D.C.’s The Jockey Club Reopens as 2100 Prime

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, October 3rd, 2011

 

The legendary restaurant formerly known as The Jockey Club, which served celebrities and politicians in D.C.’s Fairfax Hotel on Embassy Row, has reopened as 2100 Prime with a fresh focus on all-natural ingredients.

Executive Chef Mark Timms aims to serve an approachable cuisine that has been prepared with traditional techniques with the freshest ingredients. “An important piece of my work is to involve the local community, children, students and adults, introducing them to fresh, organic, aromatic and tender vegetables, herbs, fruits, fish and grass fed, hormone free meats. I want to bring what’s growing outside to our table here at 2100 Prime, creating a local dining experience for our guests,” Timms said.

The new fall menu includes items from quality organic farms and all-natural producers, such as:

Vermont Butter & Cream Co., Vermont (butter, goat cheese, and marscapone)
Pineland Farms, Virginia and Maine (beef strip loin and tenderloin)
Blue Mon Acres, Pennsylvania (chicken)
Grafton Cheddar, Vermont (cheddar cheese)

Featured on the fall menu is also a section called “Memory Lane,” which will bring back some of the old favorites of The Jockey Club, including their Lobster Thermidor and Dover Sole and Prime Steak Tartare.

New dishes of 2100 Prime include Heirloom Tomato (from Blue Mon Acres) Soup, Brie Spinach and Prosciutto Salad, Chicken ‘n’ Crepes, and Braised Lamb Shank.

“I believe in providing the freshest regional foods available incorporating hormone free meats, fish that is not over produced, and produce grown locally with no pesticides or chemicals. I hold an encompassing respect for farmers who nurture and protect the land,” said Chef Timms.

The restaurant also showcases a wine list with other 130 bottles of domestic and international wines.

2100 Prime is located in the Fairfax Hotel at 2100 Massachussetts Ave., NW (202-835-2100). See the full menu and restaurant website here.

-Julia Harbo

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A Fresh Finale

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, October 18th, 2010

After a day of wine tasting and balloon searching at the Shenandoah Valley Hot Air Balloon & Wine Festival at Historic Long Branch this weekend, it was time to find some good food.  I was disappointed that I didn’t get to see even one hot air balloon, but word was that it was too windy for the balloons to take flight.

We did get to try a delicious Johnsonville Bratwurst from the “World’s Largest Grill” at the festival for lunch, but all the walking around lead us to want something more substantial as dinnertime approached.

We decided to head to Hunter’s Head Tavern in Upperville.  Hunter’s Head Tavern serves local organic meats and produce from nearby Ayrshire Farm.  This is where the real eating began.  This was my first time at Hunter’s Head and we sat outside on the patio complete with a tent and heaters for the outdoor chill.  A basket of fresh bread was too good for words and we took our time with our wine before getting up to order.

I sat there waiting to be handed a menu, until I was informed that you had to go inside where the menu was displayed on blackboards to view the dinner menu and order from there.  Then, when the food was ready, it would be brought out to your table number which was displayed on a wooden spoon.

Everything sounded good, but I finally chose the Skinny Apple Cider Chicken.  My dinner companions chose the Shepherd’s Pie, the Ayrshire Guinness Beef Stew and the Dry-Aged Burger with Chips.  We all ate in silence because the food was so good and there was no room for chatting.

My chicken was unlike any chicken I had ever had.  It came falling off the bone and was tender and juicy.  There was a definite hint of cider in the meat and it was surrounded by dried pears, wild rice and sweet baby carrots.

Of course, none of us were still hungry, but we just had to have dessert.  The homemade German Chocolate Cake was moist and big enough for four of us to get our share.  I am certain that I will be back for the Fish and Chips in the near future.  I am also interested in checking out the Home Farm Store which is a gourmet retail shop that sells fresh meats and produce from Ayrshire Farm and other local farms.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Ayrshire Farm has their organic turkeys for sale.  If their turkey is anything like their chicken, I suggest you order one now.

-Liz Stevenson

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Trucking in Style

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Mobile gourmet stand brings a touch of class to farmers markets

By Buzz McClain / Photography by Jonathan Timmes

Hawaiian Red Sea Salt at a farmers market? Maybe in Honolulu, but Great Falls? You expect to find locally grown peppers and cucumbers, but white truffle oil? French fig vinegar? Homemade blini?

