms.

The Ship Tavern got a facelift in 2017; that bar had opened shortly after Prohibition ended, with a crow's nest in the center of the room and a collection of model ships that Boettcher's wife did not want in the family mansion (today the Governor's Residence). Now it will get a new menu from executive chef Kim Moyle that will give it more of a New England flavor, Smith says.

"We're trying to branch out, trying to bring in not just our generational clients, but the younger crowd," Smith notes. Even the traditional tea in the lobby, already a hit with all ages, is getting a twist: On the 13th of each month, it's a Swift-Tea, with pianist John Kite playing Taylor Swift's hits.

Take that, Napoleon. As Taylor would tell you: "Now they're screaming at the palace front gates, used to chant my name."