5 Great Farm-to-Table Restaurants

GREAT

FARM-TO-TABLE RESTAURANTS

by

STEVE DOLINSKY

1471 WEST MILLERS COVE RD. WALLAND, TENNESSEE 37886

Situated on a majestic, 4,200-acre estate in the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, Blackberry Farm truly exemplifies the farm-to-table ethos of the Old South, with more than a few modern amenities in both the Inn and adjoining restaurant. The chefs employ Foothills cuisine, a style they define as “refined yet rugged.” Meals are served in a restored, 18th century Amish barn, and reflect the season. Guests are encouraged to spend time working in the fields and gardens, to better appreciate the ripe peaches, foraged mushrooms and heirloom produce that will ultimately grace their dinner table.

Steve Dolinsky, Food Reporter for ABC 7 News in Chicago and 12 time James Beard Award winner, shares five recommendations for farm-to-table restaurants from coast to coast.

Portrait by Todd Rosenberg Photography

630 BEDFORD RD. TARRYTOWN, NY 10591

It took a family farm in Massachusetts to inspire Dan and David Barber. They started cooking farm-to-table in 2000 with their first restaurant, Blue Hill, in Greenwich Village. Four years later, they reestablished their family’s Blue Hill Farm in its original form, within the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York. The Center is a working, year round farm and educational center just 30 miles north of New York City. Sourcing from the nearby fields and pasture, as well as other local farms, the restaurant highlights the abundance of the Hudson Valley. There are no menus. Instead, guests are presented with a list of more than a hundred ingredients, updated almost daily, which contains the best offerings from the field and market, such as sunflowers, Carmen peppers, heritage breed pigs and Magic Mountain tomatoes.

354 GOOSE ROCKS RD. KENNEBUNKPORT, ME 04046

Imagine a walk in the woods, next to a series of gardens with unlimited produce, harvested and transformed into some of the most delicious food on the East Coast. Maintaining that “simple yet innovative” mantra, Earth’s menu—driven by James Beard award-winning Boston chef Ken Oringer—is all about “farm to fork.” While the ability to source local meats and seafood is relatively easy, produce comes from one of two onsite organic gardens; they’re picked daily and are incorporated into just about every dish. Even cocktails are created using their own herbs and muddled fruits. The restaurant’s walls are made from trees cut to clear the site, which will remind you of your surroundings even as you polish off a local seafood paella embedded with spring peas and greens.

14590 NE 145TH ST. WOODINVILLE, WA 98072

For much of the year, The Herbfarm’s gardens and farm supply the restaurant with its produce. It’s not uncommon to see wild mushrooms, heritage fruits and handmade cheeses share menu space with oddities such as water-grown wasabi root and artisanal caviars. Each day’s 9-course menu is finalized just a few hours before the meal, highlighting the best from farm, forest, and sea. Paddlefish caviar and Puget Sound perch might arrive with a fiery kimchi made from local cucumbers, while muscat-poached peaches and anise hyssop ice prove local doesn’t always have to be predictable. Even the wines all hail from the Pacific Northwest.

2579 W. SHORE DR. LUMMI ISLAND, WA 98262

Since 1910, this hideaway—located in the archipelago that includes the San Juan Islands and the Gulf Islands in the Salish Sea—has been nestled among mountains, volcanoes, rivers, lakes and salt waters. Salmon, blackberries and wild roses are as common as potholes in Chicago. The prix fixe menu is available Wednesday through Sunday, and chef Blaine Wetzel’s creations seem to channel Copenhagen’s Noma as much as anyone. How many dining rooms, after all, turn the forest loose on your tongue? Salmonberry flowers, spruce needles and stinging nettles are used as frequently as some other chefs might use basil or thyme. Perhaps it’s one of the reasons Food & Wine Magazine named him one of their “Best New Chefs” earlier this summer.