Clearly, On the Gourmet is serious about the “gourmet” part of the name. But if you’re looking for the Vienna-based business’s edible luxuries under the standard farmers market peaked tarp tent, you won’t find it. Instead, you have to climb aboard a panel truck to discover the tangy Clovis mustards and domestic foie gras.

It’s a concept that takes a little getting used to, if first-time visitors’ reactions are any sort of indication. On a sunny day in the parking lot of Great Falls Village Centre, the white On the Gourmet truck is parked amid the colorful produce and fruit stalls of the 1-year-old farmers market at busy Walker Road. The truck doors are held back by bistro-style chalk boards that describe the day’s offerings, and a few metal steps lead up to the back of the truck. 

Curious browsers walk up to the truck and find themselves lured into its interior by artfully placed food samples. It’s a yummy way to get sucked in.

“They don’t always understand [the concept] right away,” says Libby Rector Snipe, one of On the Gourmet’s principals. “They’re used to seeing the taco truck or the ice-cream truck, and they’re hesitant to step inside. 

“But once we say we have some samples, they see the hardwood floors, they see it’s nice inside. We tease each other it’s nicer than our houses.”

On the Gourmet got off the ground last year when Rector Snipe and fellow foodie and co-worker at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts Sara Guerre started talking about a potential part-time catering business. Guerre had been reading about innovative food services such as mobile creperie trucks and pizza ovens on wheels and found the concept appealing, but probably not for catering. 

Rector Snipe, Guerre and her husband, Chris, another Wolf Trap front-office executive, all share a fondness for local, fresh and, when possible, organic foods, the type that typify the product line at the region’s farmers markets.

The convergence of those interests resulted in On the Gourmet—in essence, a rolling farmers market.

But first, they needed a truck. 

“It’s a 1983 Ford, 7.3 diesel Utilimaster, with 99,000 miles on it,” says Chris Guerre, who spent most of last spring tricking out the truck with laminate wood tile, paneled walls, custom shelving, a sound system, spaces for refrigerators and curtains to close off the driver’s seat when the truck morphs into a the most elegant retail outlet a 26-year-old panel van can be. 

The lettering on the side of truck—with the “Go” in subtle italics—alerts you to the pun of the name.

The idea was for On the Gourmet to be “a one-stop shop,” Rector Snipe says. “You can get your meat, your salad greens, the oil and vinegar for the dressing, the baguette, the cheese and crackers, everything you need for your dinner party with the exception of the wine.”

The products range from ice creams and goat cheese to cuts of lamb and bison, all of them produced in the immediate Mid-Atlantic. Finding sources and learning about methods of distribution have been a significant education for the trio.

“We can absolutely vouch for where that meat comes from and how it’s treated,” says Sara Guerre, adding, “I can’t go into a restaurant any more without wondering where that hamburger comes from. It’s really changed the way I look at everything.”

“You could go to Whole Foods and get similar items, but we take the time to taste the products and get to know the farmers,” Chris Guerre says. “We’re kind of like our own upscale farmers market on wheels. That’s the way we envisioned it from the beginning. We’re cutting down on the time everything takes to get from the farm to the table because we’ve got it all in one place.”

It may be in one place now, but that Saturday morning the Allegheny Chevre was likely shrink-wrapped at FireFly Farms in Bittinger, Md. The eggs and butter might have been packed at dawn at Trickling Springs Creamery in Chambersburg, Pa., the lamb sausage picked up in Loudoun County, and the turkeys might have all had cute names just yesterday as they trotted about the grounds of Buffalo Ridge Farm in Rixeyville, Va.

On the Gourmet can only sell at “hybrid” farmers markets; other markets require the producers—the farmers themselves—to also be the vendors. Which they’re oftentimes only too happy to do, being the personable people they are. But don’t ask John Grose to do it.

“A lot of producers sit at the markets and sell their stuff themselves, but I don’t have the inclination,” the Buffalo Ridge farmer says. “I like what Chris and Sara are doing, but to spend each Saturday doing that, it’s not for me.”

As if he’d have the time. The 44-year-old McLean native and former airline pilot bought his 350-acre farm in a few years ago, moving his wife Jill and their six children, ages 1 to 10, into a circa-1900 farmhouse to live what he calls “the real ‘Green Acres’” life. Since the farmhouse is being renovated—by Grose—the family is living in the one-room apartment over the metal barn. Add to that the care and feeding of a herd of 58 bison, a rafter of turkeys and a litter of pigs, and he’s got his hands full. 

