An American political institution is under attack — and Congress is the culprit.

If the lobbying and ethics bill that cleared the Senate last week becomes law, members would no longer be permitted to accept meals from lobbyists.

Is the Washington power lunch dead?

“It’s logical to assume this will have an impact on the restaurant industry in Washington,” Tommy Jacomo, general manager of the Palm, said in a statement. “However, the Palm will still be a place where deals get done. … Let’s face it, there are just some things that never change inside the Beltway.”

One lobbyist explained that he is accustomed to running what he calls “the circuit” of high-end capital eateries. He had hopeful words for the fate of the power lunch. “I don’t know if it’s dead — it’s just taking a break,” he quipped.

The circuit can run in whichever direction lobbyists’ stomachs take them, from Bistro Bis, just steps from the Capitol, up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capital Grille, then a few blocks north to Oceanaire. Between the Senate’s outright meal ban and the House bill forcing lobbyists to list every calamari fritti and glass of merlot going to lawmakers, the circuit could soon be seeing a lot less traffic.

It’s ironic that quintessential power-luncher Jack Abramoff, who was recently heard bemoaning the Senate staffers who “practically used Signatures [Abramoff’s restaurant] as a cafeteria,” may have single-handedly put an end to the expense-account bonanza that had some lobbyists spending upwards of $100,000 per year on entertainment expenses for congressional friends.

Most Democratic offices already have implemented strict curbs on how many lunches aides may accept, whether directly from lobbyists or at the ubiquitous corporate-sponsored receptions around the Hill. Few members have matched the anti-schmoozing hardliner Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), who forbids his staff from accepting so much as a free can of soda from lobbyists, but even the National Republican Congressional Committee had listed only eight lunches for the entire month of April on its events calendar.

Others are enjoying the benefit of breaking bread with staffers while they still can.

“People are more careful for sure, careful about the limits,” said another lobbyist, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss his free-spending ways honestly. This K Street foodie used to think nothing of footing the bill for two lunches in one day.

“Most weeks aren’t that bad,” he said. “It does get to be a bit much in a week like this one, where you go to five events a day,” adding a few happy-hour fundraisers to the double power lunch.

Taylor Griffin, a senior vice president at the Financial Services Forum, said he prefers eating at the office and tries to save lunches for the lawmakers, lobbyists and reporters whom he genuinely wants to know better.

“I think that today’s fast-paced Washington environment — where a 24-hour news cycle means that there is always something pressing, always something on which you are ‘crashing’ — leaves little time for long, lingering lunches for those at the center of the political fray,” Griffin said. “We have so many ways to connect, so many ways to get business done — e-mail, phone, BlackBerry (or Treo in my case) — maybe we don’t need those long lunches so much anymore.”

Later, Griffin wondered — via a message from his Treo, naturally — whether fast and furious e-mailing on BlackBerrys and Treos has become the capital’s new power lunch.

Every lobbyist has his or her own power-lunch winners and losers. Aside from the big three — Capital Grille, the Palm and Charlie Palmer Steak — Tosca and Oceanaire are frequent favorites. While one lobbyist tapped Ceiba as a power cafeteria of the future “because you can get lunch for under 50 [dollars] a person there,” another sniffed that “everything seems to be overcooked.”

Other highly rated lunch spots include Kinkead’s, the Monocle, Rasika, Gerard’s Place, McCormick & Schmick’s and Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar, which offers small plates but poses an etiquette dilemma for lobbyists and their guests: How much wine is too much to drink?

“It’s not uncommon to drink at lunch, but it’s light, like a glass of wine,” the circuit-running lobbyist said. At dinners, however, all bets are off. “I don’t think there’s a lobbyist in town who tells their doctor how many drinks they really have,” he added.

Capital denizens swill an average of 3.5 gallons of alcohol per person per year, according to Men’s Health magazine’s annual rankings of the fittest cities in America. The only locale more alcoholic than Washington is casino-rich Nevada.

Another looming question in Washington’s after-Jack era is whether the unseemly appearance of public servants supping on the corporate tab will inspire lobbyists and lawmakers to — gasp! — go Dutch at lunch.

“It hasn’t come up,” one lobbyist said innocently. “I haven’t been at a lunch where it’s been needed.”

His colleague was more direct: “I don’t know if people are going to be as excited about going to lunch or dinner on their own dime,” he said, putting himself in an aide’s shoes. “Maybe I’m just cheap, but if I’ve got to pay for it on my own dime, I’m not going to drop 30 bucks on a steak.”

Now that lobbyists and lawmakers must pay attention to the price tags, it might be good to note that the New York shell steak on Charlie Palmer’s lunch menu is priced at $36, while a chopped-steak entr�e at the Palm will set you back just $12.