A popular Potomac restaurant and event venue wants to get back to its roots.
The Old Angler’s Inn (10801 MacArthur Boulevard) filed a zoning application this week with Montgomery County for a “Country Inn” designation.
That change would allow the historic Potomac property to add eight overnight guest suites, a feature that would harken back to its very early days when Civil War officers would stay overnight.
The facility doesn’t include guest suites now. It’s a restaurant, beer garden, wedding space and popular spot for hikers after a walk along Great Falls or the C&O Canal.
The plan is to put in a ballroom and the upstairs rooms in the next two years, according to an employee.
Mark Reges, whose mother Olympia ran the business for decades, took over the operation with his brothers and his wife after Olympia’s death in 2005. They reopened the back garden, reconfigured the interior and set out changing up the restaurant with a new chef.
The Angler’s Inn has been open since 1860. According to the restaurant, it opened to serve those traveling into the nation’s capital and many of the wealthy families which set up estates in Potomac and the rest of the Maryland countryside.
During the Civil War, couriers, officers and soldiers from both the North and South would stay at the Inn.
In 1957, prominent Washington attorney John Reges bought the Inn, which is when his wife Olympia restored it.
Photo via Old Angler’s Inn
