4/5 stars
$$$
This weekend, Farmers Fishers Bakers held its grand reopening on the Georgetown waterfront. The restaurant, formerly known as Farmers & Fishers, closed for extensive renovations after flooding in the Washington Harbour in 2011 and is the sister restaurant of D.C. hotspot Founding Farmers.
The restaurant lives up to its name, providing an extensive menu with a focus on seasonal ingredients, eclectic flavors and sustainability. The restaurant’s scenery is as unique as its menu; a heated outdoor patio provides a prime view of the ice skating rink, and an open bakery allows the smells of hearty bread and fresh baked goods to waft throughout the dining room. Paintings on the walls vary in subjects from famous quotes to a recipe for southern biscuits. Everywhere you look is something new and quirky.
The menu offers something for everyone from seasonal salads and pizza tojambalaya and meats. It took me 15 minutes just to narrow down my top options. I finally selected potato planks and the purple and black kale salad as my appetizers. The potato planks were thick and crispy — almost like French fries — with a light drizzle of honey and two different dipping sauces to accompany the dish. The kale salad, lightly dressed and topped with rhubarb and roasted nuts, was almost big enough to be its own entree.
As part of my main course, I tried the St. Louis thin-crust pizza. Topped with meatballs and a hearty cheese blend, this pizza was rich without being heavy. The pizza was just the right size to serve a single person but to also allow friends at the table to steal a few bites. For my actual entree, I ordered two sushi dishes off the chef’s tasting menu: the FFB Tuna and the Wonder Jack Tiki. Unlike a typical sushi roll, these dishes were riceless. Thin slices of fruit separated fresh tuna and white fish, and each was topped with different sauces and fruit garnishes.
Now the best part: dessert! Farmers Fishers Bakers has a seemingly endless dessert menu, with options ranging from decadent devil’s food cake to spiced apple crisp. My friends and I ordered the devil’s food chocolate cake and dulcede leche cake to share. Each was accompanied by a scoop of ice cream — peppermint and secret breakfast, respectively. The peppermint ice cream was creamy and gave a cool burst of flavor that paired perfectly with the velvety, thick and rich chocolate devil’s food cake. And what is secret breakfast ice cream, you ask? From what I could gather, it is vanilla ice cream mixed with cereal — an odd, but surprisingly good, combination. In addition, the dulce de leche cake was warm and rich with a soft, decadent center. It was the perfect ending to a great meal.
I should note that the service was not up to par; everyone’s dish was served at a different time — with significant lag time — preventing a cohesive meal. This is probably due to the learning curve of opening a restaurant and will surely be corrected. Farmers Fishers Bakers is a delightful and affordable addition to the waterfront’s culinary offerings, and it is sure to become a staple for the Georgetown community.
