Founding Farmers

Founding Farmers is another restaurant owned by the same group that operate Agraria Farmers and Fishers in Georgetown.  The restaurant uses the same reclaimed olde timey milk bottles for their water and same emphasis on fresh, wholesome ingredients, and the same contemporary-yet-rural design throughout the restaurant, which really like.

Just a couple blocks away from George Washington University’s main campus, it’s a very popular location for students to come drop in for brunch, although this is no student dining hall.  A huge menu provides a wide variety of tempting dishes, from skillets, french toasts, steaks, eggs, and teas.  They even have a rather decent vegan menu selection, which only further displays the restauranteur’s forward thinking of the type of people who live in the city these days.

The Banana Fluffer Nutter instantly stands out on the menu as a great opener to the meal, but in reality, falls a bit short of expectations.  Organic Peanut Butter, Banana slices and homemade marshmallow fluff served on half slices of whole wheat bread with crunchy chocolate giblets and peanuts should be absolutely amazing, but the best part of this dish was the presentation.  However, I could see this one being an order that knocks it out of the park with the kids because of the simplicity.  It’d probably help if our waiter had actually brought it over as a starter instead of having us to remind him to put in the order close to the end of the meal, but it still remains as something fun and different on the menu.

Not to say that there aren’t other dishes that hold their own in fun and different.

How about french toast?  But let’s take it up another notch, soaking fresh brioche in a brandy creme anglaise, and then stuffing it with a rich vanilla pastry cream.

BOOM.  Tell me those don’t look like a deep fried twinkie at a Texas county fair.  My friends who ordered the stuffed french toast both said the same thing while savoring each bite. “Oh, I don’t want this to end.”  The dish comes with a pad of fresh whipped butter and syrup (natch), and looks to be a great way to start out any brunch excursion.

Founding Farmers also offers a more tame version of their french toast, still soaked in the same brandy creme anglaise, but without the hot magma core deliciousness of the other.  Simple and satisfying, you can’t go wrong with this version, either.

Another interesting pick on the menu is the Fried Chicken, Egg, and Waffles.  The meat is actually a free range chicken, served with a side of gravy and whipped butter.  This is another dish that seemed to have wholly unexpected strengths and weaknesses.  For me, I’d almost expect the proportion of chicken to waffle to be more of along the lines of 1:1, but as you can see here, that’s just not the case.  A few chunks of chicken, while very well prepared, seemed diminutive in comparison to the waffle.  The gravy was more of a cream, lacking the thickness I was expecting.

The poached eggs I ordered were…well, decidedly not poached.  Kinda poached?

All that being said, the waffle was downright amazing.  Fluffy and crispy, this is a fantastic waffle, which I’ll attribute to both the batter used as well as the skill of the cook.  Any longer on the iron and this waffle would have turned slightly more brown and crunchy, rather than this golden hue of perfection.

The service here is friendly, but a little bit lacking.  Our waiter was not available nearly enough to check on our meal, and the the slight gaff of missing one of the items we ordered was an easy enough mistake for anyone to make, but still makes for a staff that I’d completely gush about.

My feelings about Founding Farmers is mixed.  There are something things here that really stand out as being spectacular, and then there are some dishes that seem like complete flubs.  I commend Founding Farmers for really taking some chances with their offerings, which in the end, will definitely have me coming back for another brunch in the future.  There’s also enough on the menu to please just about anybody’s palette, with even an All You Can Drink Water and Ice Cube Crunch Buffet for the anorexics.

On a scale of awesome, I’d rate Founding Farmers as a 3.5/5.

Or if you’re the visual type, it’s about this awesome:

See Founding Farmers on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Brunch with the Out-of-towners
• Vegans
• Vegetarians
• A nice pot of french press coffee after a long day of protesting the IMF or World Bank next door

Not Recommended For:

• Anybody who knows how Chicken ‘n’ Waffles is done.
• Carbophobes
• Speed Dating
• Announcing your candidacy for president of the Golden Girls fan club