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Betting the Farm: Farmers take risk with two restaurants to showcase food from family farms
AP Photo
Jars of fresh vegetables are on display at the Founding Farmers' restaurant in Washington, which showcases food from family farms.
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Published: September 29, 2008
WASHINGTON
North Dakota farmers have spent $6 million to open a pair of Washington restaurants, one just blocks from the White House, to showcase food from family farms. The newer eatery aims to be "Washington's greenest restaurant."
"We believe we are doing the right thing, doing it the right way, and the profit will come," says Ralph DeRose, the general manager of Founding Farmers, a modern space with an environmentally friendly design.
The North Dakota Farmers Union, which has 42,000 members, has made the investment despite the economic downturn, high food prices and risks inherent in running a restaurant. With Founding Farmers, which opened this month, the group is betting on the success of a growing trend in the business: food straight from the farm, in a place with a green focus.
The first restaurant, Agraria, was built in a massive, darker space in the city's Georgetown neighborhood. Though popular with tourists, it has struggled to catch on with people in the city since opening in 2006.
DeRose says that the management team is trying to get it right this second time. Unlike Agraria, Founding Farmers was built to comply with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), a third-party certification for the design, construction and operation of green buildings.
"To do farm-to-table the way you envision it, you need to do it like this," said DeRose, sitting at a sunny table in the restaurant less than a week after its opening.
The restaurant focuses on serving food from family farms in the United States, delivered by co-ops that buy the food directly from smaller, noncorporate farms. Much of the food is bought locally, though the restaurant gets food from North Dakota and other states farther away.
That is a more complicated and expensive business plan compared with restaurants that use large distributors. But the owners say that it allows customers to know where their food is coming from.
Founding Farmers is not the only restaurant trying to bring in customers by appealing to their environmental and food-safety concerns.
Pizza Fusion, a Florida chain, has sold 75 franchises in 15 states by using locally grown foods.
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