Yenching Palace

From the Yenching Palace's website at www.yenchingpalace.com: "Throughout the years, the Yenching Palace often has shared a page of history with the United States. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the Yenching Palace was one of the meeting sites of the personal intermediary of President John F. Kennedy and the Emissary of the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. It was at the last of these meetings held at the Yenching Palace that final terms were agreed upon which ended the crisis and avoided war. The ABC television hour-long documentary, "The Cuban Crisis," was filmed and narrated by the distinguished reporter, John Scali (U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. in 1974), at the Yenching Palace. Then, in 1971, when President Nixon initiated rapprochement discussions between the United States and the People's Republic of China, the Yenching Palace had the honor to be chosen the site for diplomatic and social exchanges between Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger, and high-ranking representatives of the Chinese delegation to Washington, D.C., in their efforts to normalize relationships between the two countries."The restaurant that once made history is about to become history. Here's part of an article from The Washington Post, dated January 14, 2007: "Tucked between Engine Company 28 of the D.C. fire department and a 7-Eleven known for having a mural painted across its brick wall, Yenching Palace has been a Cleveland Park landmark for more than 50 years, a place where -- in its heyday, in the 1960s and 1970s -- diplomats and movie stars dined, secrets were told, international crises were mediated.Sometime this year, if all goes as expected, the art-deco restaurant with the lopsided "Y" in its famous neon sign on Connecticut Avenue NW is going to get a makeover. It's going to become . . . a Walgreens [a large pharmacy chain]."DC070330-18435CR-YenchingPalace