Left: Flatbush Farm, bring your own candle. Center and right: The cheery chamber at the Farm on Adderley.Photo: Daniel Maurer
Musing on the new crop of Haute Barnyard restaurants, the Gobbler has promised those in need of relief that “there will often be herbs in the bathroom, and, if you’re lucky, a sprig of lavender.” We put the loos of two recent contenders, Flatbush Farm in Prospect Heights and the Farm on Adderley in Ditmas Park, to the test.
Concept: Like the bales of hay dotting its back patio, Farm on Adderley’s bathroom channels an Old Sturbridge Village guesthouse. There’s a chart for cooking with herbs, old-timey tile floor, framed postcards of the Coney Island shore in a recessed shelf, and a crystal chandelier. The more minimalist Flatbush Farm offers dark isolation chambers with futuristically backlit silver ceiling trim.
Privacy: With three separate rooms at Flatbush Farm, there’s little worry that someone else is waiting for you to finish. The restrooms in both restaurants have curtained windows.
Amenities: Slim pickings at Flatbush Farm — just a hook for your hat. At Farm on Adderley, you get the hat hook, a bureau stocked with backup TP, and the choice of a wicker basket or aluminum can to toss your used paper towels into.
Flaws: The reek of liquid soap: mint at Flatbush Farm, verbena at Farm on Adderley.
Strategy: If you want more light at Flatbush Farm, you might have to bring the candle from your table. At Farm on Adderley, bring a copy of Anne of Green Gables so you can read it in its natural setting.
Ratings:
The Farm on Addereley:
Flatbush Farm:
— Daniel Maurer