Garden Cafe, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

My visit to the Garden Café at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC was notable for several reasons – it was the first time I visited the most upscale dining option a museum offers, I was meeting a friend from high school who lives in DC, and – despite being the most upscale – the first time I felt like an exhibit in a museum myself.

Brunch at the Garden

We were there on a weekend and decided to treat ourselves to the Brunch Buffet. The Garden Café consists of chairs and tables surrounding a fountain in the back atrium of the Main Floor of the West building of the National Gallery. Diners enjoy their meals behind velvet ropes… you feel like you’re on display. Throngs of visitors are circling past on their way to other exhibits and ogling your dining choices.  It was a bit like being in a zoo. But we were not tigers crouching over a haunch of meat.  In any case, once my friend and I were engaged in conversation and sipping our coffee, I forgot about the visitors mostly. (I hope the tigers do too.) The picture above was taken at a quiet moment before the venue opened.

Access Denied?

The Garden Cafe Weekend Brunch Buffet is $ 30 a person (as of July 2019) - and they want to make sure you know it. At the host stand they will ask you - you know this is expensive, right? They cite the price and make sure you want to stay. It makes you concerned that your appearance doesn’t signify an ability to pay such a price and that your acceptance in this rarefied air is not forthcoming. But I heard them make that point to everyone who approached so they must be tired of seating people and then having them walk out when the price is mentioned. The price is indeed posted, but as we all know, people don’t often read or are tired and just don’t notice.

Time to Relax

Once you’ve achieved a table - they offer an upscale buffet of soups, seasonal salads, pancakes, egg frittatas, charcuterie platter, salmon and roasted chicken, as well as fruit and mini-desserts. We did enjoy catching up over our leisurely brunch in such a beautiful setting. Despite the onlookers.

Photo: www.nga.gov/visit/cafes