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Eating Locally: Downtown partnership working to link market's farmers with local restaurants
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
Grower Bryant Cook hopes to sell to local chefs and says he thinks that local produce will help the taste of their food.
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Published: May 13, 2008
Eating locally grown produce is noble, but it's seldom easy at Winston-Salem's restaurants.
Chefs don't always want to spend time dashing off to the farmers market or from grower to grower.
Farmers often don't want to devote hours and gas delivering restaurant to restaurant.
This year, the Winston-Salem Downtown Partnership is trying to help by linking chefs and restaurant owners with farmers who sell at the Downtown Farmers Market.
The restaurants interested in the plan include Meridian, 6th and Vine, Zevely House, Caffe Prada, WS Prime, Winston's Eatery and Chelsee's Coffee House, said Amy Garland. Garland is an art-gallery owner and freelance marketer who organized the farmer-restaurant partnership for the farmers market.
Some downtown restaurants already have been buying from the farmers' market "so this isn't brand new, but some of them just hadn't thought of it," Garland said. The partnership will give the restaurants table cards to promote dishes on their menus made with local food.
In turn, the partnership hopes that the attention focused on local products will bring more traffic to the downtown market, which is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from May to September.
Michael Johnson, a chef and co-owner of Winston's Eatery on South Liberty Street, said last week that he was waiting for a list of the produce that the farmers at the market grow. That will help him decide what to buy from them. He would like to buy green and yellow summer squash, white and yellow onions, and such fresh herbs as basil, rosemary, thyme and mint. If he could get locally grown meat and eggs, he would pay for those -- and he said he thinks that other restaurants would buy them, too.
"There are enough independent shops in town that we all talk. We're pretty open to it. We just need to walk before we run," Johnson said.
He is also talking to the Children's Home about the zucchini, tomatoes and other produce that it grows, he said. "I've always been more interested in local than organic."
Local in-season produce tastes better to him. But with the rising cost of fuel, locally grown produce can make good business sense, too. Food wholesalers tack on delivery surcharges, particularly for smaller orders, he said.
Byrant Cook, a farmer who sells produce he grows near his house off Peters Creek Parkway and on some land in Davidson County, is one farmer who hopes to add restaurants chefs to his customers. "
I bet it'll help the taste of their food," Cook said. "The local (tomatoes) taste better. Otherwise you get them shipped from Florida and California."
This time of year, he sells his own beets, onions and leaf lettuce. He said he expects to have English peas ready this week. As the year slips into summer, he will have okra, tomatoes, squash, corn, beans and watermelon.
■ Laura Giovanelli can be reached at 727-7302 or atlgiovanelli@wsjournal.com.
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