There’s more: He also owns the Culpeper Sears store, adding up to a boggling series of job descriptions. Still, he says, “Having lived inside the Beltway for a while, I would prefer to be out here.”

As a city dweller Grose never aspired to the “localvore” mantra of food purity and farm-to-table freshness. “I didn’t really shop that way,” he says. “I was a Wal-Mart and B.J.’s Club shopper.” And as for farming, he self-effacingly says, “I’m 80-percent sure of what I’m doing,” adding that although he’s a rookie he’s enjoying discovering efficient methods of raising healthy livestock.

“Before, if somebody hands me a fresh turkey, I don’t know that from a Butterball,” he admits. “Until I looked into it, I had no idea I wouldn’t want to eat a Butterball every year. I mean, they’re fine for what they are, but it’s nice to be able to educate people a little bit on why [farm fresh] is better and what the difference is. That’s the challenge, and the fun—meeting people, educating people and learning back things yourself.”

And people do come to the farm, an aspect of food producing that caught Grose off guard. “People will drive an hour or whatever to come out and see you,” he says. “They have an interest in seeing what you’re doing and seeing if the picture in their minds matches the reality of what you’re doing.”

As for the additional cost of a farm-raised turkey over a commercially processed one, Grose says, “I tend to be cheap, so I have a problem charging more than Wal-Mart. People say if it was processed this week and didn’t have a bunch of growth hormones in it and it took you a little longer to raise it, I’m willing to give you a little bit more for it.”

Grose’s 350 acres hardly compare to the Guerres’ 800-square-foot garden in Vienna, but Chris and Sara manage to sell the herbs and vegetables they raise in their plot from their truck—and have discovered pleasant returns on their tiny profit center. As for raising produce on his acreage, Grose says his wife wants him to start tilling the land but that “it takes time. I only have 20 minutes a day to work on the house as it is.”

Rector Snipe and the Guerres kept the Utilimaster revved up this winter, their first off-season, by rolling the truck into the parking lot of Vienna’s The Artful Gift Shop during special events there. They also made and sold gift baskets and began home delivery of milk, eggs and cheeses. 

The Guerres and Rector Snipe were encouraged by the acceptance of On the Gourmet in its first year at the markets in Great Falls and Alexandria’s West End and are considering options. “We’re trying to figure out how to expand,” Chris Guerre says. “Do we want a physical location? It would be easier to store things.”

“It would be nice to go to a weekday market a few times a week,” says Sara. “Who knows, maybe next year we might be off at locations where we’re the only vendor around. That’s kind of the way we envisioned it at the beginning, but we realized being at the market was the best way to start our business, because people were coming there to buy food.”

And whether they knew it or not, Hawaiian Sea Salt. 

(May 2009)

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Farm Fresh

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, March 19th, 2009

While many restaurants now seem keen on doing whatever they can to green their image, a handful of true believers have made sustainable dining—based on seasonal cooking, local ingredients and respect for the environment—a hallmark of their hospitality program.

These folks get it. And once you eat there, you will too.

Text by Warren Rojas / Photography by James Kim

Restaurant Eve
110 S. Pitt St., Alexandria; 703-706-0450; www.restauranteve.com
Average entree: Over $31 ($$$$); Open for lunch Monday — Friday, dinner Monday — Saturday

For chef/restaurateur Cathal Armstrong, going green doesn’t stop at menu planning.

The impassioned toque—who has built a career around showcasing the finest local ingredients and surrounds himself with culinary artisans (bakers, charcuterie-makers, mixologists)—has spent the past few years orchestrating numerous changes designed to raise eco-awareness across his budding hospitality empire (Restaurant Eve, Eamonn’s, The Majestic).

In spring 2007, he turned Eve’s enclosed courtyard into a makeshift garden. Last fall, he jettisoned bottled water (Armstrong estimated that he was spending roughly $3,000 on designer H2O each month) in favor of the Natura purification system, and now offers self-bottled still and sparkling water to Eve patrons free of charge (Majestic’s now online; Eamonn’s goes Natura next).

He’s done away with caustic cleaning agents and harsh detergents (organic cleansers, only), tinted the window in Eve’s Bistro to help better moderate the temperature/slash cooling costs and urges employees to power save wherever possible (switching off lights, disconnecting dormant peripherals, etc.).
Armstrong still cherishes the memories of working alongside his father in the family garden, bonding time that firmed up not just his family ties, but also his affinity for the land.

