Farming in DC

As part of our weekend ramblings (noted in separate posting) we at long last were able take lunch at the Founding Farmers restaurant, open less than a year. It has opened with a unique concept: “Founding Farmers offers Fresh Farm to Table American inspired true food and drink in a modern, casual and eco – friendly setting. The menus include homemade and ‘scratch made’ traditional American classics inspired by the heartland with sustainably farmed products, including locally sourced items and in season vegetables and fruits whenever possible”. They further describe themselves as: “..the Greenest Restaurant in DC, Founding Farmers is a Certified Green Restaurant™ operates Carbon Neutral with offset credits via CarbonFund.org, and is a LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold restaurant, a combined first for a Washington, DC restaurant and for a full service, upscale, casual restaurant in the entire U.S.” I’m all for ecological responsible endeavors, but cynical old me looks a bit askance when they start wearing it like the flag.

Anyway it’s located in the IMF building on Pennsylvania Avenue near Kinkead’s, a short walk from the Foggy Bottom Metro. As alert readers will recall, this weekend is also the meeting of the World Bank, taking place in the same building. I’ve never seen so many police officers and jersey barriers (and thankfully no protestors) around a restaurant, but there they were. Upon approach to the barriers, a nice officers asked if we were going to the restaurant, and with an affirmative reply from us, let us “pass”. Without digression, readers can ponder upon the amount of security that supplies. At any rate we entered the restaurant, and with the above background I expected hand hewn benches, plain décor with perhaps “American Gothic” prints here and there, with servers in overalls and hay seeds. Nothing (as they say) could be further from the truth. Metal, wood, with very contemporary treatment is everywhere (well, there is a stylish display of canned veggies at the hostess stand), but certainly doesn’t recall “traditional American classics”. The bar area is quite spectacular (and they did have Silver Oak on the shelf). Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very beautiful space just not exactly what I expected. Tables do have very plain glasses set with no tablecloths however. Upon hearing that it was MFO’s and my first visit, our unnamed server explained much of the above preamble, and pointed out the “re-cycled” lumber from barns (Hmmmm) and planking on the floor, etc.

We were ushered to a table by the window, handed and handed a large single sheet laminated menu. Eventually a server arrived and upon learning MFO were “first time visitors” she went over the concept expressed above, then explained about the Catch of the day specials (organically farmed salmon and fresh caught Halibut), said she’d be back for drink orders, and left us to consider the menu. That proved to be quite a task since both dinner and luncheon selections were included. So there were categories for: Small Plates, Entrée Salads, Nice Little Salads, Sandwiches, Fresh Catch, Signatures, Flat Breads, From the Ranch, Handmade Pasta, Soup, and American Farmstead Cheese Plates. Sweets and drinks were on the reverse side along with the wines. Whew!! Each category had a little tag confirming the local/sustainable/green theme: Salads: “we receive daily deliveries of the freshest seasonable produce from American family farmers”; Flatbreads: “baked in-house daily”; From the Ranch: “we source the finest meats from the Pineland Farms of Maine”. More terms in the same vein were under each menu selection as well, with “in house” “hand crafted in house”; “our own house made” used liberally. Prices varied, sandwiches from $9 (farmhouse eggs, home made bun, house made chips); $12 “ground to order” burgers, to a $24 Lobster roll. From the Ranch contained the higher end stuff crowned by a $42 Pepper Crusted New York Strip. On the reverse side they had an interesting cocktail section (crafting superior drinks) and the wines were reasonable (for dinner sometime) with many $20 and $30 bottles (and up) with only a few show offs in three figures..

Midway through the menu absorption our server returned for drink orders, and MFO chose the “fresh in house to order” Mint Limeade, and our friend the Grapefruit soda; and I selected a glass of Italian Prosecco, all suitable selections for the weather. Oddly enough, and to be repeated, each of our selections were rated by our server (that’s my favorite!; excellent Choice! Wonderful!), which, while maybe reassuring, not very valuable information (at least to the feeder). We ordered a Skillet Corn Bread for the table, MFO and our friend the “Roasted Chicken Salad” - Creamy rotisserie chicken salad with dried blueberries and marcona almonds served over tender bibb lettuce, golden beets, avocado, and tomatoes, sprinkled with an herb vinaigrette; and after a good deal of gnashing considering the weather, the rest of the day’s activities, I ordered the “Derby Chop Salad” - Mixed chopped lettuces, bacon, turkey, and crumbled bleu cheese topped with our house made Louie dressing. All were excellent choices!!.

After cresting that task, looking around the room rekindled my passion for DFD (or DFL in this case) as many of the diners were in cut-offs, ladies in short shorts, Levi’s and Tee’s; and mostly young. When MFO pointed out we were in the middle of GWU, I begrudgingly backed off, instantly recognizing college students (and apparently fairly well heeled ones at that). In contrast there were also suits from the local meetings I suspect. Drinks didn’t appear and didn’t appear, with “they’re almost ready” delivered a couple of times (maybe it took a while to grind that mint and pick the grapefruit), finally they did (with scant apologies) along with the cornbread and all were very refreshing. The cornbread was lighter and not grainy, contained kernels, and was very tasty.

The salads were finally brought to the table by a third party resulting in auctioning them off. They were all just great. The chicken salads were centered on wonderfully fresh buttery bibb lettuce, and fanned into spokes upon which was the beets, tomatoes and avocados. The salad itself contained actual dark meat which we all know is where a lot of the “chicken” flavor lies. My Derby Chop was served in a big mixing bowl and was just that. Chopped lettuces with shreds (not chunks mind you, but you could see the grain) of very flavorful turkey, the bacon was more like fat back, large chunks with a delicious smoke, and the blue cheese crumbled throughout with flavorful cherry tomatoes (split to avoid that “squirt” thing). Quantities were all or more than you could ask for.

Since the plates were delivered by that third party, you might think that our server would come by to check, but that wasn’t the case. I think if you’re going to have somebody from the kitchen deliver them, the server should check in very soon to see if there were any concerns, but no. As the time was slipping by we reluctantly decided not to try the Authentic Red Velvet Cake. It took a couple of tries for our server (whose name we knew by this time) to get the check split correctly.

Summary: The food is excellent, I would return for that with no qualms, but would hope for better timing and more attentive service. Again, although a great cause and worthy endeavor a little less tooting of one’s own horn might be in order. We get that…