My Weekend Brunch Review

This weekend my grandparents and parents came for a visit to the District. We made a lot of great DC trips, such as going to the National Gallery of Art and the American History museum, but what DC weekend trip would be complete without a few good meals? Here is my review of the two brunch meals we went to at Founding Farmers and Ted's Bulletin. Keep an eye out for my dinner reviews coming later this week!

Founding Farmers

Address and Neighborhood: 1924 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20006 in Foggy Bottom

Price Range: $/$$ (Typical breakfast entrees range from $5-$15)

Overall rating: 4/5 for Service

4/5 Food Quality and Overall Value

Founding Farmers is located right on the edge of GW’s campus and boasts a great menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My parents and I personally find their breakfast to be their best meal and it is surprisingly inexpensive. I always like to try as many of the menu items as possible and usually when my family comes to visit we rotate plates to try a little bit of everything.

If you are dining with a group I recommend starting off with Uncle Buck’s Beignets which comes with three sauces: raspberry, chocolate and caramel. They do take 20 minutes so be sure to order shortly after being seated. The great thing about a plate that is made to order is that they are still hot when they arrive at the table and topped with powdered sugar.

My Dad and I split the Buttermilk Carrot Cake Pancakes ($8) and the McCann’s Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal ($5). The oatmeal comes with a fabulous vanilla bean cream, golden raisins, almonds, brown sugar, and fresh strawberries. Not only are the accompaniments a great way to spice up a typical breakfast dish, but it is also only $5. I can barely walk out of any food establishment in DC (quick-serve or wait-staff) without spending $10, so let’s just say this is a quite a steal. The pancakes are perfectly fluffy, have a light cinnamon taste with carrot shreds, and to top it off the center of the stack is filled with a cream cheese frosting. Overall, you can get plenty of great food with a small price tag. I do have one important recommendation though. In order to avoid the wait times be sure to book your reservation about a week or two in advance and you should get seated right on time!

Ted’s Bulletin

Address and Neighborhood: 505 8th St SE  Washington, DC 20003 in Eastern Market/Barracks Row

Price Range: $/$$ (Typical breakfast entrees range from $5-$15)

Overall rating: 4.5/5 for Service

4.5/5 Food Quality and Overall Value

The first thing I heard about Ted’s Bulletin was that they had homemade pop tarts, probably my favorite unhealthy breakfast food since I was a kid, which alone was enough of a reason to stop by for Sunday brunch after a walk around Eastern Market. There is usually a wait because of the restaurant’s popularity, but they do have call-ahead seating which helps.

I started with the bottomless coffee which comes with your own pitcher so you can top off your mug at your leisure. Coffee is definitely a morning staple for me and this was much better than your typical weak diner-style coffee and paired nicely with the pop tarts.

    
Blueberry Cheesecake, Peanut Butter Bacon, Strawberry, Brown Sugar Cinnamon, Toasted Coconut and Nutella are the flavors that Ted’s offered on Sunday. I couldn’t decide on what flavor I wanted! I finally decided to order the Brown Sugar Cinnamon and also took a Blueberry Cheesecake one to go, which served as a yummy Monday morning treat. The crust is almost like a flaky pie crust and the filling for the brown sugar cinnamon makes me never want to eat a regular pop tart again. The blueberry cheesecake was also great, filled with real blueberries and cheesecake filling. They both were topped with sprinkles, yellow, orange, and green for the brown sugar cinnamon and blue and purple for the blueberry cheesecake. I also got to try the sausage patties and hash browns. Although the pop tarts were my favorite, the other breakfast items proved to be worth a return trip to Ted’s Bulletin.

    
Our server was kind and apologized for the long wait (although it really wasn’t too bad, thanks to calling ahead), even one of the managers stopped by to ensure that we were happy with our meals and the service. Overall, it was a great outing. Maybe next time I will stop by the 14th and S St NW, U Street neighborhood location when it opens. It will seat 170 customers, about twice the size of the Eastern Market location.