Sometimes, the epicurean gods, feeling benign, smile on you. They forgive you for taking them for granted, for not planning ahead, for failing to do what you promised.

Such was the case with my effort to review Agraria, the glossy new $4 million restaurant on the Georgetown waterfront conceived by the North Dakota Farmers Union to showcase the products of family farmers and capture a greater share of the food dollar.  I had promised to turn in my review of the restaurant this week, but hadn’t been able to organize a dinner with members of the North Dakota delegation as planned, and I was about to leave the country.

So, in desperation, I took my wife and daughter and an out-of-town guest to dinner recently, but realized after we all ordered seafood that I had failed to sample the red-meat portion of the menu at a restaurant that gets most of its beef from North Dakota. So I invited two colleagues from The Hill to dinner Sunday at the last minute, two days before flying off to Istanbul and Paris. But alas, there was only one red-meat choice among the half dozen entrees on the menu, which changes daily and is still rather limited.

But not to worry. We arrived the same time as about 150 National Farmers Union (NFU) members from North Dakota, Minn., Wisconsin and other Midwestern states who were in town to lobby Congress and the Bush administration. They had taken over the restaurant for the evening, so I was able to interview some of the people who dreamed up this unique venture and helped finance it.

One was Robert Carlson of Minot, N.D., president of the North Dakota Farmers Union, which put up half the money for this spectacular 355-seat restaurant. (The other half comes from the National Farmers Union and many of its 40,000 members.)

“Our goal is to provide the best and freshest food from family farms all over the country, not just from North Dakota,” said Carlson. “We wanted to do it right. We hired good people and top architects [the celebrated husband-and-wife firm of Adamstein & Demetriou] because we wanted to make it successful. We’re really excited about using family farm identified food. Our consultants told us to reach for the upper-income level.”

Tom Buis, an ex-farmer from Indiana who is president of the National Farmers Union, said Agraria’s goal is to provide “better quality and better tasting food” from family farmers, ranchers and fishermen.

“It’s sort of the reversal of the McDonald’s approach where everything looks the same and tastes the same. It’s the fastest growing sector of the food business, natural organic source-verified, straight from the farm.”

Buis explained that the restaurant gets most of its produce from an organic farm cooperative in Pennsylvania, while its durum flour and beef come from North Dakota and seafood from Louisiana and Alaska.

There’s no question that Agraria, whose name is derived from the Latin word for field or land, is a spectacular addition to the D.C. dining scene. It occupies nearly 14,000 square feet with two large dining areas finished in rich walnut, hickory, cane and stone. One has a view of the open kitchen and chef’s table, and the other is situated around a dramatic curved marble-topped bar that overlooks an outdoor terrace and Washington Harbor’s splashing, illuminated fountains. There are four private dining rooms, including one with a 1,000-bottle wine cellar.

On Sunday, my two colleagues and I sat on the outdoor terrace because the Farmers Union had taken over the interior of the restaurant. It was a picture-perfect evening, with dozens of people strolling by, many of them on their way to nearby restaurants like Sequoia, Nick’s Riverside Grille, Tony and Joe’s and Cabanas, while airplanes roared over the Rosslyn skyline on their way into Reagan National, an eerie reminder of the recent fifth anniversary of 9/11.

So how is the food served up by Executive Chef Ricky Moore, who was hired after his predecessor quit a few days before the restaurant opened in June? It has flashes of brilliance, like the prosciutto-wrapped halibut with potato puree and shiitake mushrooms ($33) I chose on my first visit, or the sautéed sea scallops with rissole potatoes, bouillabaisse sauce and sage aioli ($28) that my wife ordered. Steamed mussels with Dijon sauce, Granny Smith apples and fennel butter ($15) were a standout starter as well.

But some other dishes were about as exciting as a drive across the vast North Dakota prairies. On my second visit, one of my guests ordered the “hay-roasted farm chicken with kale, bacon, buttermilk potato puree and pan jus” ($24), which she judged “good but kind of unexciting, like Thanksgiving. It was nicely cooked but I kind of wanted to be impressed by a combination of flavors.” I wonder if it really is “hay-roasted.”

My other guest, a confirmed health nut, had the grilled wild line-caught salmon with succotash and baby shrimp and a reduction of lemon Dijon sauce ($29), which he found “artfully presented but a little dry,” while my rib-eye “bistecca” arrived cooked as ordered, medium rare, and was tender and flavorful, but was smothered with roasted peppers, onions and potatoes, and oddly, accompanied by half a broiled lemon. At $34, I expected both less and more.

However, the desserts, all $9, really shine here. Like everything else, their ingredients come from family farmers, including luscious concoctions called “Sweet Corn” (pudding cake, blackberry ice cream and caramel popcorn),“White Peach” (buttermilk panna cotta and pistachio butter cookies) and “Coconut” (bread pudding, key lime ice cream drizzled with citrus honey).

The restaurant’s extensive wine list includes selections from around the world, with about a tenth of them marked by a symbol that indicates it’s from a vineyard that practices sustainable viticulture. At my second visit, we shared a bottle of the Hartford pinot noir from California’s Sonoma County, which at $59, was less impressive and not as good a value as the $36 chardonnay from the same vineyard that I ordered at our all-seafood dinner two nights earlier.

Service is enthusiastic and friendly, but was agonizingly slow on both my visits. Prices are steep. My two dinners with wine, dessert, tax and tip, averaged about $75 per person.

Because of its unique origins, Agraria has received nationwide coverage in the news media, and seems to be off to a good start, serving as many as 200 people at dinner during the week and as many as 270 on weekend nights. Like all farmers, its backers know they’re involved in a risky venture, but they are determined to succeed, and I wish them well.

Agraria Restaurant
Washington Harbor
3000 K St. N.W.
(202) 298-0003
www.AgrariaRestaurant.com
 
Hours:
Lunch: Tues.-Fri., 12 noon-3 p.m.
Dinner: Tues.-Thurs., 6-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 6-10:30 p.m.
Sun. brunch: 12-3 p.m., Dinner: 6-9:30 p.m. Closed Mon.
 
Prices: Expensive: Lunch, about $35-$45 per person; three-course dinner, $70-$80, including wine, tax and tip.
 
Ratings: Based on one-to-ten scale for food, service, ambiance and price/value; up to five domes awarded on the basis of reviewer’s judgment.
 
Food: 7 Ambiance: 10 
Service: 6 Price/Value: 7