“The pleasure of the garden was the quality of the food,” he said, noting that his father never used modern buzzwords like “environmental impact” or “sustainability” because those guiding principles were simply understood.

Today, Armstrong honors that tradition by demanding the highest-quality ingredients from a handpicked network of suppliers revered for their wholesome products. His key distributors include: Tuscarora Organic Growers (produce), Davon Crest Farm (specialized field produce and greenhouse micro-greens), Polyface Farm (pork, eggs, chicken), Pipe Dreams Dairy (goats milk cheese, milk), Chapel Hill Farm (Randall Lineback rose-veal), as well as Huntsman Specialty Game & More (exotic meats).

To boot, Armstrong has nurtured relationships with his most prized providers that extend far beyond merely signing a few documents or ticking items off an order form.

When Davon Crest was forced to move in 2005, Armstrong and his employees hightailed it over to the Eastern Shore plot and helped DCF founder David Lankford physically relocate the entire enterprise to its new home. “We often have a sit-at-the-bar midnight discussion about what we’re going to grow for the next year,” he said of the friendship he’s forged with Lankford. Likewise, Armstrong used to make the nearly seven-hour, roundtrip trek to the Shenandoah Valley to personally inspect his orders—“If we ever have chicken on the menu, it’ll be from Polyface,” Armstrong stressed—from “grass farmer” Joel Salatin.

Meanwhile, Armstrong still ventures out to local farmers’ markets to see firsthand what’s available each week.

As for his own farming abilities, Armstrong said planting the Eve garden was more about helping his own chefs reconnect with food than creating steady food stock.

“As an educational tool, I think it was hugely successful,” he said. “You pick it, and you serve it. It tastes better.”

According to Armstrong, last year’s haul included: spinach and Swiss chard, “plenty” of rosemary and bay leaf (enough to sustain Eve), acorn squash, “a few” onions and some thyme (thrived early, but eventually died). This year, he’s planted garlic (“It’ll be interesting to see how that works,” he stated) and hopes to broaden their composting efforts.

Tracking down fresh seafood, however, remains a constant struggle.

“Most of the fish I buy has a significant carbon footprint because it comes from New York via FedEx,” he said regretfully, quickly adding, “[but] as chefs, we have to go with the best quality.”

Every morsel attests to that guiding principle.

Chesapeake Bay rockfish arrives pan-seared, its skin fired to a bronze crisp, the gossamer flesh beneath tasting of clean, juicy meat. A cushion of polenta (smacks of sweet corn and brown butter) escorts nuggets of sweet, plump lobster to the seafood carnival, while lightly sauteed Swiss chard (wonderfully flavorful) is more interested in playing along than stealing the show.

Polyface pork gets the gourmet barbecue treatment courtesy of snappy Pommery mustard and Kerrygold butter-slathered toast. The slow-roasted swine emerges awash in mustard and smoke, crowned by a crunchy slaw.

Hot house greens lay the foundation for a scorcher of a meal involving piquant red onions, shaved fennel, tongue-teasing champagne vinaigrette and the tastiest fish fry (chubby fingers of flaky sole rolled in panko crumbs, baked to golden brown and streaked with whole grain mustard) this side of Eamonn’s.
Overall, Armstrong believes conscientious dining is slowly evolving from trend to mainstream lifestyle choice.

“The demand has changed, and is changing rapidly, to what’s greener/fresher/more healthy,” he said of his patrons’ dining expectations. “That’s so thrilling.”

American Flatbread
43170 Southern Walk Plaza, #110, Ashburn; 703-723-7003; www.americanflatbread.com
Average entree: $13 to $20 ($$); Open for weekend lunch, dinner daily

According to Janice Vasko, opening American Flatbread’s Ashburn Hearth was very much a matter of necessity.

“I’m from New England. I’m used to eating things from farmers’ markets,” she said of her genetic predisposition toward just-plucked-from-the-earth eating.

Which is why, when she moved her family to Loudoun County over a decade ago and found nothing but fast-food franchises, she and husband Scott hatched a plan to bring some sort of healthful alternative to bear.

When they stumbled upon American Flatbread, they knew they’d found the perfect match for both their self-employment and nutritional needs.

Since opening in June 2007, Vasko has committed to intimately connect the eatery with the community.

Their pizza oven was fashioned from the surrounding red clay soil (an exercise that should prove particularly challenging when they attempt to open a second location in Clarendon later this year). Recycling includes poaching old pizza boxes, as evidenced by the Ski Line Pizza Express (a pizza joint near Snowshoe Mountain, W.Va.) logo emblazoned in one carryout container. A custom mural depicting local farms, wineries and assorted agricultural producers graces an entire wall of the otherwise modestly appointed main dining room.

