American Flatbread

I noticed a sign on the door of American Flatbread that they’re opening on Friday June 1st.

 

what's the word on AF? what are they "like"? (another type of restaraunt they're similar to?) i thought it was like a panera or something..but then i saw the bar inside.

 

We were honored to be included in their preview the other night (big shout out to Scott!). It's nothing like Panera. It's a pizza place with beer and wine. The interesting part is that it's pizza made from organic, local, or regional ingredients. Also, the bar includes local faves too (like Old Dominion). The non-alcoholic selection is Old Dominion sodas and Knudsen's spritzers. They have flatbreads (aka pizzas) with and without tomato sauce. Check out their current menu at http://www.americanflatbread.com/ashburn/menu_pop.htm.

We got to try their salad (yum), Cheese & Herb flatbread (delish, no tomato sauce), Pepperoni & Peppers (a little overcooked, but still good), apple pie (would have been better warm), and brownie (very rich and good). Both desserts came with ice cream too, which was also good. The food all seems very fresh.

The space itself is very warm and inviting. Seems like a great place to hang with friends. The front is all glass and lets in the light. The booths are roomy and the space is large with lots of tables. The wood-burning oven and preparation is all in full view (a hit with my 7-year-old).

Give it a try!

 

Yea, look at the website and you will get a better idea about the place, their approach and philosophy - which highly influence the food and atmosphere.

They are indeed opening Friday to the public and are currently "practicing" and getting ready. Some of the pizza I saw was over-cooked but I think that is of course part of the practice. Beer and Wine are also influenced by their desire to be organic, fresh and local. It is noisy due to the open room, wood floor and tables/chairs but very inviting. I think the pizza is 12" and would feed 2 people (not 2 big guys). And that is it.

Not a big menu but very good at what I saw so far... other than the fact they had a fleet of 15-year old girls working there, running around with way too much energy and pep, and not enough "knowledge"...

 

I love their white pizza. You can actually buy it in the Supermarkets in CT. A couple of years ago, I even asked Wegmans if they would sell it but they couldn't at the time. I hope this restaurant works out!

 

Was at the preview last night and was excellent. Feel a little healthier knowing that it's organic and made with wheat bread/crust. Doesn't help that I ate 8 pieces though. Great local beer on tap, and a great micro selection as well. (Dogfish on Tap!!) Roomy enough for large families. Recommend the Pepperoni and Peppers, very tasty.

 

...so the deliguy does eat at other places. I knew it! And I second the BIG Thumbs up for Dogfish - great beer and company.

 

Went there this evening for dinner. We were seated (restaurant was only 1/3 to 1/2 full), given menus..........nothing.........nothing..........waited 10 minutes (tried to flag down a server...no luck).....nothing....so - we walked out (a cheerful "bye" from the hostess at the door), went to Fosters and had a great meal.

Let me know if anyone has had a good meal here - they need to work out the front end. Menu seemed very limited. One thing I noticed - the way they have their hearth oven set up, they build a fire in the middle, and have a platform on each side for the pizzas. The hearth is fairly small, and it looks like they can only fit 4 pizzas at one time in the oven - this is likely to be a major bottleneck.

I hope they expand the menu - I doubt we will frequent this place much with the limited menu they have now.

 

StevieD - this is the menu. That is it. Now they may change the pizza toppings depending on what is available, but look at their website. Their WHOLE model of business is built around this flatbread pizza.

The service was one of my concerns too, and I think one of the challenges restaurants around here have now is the pool of talent. Actually, the lack of talent. How many decent servers are there around here? But I will cross my fingers that they figure this out. Given that this is opening day, I am surprised that there was not a manager on top of this stuff.

 

Re: American Flatbread ...give it a try!

I was greeted by two lovely young ladies...worked my way to the bar to have a freshly tapped brewski whilst awaiting the arrival of my "Flatbread" (not a pizza). The barstaff was attentive and friendly, and it was nice to visit a place built from the ground up by a really nice Broadlands family.

My pepperoni flatbread was quite tasty, and the herbs add a unique and flavorful dimension to a "staple" of the pizza world. It travelled home well, but I'm going to guess that the flatbreads are really at their best moments after leaving the oven.

You should definitely give this place a try... their pies are definitely a step up from most of the places in this area, and the organic ingredients are a nice change from the chemicals with which a normal pizza would be laden.

