Sustainable Brunching: "Are You Ready for This?"

Let's welcome a brand new guest blogger! RBC, who lived in DC & worked with me my first year here, now resides back in her hometown of that other city, New York, though she does occasionally grace us with her presence back here in the District (she's the one in blue, below). This past weekend was one such gem of a visit. On Saturday morning, she also joined in on Round IV of The Great DC Brunch Tour, wherein six of my favorite ladies braved the winter cold to dine at Founding Farmers, which I've been dying to try for months now. Read on for RBC's review!

Biting winds couldn't keep us away from Founding Farmers, the site of the Saturday stop on the Great DC Brunch Tour of 2009-2010. While outside, it was blustery and cold, the inside of this sustainable restaurant on 20th & Pennsylvania was a bright, warm space, with large windows that made the most of DC's feeble winter light, & eco-friendly decor that inspired both the foodie & HGTV-watcher in me. From the moment I stepped inside, I was ready to dig into brunch & bask in the atmosphere that was so perfectly up my alley.

Upon arriving considerably early, we chose to bide our time at the bar (which serves fresh Arnold Palmers, a particular joy in my life) before heading upstairs to our perfectly sized round table - a feat for large, oddly numbered parties such as our own. Two minutes of consulting the menu told me my pledge to bring moderation into my new year would have to wait another day. Cory, our fantastically friendly & impressively game waiter, took our orders & did a commendable job keeping up with our requests (& keeping any opinions about the quantity of food I ordered to himself). Bonus points to him for affably chattering with us, finding the perfect balance of attentiveness without hovering, & laughing along with our over-long innuendo-fest regarding the strangely named peanut/fruit mix titled "Jonny's Nuts."

We Brunch Tour participants ordered a variety of items that, I believe, all hovered on the delicious end of the food-critic spectrum - all enhanced by the waitstaff's enthusiasm when bringing our meals out: exclamations of "OK, are you ready for this?!" & "Here's some Florentine action for you!" accompanied our plates to the table.

The verdict: the coffee was excellent, a proper brunch blend. My roasted tomato soup, pastrami hash & black pepper maple "bacon upgrade" were all flavorful & to be savored, the latter of which prompted me to enthuse, "I want this with me always." [ Note from your Suburban Sweetheart: This was one of the most hilarious food-induced utterances ever.] Admittedly, I spent more time powering through my own piles of food than I did paying attention to the reviews of my fellow diners, but I did manage to catch their applause for the fruit salad's lack of honeydew (apparently previously ferreted out to be a sneaky space-filler) & the reasonably priced menu.

On a slightly different note, though certainly no less important, the auto-flush in the restrooms were perfectly timed, & the music playing unobtrusively in the background was an eclectic, fun mix. I clearly had a ball & find myself wishing Founding Farmers would open a satellite location in New York City, preferably on 52nd & 1st.