Fallingwater Cafe

One of the places in western Pennsylvania that was a must for our road trip was Frank Lloyd Wright's amazing Fallingwater. Designed in the 1930s as a residence, it's an amazing architectural masterpiece built over a waterfall. We really enjoyed the tour, and after spending time taking in Fallingwater from every angle, we headed over to their cafe for some lunch.

The Fallingwater Cafe was focused on seasonal and local fare, and served soups, sandwiches, and salads. This seemed to fall right in line with the Fallingwater aesthetic and philosophy of fitting in with the land and the environment.

We got 2 different items for lunch. One was Liliane Kaufmann's chicken salad from the Fallingwater cookbook. The Kaufmanns were the clients Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house for, and I guess this salad was a specialty there. The salad was described as having chicken, grapes, celery, and water chestnuts with a homemade dressing. It was served with a corn stick, which was like an elongated corn muffin. The salad itself we thought was good, clean tasting, but nothing extraordinary.

The other thing we got was the mixed mushroom melt (garlic and thyme sauteed portabello, shiitake, oyster and cremini mushrooms with lettuce, tomato, and mozzarella on Cuban roll) with a side of a cool English pea and couscous salad. From what we remember, the sandwich was pretty good. Again, very clean flavors, good quality ingredients, and well-executed. The part I remember a bit more is the pea and couscous salad, which I remember tasted very fresh and bright, but I also probably remember this more because of my love for Israeli couscous.

Overall, we had a nice light lunch at Fallingwater Cafe. We were still in a really great mood after spending the morning around such architectural beauty, and it was great to be able to extend that a little longer with some lunch there. Was it the most amazing, extraordinary food we had on our trip? Probably not, but it was a good, solid meal and we were glad we went.