 

Actually, you can "free-style your pie and get any number of ingredients in many different combinations.

 

Hmmm...you guys always get bad service it seems. My wife and I actually talked ot the owner, the manager and a few other people who may or may not have been important last night. All about beer though. We didnt get to try the pizza, but definatly will be trying it in the near future. The fact that they use sustainable products, and try their best to use local products is one huge reason I will be patronizing this place.

Plus they will be having beer dinners. I think they are looking at having a dogfish head and a bells brewery themed dinner. I'm so there.

 

Yeah, we haven't had the best of luck with service in this area - I think it's reflective of the market economics in this area. It's good to hear folks like the food, though. But there are lots of restaurants in the area where we've had excellent food AND service - Amvrosia, Foster's Grill, Emilios, Clydes, Anothai, San Vito, Blue Ridge Grill, Cafe Opera (we've had problems with takeout, but in-restaurant is great)......with all the choices we have now, its easy to be a bit pickier about these things. I haven't written off American Flatbread (we generally try a place at least 3 times before we will form a real opinion about it) - and I understand opening night is not necessarily the best time to judge a place. I also like the use of local ingredients (although I'm a bit jaded when I hear "organic" - this is a term that gets thrown around a lot and means different things to different folks - with no standard definition, its hard to say what it means), and I like the beer angle.

 

My wife and I tend to have pizza on Friday nights, so we decided to try American Flatbread last night. We had a very pleasant "European-style" experience. By this I mean we didn't feel rushed or ignored. The service was attentive, the food came out at a reasonable pace, an owner stopped by to chat, and we had to ask for the check. (I personally like to ask for the check. It gives me the feeling that the restaurant is willing to serve me as long as I want to be served. When the check is given to me unasked I get the feeling the restaurant is saying, "we're done with you, please pay and leave so we can have the table for someone else"; this is particularly annoying when I planned on having some dessert or something else to drink.) While the person serving us was clearly inexperienced, she seemed to be trying to do a good job; we all have to start somewhere and I think enthusiasm and a good attitude count for a lot when starting out.

From the chat with one of the owners, they live here in Broadlands.

We had wine, salad, flatbread, and the brownie dessert; it was good. The flatbread was larger than expected and we brought half of it home and expect to enjoy it today.

We definitely plan on going back.

 

My husband and I went Friday night - not realizing it was their opening. We arrived around 6pm. We were nicely greeted and seated at the table right in front of the oven. The hostess was a little confused about which table to take us to - just a matter of learning the table numbers.

It was only a short time until we realized - and confirmed with our server - that it was their opening night to the public. They did a pretty good job, though you could tell (since we were close to the open "kitchen") that they were still working out some kinks.

The place was about 3/4 full and the wait staff was attentive. Our server, Laura (laurie?), did a fine job, including answering a few of our questions. When we asked what was in the mix of herbs that are sprinkled on the top, she admitted that she didn't know, but promptly returned with the answer from the kitchen (parsley, basil, marjoram).

We split the salad first, which was very fresh and we enjoyed the unique ingredients (seaweed strands, sesame seeds). We also split a Pepperoni and Peppers, which they kindly left off the peppers (my husband doesn't like them). We thought the crust in the center was a bit soggy - could have been crisper, but the flavors were excellent.

They also have a strange way of cutting the flatbread (pizza) - not your usual pie shapes, but across the center then in "strips." We found this a little odd, but it didn't much matter as we ate just about all of it anyway.

The bill was right at $30 for my Dominion Root Beer, his Raspberry seltzer, one salad and pizza for two. A bit higher than we might pay elsehwere, or for take out. But the ingredients are very fresh tasting, and the service was very good.

Our one thought on leaving....would be to remove about 5 tables from the center section - it seemed cramped with tables.

I'm pretty certain we'll be back.

 

We tried American Flatbread last night. The pizza and the service were both good. We will definitely go back.

 

Yummm.. we had the white pizza (w/ herbs) - WOW first time I've had pizza that didnt drip with grease. Reminds me of the good old days in NJ.

 

Wait a sec! "Good" NJ/NY pizza is almost drowning in grease!

 

My thought exactly t8erman! NY Pizza keeps your coat nice and glossy ;D

 

Is this a place where little ones would be welcome, or is this adults/older kids only?