| Green Founding Mother |
Here’s a 21 Organic Carrot Salute to a Founding Mother in America’s capitol. She is Nora Pouillon, chef/owner of America’s very first certified organic restaurant. Her Restaurant Nora north of Dupont Circle became so in April, 1999. This means 95% or more of everything served here comes from certified organic growers and farmers who share in Austrian-born Nora’s commitment to sustainable agriculture. These 11 years later, it is still the only certified organic fine dining in the District of Columbia, and so it attracts a loyal following of environmentalists, politicians and others who want to know that what’s on their plate hasn’t polluted the environment, is seasonal and healthy for them, and tastes great, too.
Restaurant Nora: D.C.'s only certified organic fine dining
Restaurant Nora actually dates to 1979, when anything but steak-and-cigar power places or haute cuisine French were as scarce in D.C. as a lobbyist without an expense account the size of a small nation’s gross national product. In a real way, she was Alice Waters′ alter ego in Washington, emphasizing nonfussy, New American cuisine that changes daily based on the best available sourcing. Like Waters, she got to know local farmers and encouraged them to grow what she needed, in the way she wanted it grown. We’re talking grass-fed beef and free-range chicken, heirloom tomatoes and much more—long before they became common on upscale menus here and beyond. Although the D.C. dining scene is now competitive with the country’s most interesting, Nora continues to do what she’s always done…and does it very well.
She offers both a 4-course tasting menu (with a vegetarian option) and plates à la carte. Her dinner menu in celebration of Earth Day, for example, notes that pears, sunchokes, kale, asparagus, fiddlehead fern and dandelion greens are in season and tantalizes with such choices as Maine peekytoe crab salad with an ancho chili vinaigrette and a spring vegetable risotto with a parmesan tuile and pea tendril salad. The recipient of many honors over the years, Nora’s was awarded Diner’s Choice by Open Table users in 2009.
A converted grocery
Nora: Founding Mother
It’s a pretty place, romantic and intimate. Originally constructed in the 19th century as a grocery store, the main dining room now boasts museum-quality antique Mennonite and Amish crib quilts. The superb wine list showcases small producers, many of them biodynamic, organic or at least sustainable. Until late last year Nora also had Asia Nora, where she put the same organic ethic to work in the service of first-rate Asian fare. That venture is now closed. But the encouraging news is that its building has been sold to make way for redevelopment and a new green hotel.
Thank you, Nora.
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