The DC Restaurant With An Unexpected Link To Lincoln's Assassination

One of the sadder lessons we learn in elementary school history is the one where President Lincoln is shot dead while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. The assassination, which occurred on April 14, 1865, took place less than a week after Confederate troops surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, effectively marking an end to the Civil War hostilities that had lasted throughout Lincoln's first term. John Wilkes Booth fired the shot, but the crime was planned with co-conspirators at a boarding house run by a woman named Mary Surratt. The property has changed hands and served several purposes over the years, from boarding house to grocery to the restaurant that occupies it today. Since the mid-20th century, the area it's located in has been designated as D.C.'s Chinatown, and the restaurant's name — Wok and Roll — is a playful nod to the neighborhood.

Ever since 2001, Wok and Roll, a restaurant specializing in both Chinese and Japanese cuisine, has called the historic location home. Its menu includes sushi, salads, soups with udon or ramen noodles, a wide array of dumplings, and such dishes as orange chicken and General Tso's bean curd. In addition to food, it features a bar offering classic old-time tiki drinks such as the mai tai, zombie, and planter's punch as well as tropical drinks (yes, there's a difference!) like the daiquiri, piña colada, and blue Hawaii. Perhaps incongruously, considering the building's somber history, Wok and Roll also hosts multilingual karaoke events.

Wok and Roll's website makes no mention of its historical connection and doesn't appear to capitalize on the tragedy. However, it seems that at one point in its early days (2005, to be exact), the restaurant hosted a reading of a 19th-century play called "The Judicial Murder of Mary E. Surratt." The outside of the building also bears a historical marker that declares it to be the place where Lincoln's abduction was planned. (The assassination was originally meant as a kidnapping, but it seems John Wilkes Booth's thoughts turned in a homicidal direction once Confederate capital Richmond fell to Union troops in early April 1865.) According to some, though, Wok and Roll may host a less tangible, but much spookier, reminder of dark deeds from days gone by: Mary Surratt's ghost, who is said to haunt the premises.

Surratt's revenant has good reason not to be resting in peace. While she may have had little involvement with the assassination other than owning the boarding house, she was charged, convicted, and ultimately became the first woman to be executed by the federal government. Some ghost-sensitive souls have reported hearing her whispering and crying in the building she once owned and her former boarding house-turned-karaoke bar has been known to feature on D.C. ghost tours. A 2023 article by Washingtonian even put the location right at the top of a Halloween-themed list of the District's most haunted spots.