The Canadian Connoisseur and The Communist Langolier: Founding Farmers

Organic and Delicious? Founding Farmers impresses a stuffy-nosed Langolier.

Confucius once said that one should never eat good food with a stuffy nose. Two and a half thousand years later that quote remains true and, as it happens, your friendly neighborhood Langolier has been suffering with a severe case of viral rhinitis for the last week. It’s an interesting feeling, eating without being able to smell, your tongue feels the sensation of the food and your brain is able to apprehend the flavor that is about to be tasted, but that flavor never comes and you’re left with a feeling of discontent comparable only to sexual frustration. Nonetheless, I had a date with a very cute little lady from Tennessee and was neither willing nor able to surpass a chance to hit up a fine establishment like Founding Farmers during restaurant week.

First of all, let me take a minute to sing an ode to the miracle that is restaurant week in Washington DC. My good friends Matt and Ting – both true aficionados of cuisine - went to no less than six restaurants over the past week. That’s what I call taking advantage of a bargain! Sadly, your correspondent is both too busy and too destitute to be living that kind of lifestyle. Still, a three course meal with wine for only thirty dollars is a luxury that I could splurge on.


Located in the new IMF building, “Founding Farmers” has an atmosphere that somehow manages to combine urban hipness with rural coziness. It’s a difficult trick to accomplish and my compliments go to the architect. The first floor has a bar and truly huge, wooden tables. Walk upstairs and you will find silo-shaped booths and a nice view unto Pennsylvania Avenue. The location and ambiance make this restaurant ideal for GW students who are looking to throw down twenty-five bucks for a solid meal. However, I’ll let my partner the Canadian Connoisseur discuss such details and I’ll get to the part that really interests me – the chow.

Although I may be a voracious consumer of all types of life forms, that does not mean that I don’t treasure our environment or support animal rights. Founding Farmers focuses on small farmers – people who helped to establish our nation and today continue to provide us with delicious homegrown food. The restaurant is serious about providing its costumers with organic, local, and family-farmed sourced fare. Most of their meats are produced on free ranged farms and the vegetables are grown without chemical and biological enhancements. Even their water undergoes reverse osmosis by a special machine that they have in the restaurant! I never thought that DC tap water could taste so good!

For my entrée I had a very tasty “Late Harvest” Salad – a concoction of caramelized onions, apples, bacon, and bleu cheese that, admittedly, would have tasted a lot better if I was less sick and could sense all the flavors. One expects “Founding Farmers” to have a good selection of salads and the restaurant does not disappoint. Entrée salads are a bit small to satisfy a hungry guy, but the little salads go well along with an entrée. For my main course I decided to go with a dish that even my nose could not ruin – good, ole’ fashioned meat-loaf with Yukon gold mashed potatoes. Mmmmmm, mmmmm, good! Other entrees that I would recommend are the rotisserie chicken, herb crusted prime rib, and any of the homemade pastas. One thing that I did not get, but will certainly savor next time I hit up this joint, is one of their signature cocktails. The menu claims that “our specially trained bar chefs bring this lost art back from its heyday”. I never realized that the art of making drinks was lost, but I have a feeling that “Hemingway’s Frappe” with Absinthe or “Chelsea’s Manhattan” with Chai-infused Vermouth could bring anyone back to the Halcyon days of old when men were men, food was organic, and drinks cost a nickel. Well, not exactly, but overall I found the restaurant to be reasonably priced for a working professional. As for GW students, in today’s economy I’d save this one for a special occasion.



I have to begin by giving my partner big props for our Restaurant Week pick. I had wanted to try Founding Farmers ever since it opened sometime last year (it was their “green” mission that interested me most), so when I learned that we had a reservation there, I was pretty excited….and then, when I found out that their Restaurant Week menu included wine, I was smitten. I’m no Restaurant Week authority, by any means, but this is the only place I know of that actually includes a glass of wine in the price of dinner…what a deal!

So like I said, it was the “green” aspect of this new restaurant that intrigued me from the start, and once we were seated, our friendly waiter told us more of the details. Not only does Founding Farmers get most of its ingredients from local sustainable farms, but the entire place was specifically designed in an eco-friendly manner. The restaurant employs great habits like on-site recycling, making use of natural daylight, and using solar energy (just to name a few) in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint. Come on, how could you not feel good about supporting this place? We were feeling good about this meal, even before we looked at the menu!

First, we ordered our wines: one was an organic Chardonnay from Chile, and the other was an Argentinean Malbec from a sustainable winery called Yellow + Blue (equals “green”…get it?). Both of the wines available with the Restaurant Week dinner were regularly $8 or $9 a glass, and among the cheaper of the options on the wine by the glass list. We had barely had time to taste the wine before our salads arrived. I had the Farmer’s Salad - an interesting mixture of avocado, medjool dates, tomatoes, almonds, and chunks of fresh parmesan cheese. I have to admit, it’s not a combination I would have ever thought of myself, but it turned out to be surprisingly delicious! For my entrée, I had the Plank Salmon with a lemon-herb sauce. It had been smoked on a piece of Cedar wood, so it had a rich smoky flavor. With it, came the vegetable of the day, which happened to be some nice garlicky Swiss Chard. For desert, we had homemade ice cream and a big piece of Red Velvet cake. The cake was really red, though not so velvety, but it was topped with undoubtedly the best homemade cream cheese icing either of us had ever tasted.

Although our choices on this particular visit were somewhat constricted by what was included as part of the Restaurant Week deal, there were lots of other great options on the menu. For vegetarians, each suitable item on the menu is marked with an asterisk for your convenience. However, be sure to pay close attention to the markings, since I noted that some seemingly vegetarian dishes - like the tomato soup, for example - did not have an asterisk. Also of note was the mouth watering list of sandwich options, most cost between $8 and $12, and all served on fresh bread made from scratch right there at the restaurant! By the end of the night, we had already decided that we would be coming back to pay homage to our Founding Farmers again in the near future. The service was excellent, the food came out fast, and knowing that you’re supporting a great place should make seeing the bill a little easier! I’d suggest making reservations if you plan to go during peak dinner hours or Sunday brunch.

Founding Farmers is opened for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; Everyday 8-11 am. The Bar is opened till 12.