Farm-to-Table Dining Destinations
Long before it was trendy, the people of the Mountain State were bringing food from the ground straight to their plates out of necessity. Today, this growing movement is called farm-to-table, and it embraces the West Virginia heritage of locally sourcing fresh dishes that are rich in flavor. Since West Virginians are no strangers to this way of life, it only makes sense that the Mountain State is home to a wide variety of restaurants that have embraced this approach to preparing food. To experience fresh, local cuisine, visit these businesses that celebrate this organic movement.
Gritt’s Farm
Gritt’s Farm. Photo by Corey Zinn.
Located in Buffalo, WV, Gritt’s Farm has fully embraced its mission of being stewards of the land. Six Saturdays a year from April-September, the farm invites its neighbors to indulge in a four-course meal prepared by Chef Stephen Owens that celebrates the best of the season’s harvest.
“The idea of Gritt’s farm-to-table dinners started in 2015 when Brad Gritt, the farm’s general manager, and Owens, the former owner of the Buffalo Diner, spoke about serving a farm-fresh dinner in one of the vegetable fields,” says Maggie Parsons, events coordinator for Gritt’s Farm. The dinners began in 2016 and have been a big success.
What makes the dishes at these farm-to-table dinners truly homegrown is that the dishes are made primarily with produce raised on Gritt’s Farm, either hydroponically in its greenhouses or traditionally in its fields. “The other components of the dinner, like the wine, meat and eggs, are always bought from other local small farms such as Rainy Day Farms in Red House and Stone Road Vineyard in Elizabeth,” says Parsons. “We make sure we prioritize the local component in our dinners all the way down to our dishes, which are Fiesta.”
Gritt’s Farm shows off its unique angle on farm-to-table dinners by crafting each menu to offer items that are specialized and extremely fresh. The menu is created just weeks before each dinner since the selection is dependent on how the crops are performing. “Our dinners are served under our open-air pavilion or in a greenhouse depending on the weather,” says Parsons. “There’s nothing like watching the sun set over the farm while enjoying a dinner that has been harvested, prepared and consumed on the same land.”
The dates for the 2019 farm-to-table dinner events will be April 13, May 12, June 8, July 13, August 10 and September 7. For more information, visit www.grittsfarm.com/farm-to table-dinners.html.
Provence Market Café
Photo by Provence Market Café.
Since 2002, Provence Market Café in Bridgeport has been serving French-style cuisine with the farm-to-table movement in mind, but Anne Hart, owner and executive chef of the restaurant, didn’t always intend for it to be that way. “Serving farm-to-table dishes wasn’t as vogue back then as it is today, but I knew I wanted to serve the freshest and best quality ingredients available,” she says. “Being committed to that mission meant having growers supply my summertime
produce and eventually it became year-round for certain ingredients.”
At the Provence Market Café, guests indulge in one-of-a-kind dishes. Hart stresses the importance of knowing where the ingredients come from. She believes this is an opportunity everyone should have, which is why she uses local farms to source her ingredients. The produce comes from Santa Croce Farm in Enterprise, the chicken from Falling 4 Ewe Farm in Flemington and the eggs from Brown Farm in Jane Lew.
“What makes Provence Market Café stand out is my personal culinary style,” she says. “For my cooking technique, I might take a plain chicken and jazz it up by making a classic chicken coq au van or roast half of that chicken and serve it with a lemon tarragon sauce for a nightly special.”
Because Hart wants to share her love for fresh meals with the public, she began hosting farm-to-table dinners in the last few years. One was held at the West Virginia Botanic Garden and another was hosted at J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works.
Hart plans to host at least one farm-to-table event in 2019. To stay up to date on all the events at Provence Market Café, visit its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Provence Market-Cafe.
The Station
The Station. Photo by Chris Jackson Photography.
Nestled in the New River Gorge area, The Station was established in 2016 to support the local economy while preparing fresh meals for its customers. Kirk Mulcahy and Amy Summerford, the general managers, both share a love for locally sourced food and bringing people together to enjoy it.
“Kirk and I were both raised by mothers who believed in feeding their children healthy meals and made that happen in varying degrees by growing what they could and sourcing what they couldn’t, whether it was locally, organically or seasonally,” says Summerford. “Because of our childhoods, we both believe in eating food that is fresh and flavorful, has the smallest carbon footprint possible, helps sustain our local economy and isn’t pumped full of chemicals.”
As a true farm-to-table establishment, Mulcahy and Summerford purchase as much as they can within the Mountain State. Last year, 72 percent of their ingredients came from local producers, and the goal is to increase that percentage every year. “We are proud to be a part of this community, and a large part of our mission is to make it possible for friends and neighbors to make money by selling things they grow, raise and produce,” says Summerford. “We are continuously making new connections and finding new producers and products in the area.”
The Station offers dishes that are prepared simply and splendidly using techniques that honor high-quality, fresh ingredients, and they believe this philosophy is what sets them apart. “We don’t have a single dish on our menu that doesn’t involve some sort of local product,” says Summerford. “We regularly feature dishes that allow us to use local products we get in limited quantities, and our menu rotates seasonally so that most of the proteins stay the same but the ingredients change to allow us to use seasonally available produce.”
In order to serve its patrons on a larger scale, The Station puts on a few farm-to-table dinners each year. While some are on a community scale, others are held in-house or on-site with local producers or brewers. The Station doesn’t have set dates for 2019 yet, but its Facebook page is the best way to stay current with upcoming events. It can be viewed by visiting www.facebook.com/TheStationWV.
The Wild Ramp
The Wild Ramp. Photo by Sarah Trenalone.
The Wild Ramp, a nonprofit in Huntington, is a year-round, community-supported market that provides fresh food for the public while supporting local farmers. To further support local producers, growers and artisans, it established an annual farm-to-table dinner.
“The idea for a farm-to-table dinner event was one that just fits with our overall mission,” says Kelsey Abad, market manager of The Wild Ramp. “When the organization started back in 2012, it was a no-brainer to have an event where the community could come and celebrate the year’s harvest all together.”
The farm-to-table dinner is held annually in late September or early October. “Our dinner features products and producers from our store, which sources within a 250-mile radius of Huntington,” says Abad. “We not only source local ingredients for the dinner, but we also feature a local chef and band for entertainment. This event is a celebration of what makes our community unique and special.”
Another aspect that makes the event unique is that every year the menu reflects the recent harvest so a patron’s palate is always surprised. “Each chef we work with highlights Appalachia through their own individual and creative interpretation,” says Abad.
This year’s event, scheduled for October 5, will be held on 14th Street in front of the store under the gazebo. Event tickets will be sold exclusively through The Wild Ramp’s website and will be limited to 100. For more information on the annual event, visit http://wildramp.org.
