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Nearly 50 years after opening in Great Falls, L’Auberge Chez François remains a destination for classical French dining, drawing prominent guests and generations of loyal customers to its six-acre countryside setting.
The family-owned restaurant opened in 1976, but its roots stretch back more than seven decades to Washington, D.C., and to founder François Haeringer’s native Alsace.
Born in Obernai, France, Haeringer worked at Paris’ Hotel Plaza Athénée and survived World War II as a prisoner of war. His culinary abilities led to work in a Munich hotel kitchen during his captivity. He immigrated to the United States in 1948 and opened Chez François in Washington in 1954, guided by a belief in welcoming surroundings and honest food at affordable prices.
When the Claridge Hotel, home to the original restaurant, was sold for redevelopment in 1975, Haeringer chose not to retire at age 57. Instead, he pursued his vision of an Alsatian-style countryside inn.
He found six acres of rolling land in Great Falls and opened L’Auberge Chez François the following year. His eldest son, Jacques, became chef de cuisine, while family heirlooms and murals depicting Obernai helped give the dining rooms a distinctly Alsatian character.
A family operation across generations
The Haeringer family still runs the restaurant. Paul Haeringer oversees front-of-house operations, while Jacques serves as executive chef.
Jacques started working at the restaurant at 11, spending summers as a busboy before learning every kitchen station. After earning an English degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, he returned to work with his father, who remained active in the kitchen until his death.
Under Jacques’ direction, the kitchen has stayed committed to traditional French cooking. Grilled organic vegetables and rainbow trout offer lighter choices, but the menu continues to embrace the butter-rich techniques and elaborate preparations associated with French haute cuisine.
That approach has earned the restaurant national and regional recognition. L’Auberge Chez François appeared on OpenTable’s list of the Top 100 Restaurants in America in both 2024 and 2025, the only Northern Virginia restaurant to receive the distinction. The list considered more than 14 million diner reviews, along with ratings, reservation demand and the share of five-star reviews.
Northern Virginia Magazine placed the restaurant third on its 2024 Best Restaurants list, while readers selected it as Best French Restaurant in the publication’s 2024 Best of NoVA awards.
A typical meal unfolds over several courses, potentially including a garden-inspired amuse-bouche, salad, house-made sorbet, an entrée, raspberry soufflé and chocolate truffles.
An Alsatian retreat in Great Falls
The experience begins before diners reach the table. The restaurant’s chalet-style building and landscaped grounds are designed to evoke the French countryside.
Kitchen gardens provide fresh produce for the menu. At the height of the growing season, the gardens can supply enough tomatoes that the chef goes about two and a half months without purchasing any.
Inside, multiple dining rooms display Haeringer family keepsakes. Hand-painted tables with ceramic tops were brought from the original Washington location.
Jacques’ Brasserie, on the lower level, offers more approachable Alsatian dishes. Its décor includes red paisley fabric that François Haeringer purchased during a trip to France.
Signature offerings include Crêpe à la ciboulette, Les Deux Tournedos and the restaurant’s well-known raspberry soufflé. Entrées range from about $94 to $99, while the Châteaubriand for two reaches $198.
Despite those prices, the restaurant can serve approximately 300 people on a Saturday night. Its clientele has included politicians, international business travelers and celebrities such as Mick Jagger. Jacques has said every U.S. president since Harry Truman, with the exception of Barack Obama, has dined there.
As the Great Falls restaurant approaches its half-century mark, L’Auberge Chez François continues to preserve the cooking, setting and family traditions established by its founder.