The menu looked good, good food, not too pretentious. When the waiter gave us his spiel, we got a little worried – he  seemed to have a little of that overly precious, temple of food attitude – but it all worked out. The only thing I thought was that the menu was a little too hearty for the 97-degree weather outside. There were burgers and pork chops and mac and cheese. We started with a skillet corn bread, with corn kernels in. I had a fried chicken salad with bacon and avocado – a salad, but definitely on the rich side. I only ate half of it, and was still kind of too full. Mark got steak with green beans and mashed potatoes – the green beans were perfect.

It was a good thing we had a walk, to aid digestion – past the White House, and through Lafayette Square, where we watched a duckie swim under the loops of water in the fountain – to get back to the hotel, to watch the 11:30 repeat of vampires.

Main entrance at Founding Farmers restaurant

Not sure if these were for eating or for show - they are giant carrots

We got cold drinks instead of dessert

Like the bread – there were five little breads, 3 flavors: a square bacon & cheese biscuit; Rosemary-garlic focaccia; and two little round dill buns.

The warm spinach salad came rolled up in a ball. It had so much more than just spinach – bacon, feta, deep-fried crispy shallots.

I had the vegetarian entree. On the menu it was described as cannelloni stuffed with a mushroom “sausage”, with sweet potato. The noodle was very little in evidence. The mushroom filling had no visible mushrooms. It was very finely ground, pretty well flavored – thyme-y – generally sausage-like. There was a little light mornay (cheese) sauce on top. The sweet potato was mashed and piped out as rosettes on top, and baked quite solid. Then they threw a big handful of arugula on top, and drizzled on some dressing – oh yea, and more of the crispy shallots. The greens were actually the best part.

posted from my iPhone

We started wandering around Harvard Square and ended up at a place called Harvest, that our local guide described as really good food but kind of pricey. (she was kind of a regular at the place; the host & waiter knew her from coming in to sit at the bar and have a snack)

I had the Grilled Line Caught Swordfish with Braised Artichoke Barigoule, Chickpeas, Smoked Bacon & Pickled Shallots, $29

Grilled Swordfish at Harvest

Sometimes I disappoint myself by ordering things that I wouldn’t get at home – as shown, it was a nice big piece of fish, bland but with nice grill char; the sprouts & pickled shallots on top were a nice accompaniment; the brothy beans, bacon & mushy artichokes underneath were way too salty. So altogether the dish didn’t really add up.

Jane, our local, had the beet salad, with red wine vinaigrette subbed in for the hazelnut, due to her nut allergy (nut-brown color in the picture notwithstanding – it is the red wine)

Roasted Local Beet Salad - Watercress, Frisée, Comte Cheese, Haricot Verts, Hazelnut Vinaigrette & Black Pepper Cracker

Mark had the special, and he said his beans, rather than being too salty, tasted like his mom’s Navy bean soup (real, US Senate, Navy bean soup)

Caramelized scallops on cannellini beans with ham

Probably the best dish of all was the wedge salad that we split.

Classic Wedge Salad: Baby Iceberg, Maple Smoked Bacon, Great Hill Blue Cheese & Local Farm Eggs