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Thursday, May 25, 2006

SNAPSHOTS FROM HOME
Agraria

Ecoute! If I wanted big sloppy taters served up by milkmaids, I’d have moved to North Dakota. I live in ‘thesda and dine in G’town because I want weird little Thai shrimpy things that make my tongue hurt. And I want them served by attractive supercilious young men.

If I wanted a slab of overdone steak and a menu with little biographies of the farmers who raised the cattle I’m chewing, I’d have moved to Pierre (which is in North or South Dakota). I live in Garrett Park and dine in Chevy Chase because I want gulab jamun and cardamom tea.

So why in the name of God does Agraria exist? Why did this new Georgetown restaurant open with a party last night at the tres chic National Building Museum?

Here's your opportunity to enjoy an evening of fine dining, high design, and conversations with architects--as well as the executive chef. On May 24 in Washington, D.C., the National Building Museum will host Dine by Design and celebrate the premiere of Agraria restaurant.

Designed by Adamstein & Demetriou (A & D), the firm behind Washington eateries IndeBleu, Zaytinya, and Zola, the restaurant is located in Georgetown's Washington Harbor. The event will include a four-course dinner and discussions about the space with A & D architects Olvia Demetriou and Theodore Adamstein.

Over coffee and dessert, executive chef Paul Morello, most recently of Les Halles fame, will discuss the culinary design of both the dinner and the menu. Owned by the North Dakota Farmers Union, Agraria will feature foods from throughout the country produced by family farmers and small businesses.

A reception will be held from 7-7:30pm. Dinner will run from 7:30-10:00pm. The event is $105 for museum members; $125 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required by May 21. The price includes reception, dinner, and gratuity. Liquor and wines are on a cash basis.


Agraria, it is clear, represents the worst of both worlds. It is aggressively down-home -- the nefarious work of a farmer’s cooperative -- and aggressively snobby -- its opening is not an opening but a “premiere,” as if it’s a film. If you’re a paid-up member of the Building Museum, you can chow down on its food for just over a hundred bucks a person, booze not included.




I enjoy postmodern delirium as much as the next person, but Agraria is trying to appeal to my snobbery by telling me it comes from the North Dakota Farmers Union.

Here’s an account of the place, from a heartland newspaper.

Naturally, UD has been unable to resist making a few parenthetical comments.



The ritzy Georgetown area of Washington is famous for fine dining, offering everything from French cuisine to eclectic Moroccan fusion.

Next week, Georgetown's newest chic restaurant opens it doors — offering the finest tastes of North Dakota. And hold the lutefisk jokes. [Glad to, since I don’t know what lutefisk is.]

Called Agraria, it's unlike anything that's come before. The restaurant is cooperatively owned by farmers from the Upper Midwest, who created the idea, invested $2 million to make it a reality, and who will produce much of the fresh food. Together, they share a vision of linking diners in the city with farmers on the land. [I prefer my labor invisible and alienated, thank you.]

"We're putting a face on the people who are raising the food, and we're trying to connect them with consumers through a food experience," said Doug Peterson, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, which offered some of Agraria's startup funding. [You’re making me nervous.]

Still, he admits, the idea of owning a fancy restaurant "is, frankly, something that farmers have not tried before."

When it opens, Agraria aims to be high-class all the way. Located on the pricey Georgetown waterfront, the restaurant features rich woods of walnut and hickory, four fireplaces, fine wines, private catering and an award-winning chef. There are also private rooms, ideal for an office party or congressional fundraiser.

At nearly 14,000 square feet, it's a huge space — and it's a country mile from the typical rural-themed restaurant decorated with rusty lanterns, gingham curtains and seed signs.

"This is a fine-dining establishment in a very affluent neighborhood," said Tom Prescott, the project manager. "We don't have any lanterns in our space."

What Agraria hopes to offer is fresh cuisine with personal stories: that all its food was produced on family farms, that its breads and pastas were milled by its North Dakota owners, that perhaps the beef just arrived from southern Minnesota, the potatoes from Idaho and the organic chicken from an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania.


…The distant hope is that Agraria will be so successful that the concept can spread to other cities. But Agraria is not entirely about money. Its owners also dream of renewing the lapsed connection between farmers on the land and consumers in the city.

"The important thing we want them to see is, farming is a very professional business, and the people doing this now are very good at what they do," Watne said.

Agraria hopes to deliver this message in bite-sized morsels, not in thick slabs.

"We recognize that when people dine, they don't want to be inundated with an educational component that is too much to handle," Prescott said. "We have subtle images," and the message is conveyed in many ways, from the décor to the menu to the waiters. [What? The waiters will be dressed as professional farmers?]

And on opening day, farmers will learn whether Georgetown is ready for fine dining from the Upper Midwest. Already, the Dakotans have been surprised to hear some things about East Coast patrons, such as the fashion at some high-end places of having a few "communal tables" for customers who like the idea of meeting new people while dining. [Communal tables? Educational pictures? Include me out.]