Founding Farmers is an American upscale-casual restaurant owned by the North Dakota Farmers Union and Farmers Restaurant Group (FRG). The restaurant was founded in 2008 when Farmers Restaurant Group co-owners Dan Simons and Michael Vucurevich partnered up with the North Dakota Farmers Union to open the flagship Founding Farmers on Pennsylvania Avenue in

Washington, D.C ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. Founding Farmers was the first LEED Gold Certified restaurant in Washington, D.C. Since opening Founding Farmers DC in 2008, FRG has opened 6 other locations in DC,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, and

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Founding Farmers also has a sister restaurant
Farmers Fishers Bakers
located in Washington, D.C.

History

In 2005, members of the North Dakota Farmers Union (NDFU) were interested in developing a restaurant where guests could have access to, and benefit from, food grown, raised, and harvested on American

family farm A family farm is generally understood to be a farm owned and/or operated by a family; it is sometimes considered to be an Estate (land), estate passed down by inheritance. Although a recurring conceptual model, conceptual and archetype, archet ...

s. They also wanted to bring awareness to American family farmers and help farmers earn a larger share of the food dollar. The NDFU first started a restaurant called Agraria, which failed due to numerous factors. The NDFU reached out to restaurateurs and owners of VSAG, a restaurant and hospitality consulting company
Dan Simons
and Michael Vucurevich. They then partnered to open the first of their restaurants, Founding Farmers DC, in 2008. Founding Farmers restaurants were sued in 2017 for overtime and wage violations. The lawsuit alleged they had employees work at different restaurants to get around having to pay overtime wages, had to share tips with managers, denied sick leave, and required employees to attend meetings without being paid. Founding Farmers agreed to pay up to $1.49 million to settle the lawsuit.

The menus are slightly varies by locations, each incorporating with local tastes and trends. All of the food prepared in Founding Farmers kitchens is made in-house daily, and all locations are part of the Certified Green Restaurant Associatio

All breads are baked at their in-house bakery, with approximately 118,000 loaves baked per year. Their most popular items include: cornbread, chicken and waffles, grilled cheese with tomato soup, and bacon lollies. In 2013, Founding Farmers published a

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cour ...

with 100 of their menu items. Their bar has gained recognition for their pre-prohibition style

cocktail A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink. Most commonly, cocktails are either a combination of spirits, or one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients such as tonic water, fruit juice, flavored syrup, or cream. Cocktails vary widely across ...

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

, and

craft beer Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...

. With a full bar in each of their restaurants, they have also gained recognition for their craft cocktails made with spirits from their distillery �
Founding Spirits
— located inside thei
Founding Farmers a & Distillers DC
location.

Reviews

Travel and Leisure Magazine ''Travel + Leisure'' is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC, with trademark rig ...

named Founding Farmers "The Best Farm-To-Table" in Washington, D.C. In 2015, Founding Farmers gained recognition in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

for their inclusive

gender-neutral Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral), also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, is the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions (social structures or gender roles) should avoid distinguish ...

restrooms. In early 2011, Chef

Robert Irvine Robert Paul Irvine (; born 24 September 1965) is an English celebrity chef and talk show host who has appeared on and hosted a variety of Food Network programs including '' Dinner: Impossible'', ''Worst Cooks in America'', '' Restaurant: Imposs ...

discussed Founding Farmers' Devilish-Eggs on Food Network's " The Best Thing I Ever Ate". In June 2016, popular

food critic The terms food critic, food writer, and restaurant critic can all be used to describe a writer who analyzes food or restaurants and then publishes the results of their findings. While these terms are not strictly synonymous they are often used int ...

Tom Sietsema reviewed Founding Farmers in The

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

, giving the restaurant a 0-star rating. Founding Farmers sets the DC Record for Number of Yelp Reviews

Awards

* ''

Washington City Paper The ''Washington City Paper'' is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The ''City Paper'' is distributed on Thursdays; its average circulation in 2006 was 85,588. The paper's editorial mix is focused ...

–'' Best of D.C. 2019, 2019 * ''Huffington Post'' – The 10 Most Sustainable Restaurants, 2016 * ''

Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Co. (formerly Wyndham Destinations, Inc. and Wyndham Worldwide Corporation) is an American timeshare company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It develops, sells, and manages timeshare properties under several vacation ownershi ...

'' – The Best Farm-to-Table Restaurant in Every State, 2016 * ''Mail Line Today'' – 20 Best New Restaurants on the Main Line * ''Washington City Paper'' – Best of DC Best Bloody Mary, 2015 * ''

Bethesda Magazine ''Bethesda Magazine'' is a bimonthly magazine distributed in Montgomery County, Maryland which began in 2004. It is named after the prosperous suburban area Bethesda, Maryland. The magazine was founded by Steve Hull. Despite its name, the magazin ...

'' – Best of Bethesda 2018 Best Restaurant in Potomac, 2018 * ''Bethesda Magazine'' – Best of Bethesda 2018 Best Brunch, 2018 * ''Bethesda Magazine'' – Best of Bethesda 2018 Best Cocktails, 2018 * OpenTable – Most Booked Restaurant on OpenTable in the U.S.

Locations

In 2019, Founding Farmers has six locations throughout the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area and King of Prussia, PA. An additional sibling location is Farmers Fishers Bakers DC in Georgetown's Washington Harbour. They are planning to open a seventh location in Alexandria, VA in the summer of 2024.

References

External links

* * *
Founding Farmers
on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

Founding Farmers
on

DoorDash DoorDash, Inc. is an American company that operates an online food ordering and food delivery platform. The company is based in San Francisco, California. It went public in December 2020 on NYSE and trades under the symbol DASH. With a 56% mar ...