Chez Billy is a Parisian neighborhood bistro just steps from the Georgia Ave/Petworth Metro station offering authentic French cuisine, hand-crafted cocktails and an extensive wine selection. In addition, we have various options available for private and special events.
Chez Billy was named for the historically significant space it now inhabits. Billy Simpson’s House of Seafood and Steaks, which operated between 1956 and 1978, provided Washington’s African American community with an upscale venue for dining and socializing in the period between segregation and Home Rule. As soon as it opened, the restaurant became a popular meeting place for black intellectuals, professionals, politicians, and entertainers, as well as for African diplomats.
African American Congressmen, journalists, and federal officials met regularly at a “Round Table” at the restaurant led by ownerWilliam W. “Billy” Simpson. In this forum they discussed and strategized the political and Civil Rights events and activities of the day. Congressmen Charles C. Diggs and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., were personal friends of Simpson’s, and regulars at the restaurant. Among other causes, Simpson actively supported the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign (Jesse Jackson used the restaurant as his headquarters during the Campaign), and the anti-war movement.
Artists such as Redd Foxx, Dick Gregory, Sidney Poitier, and Ella Fitzgerald also stopped by the restaurant regularly w