And Vasko goes out of her way to hire local teens, providing many with their first taste of disposable income as well as a penchant for seasonal dining.

“We like to give kids their first jobs,” she said, adding that when they arrive, new hires may not have even heard the term “locavore.” But by the time they leave, Vasko said many develop an appreciation for sustainable agriculture and heightened food awareness in general.

What are Vasko’s main teaching tools?

Why, fresh foods, of course.

She estimated that roughly half their food stock comes from local sources, including producers like: Oak Spring Dairy (cheese), Fields of Athenry Farm (lamb, chicken, eggs), Baker Pork (assorted pork products, barbecue sauce), Cherry Glen Farm (artisan cheeses), Green Alchemy Herb and Mercantile Co. (fresh herbs, teas), Moorenko’s Ice Cream (ice cream), Woodtrail Farm (pork sausage, grass-fed beef) and Blue Ridge Dairy Company (fresh mozzarella).

Taking things to the hyper-local level, their apple pie dessert is made by Broadland’s resident Laurie Edeline—whose teenage daughters also happen to work at the restaurant.

“We support the local bounty of the season,” Vasko attempted to hammer home.

To that end, chef Dave Biber heads over to the Leesburg farmers’ market most weekends to help fill in their produce gaps and to stay abreast of the current harvest.

That connectivity allows Biber to take the lead on seasonal specials, which equals out to at least one new meat and one vegetable offering every few weeks. Static offerings include their signature New Virginia sausage flatbread, while a country ham-and-apple flatbread has hung around for roughly six months.

Vasko suggested, meanwhile, that the short shelf life of most specials actually helps drive sales, since customers quickly learn that eating seasonally means snapping up favorites as soon as they arrive.

“It’s about getting introduced to new specials, new products,” she said of her most devoted clients’ willingness to broaden their palate with each subsequent menu change.

“Basically, it becomes a trust issue,” she said. “They know Dave’s going to create something new that tastes phenomenal.”

Amen to that.

Mission figs stuffed with tangy chèvre, blanketed by savory country ham and drizzled with tart balsamic are a triple play of organic bliss.

A just-fired flatbread (these oval gems are thin, but never want for fresh toppings) covered with roasted chicken, crispy bacon (dominated nearly every bite) and caramelized leeks (so daringly sweet) puts garden-variety pizzas to shame.

Describing an equally artful pork-shoulder flatbread as mere pizza would be downright insulting to the kitchen crew and utterly disingenuous on my part, considering the bounty of flavors encountered in each bite. The pleasantly scorched crust (smoky overtones, firm delivery) plays host to an epicurean medley of spicy-sweet pulled pork (bathed in zesty chipotle barbecue sauce while still remaining perfectly true to its innate piggyness), crisp white onions, sauteed kale (the colorful cabbage adding some visual splash to the mouthwatering feast) and slivers of fiery poblano peppers (charred green veins of waiting heat creeping just beneath a flowing skin of coppery mozzarella).

Not one to be outdone by its fire-breathing barbecue brethren, crumbled Virginia sausage seeks solace amid a mellower mix of wild mushrooms and shaved fennel (low-key pork and meaty mushrooms are the real palate-pleaser, here).

According to Vasko, some locals claim their kids are already spoiled for commercial dining.

“Parents who are regulars are already getting it,” she said of the healthful eating philosophy at the heart of Ashburn Hearth.

Chipotle
Multiple NoVA locations; www.chipotle.com
Average entree: Under 12 ($); Open for lunch and dinner daily

Who says fast-casual cuisine can’t be forward thinking?

Certainly not Chipotle regional director Phil Petrilli.

According to Petrilli, Chipotle has remained on the vanguard of sustainable dining ever since Steve Ells, who graduated from Culinary Institute of America, opened his first burrito shop in 1993—largely because of Ells’ “food with integrity” mantra.

That vision includes purchasing and serving only humanely raised (no confinement), hormone/antibiotic-free animals that have been fed an all-vegetarian diet.

“This is not something that we jumped on a bandwagon,” Petrilli insisted. “We are leaders in this.”

Sure enough, Chipotle purchased over 52 million pounds of naturally raised meats from all across the country in 2008, tapping nationwide providers like Niman Ranch (pork), Bell & Evans (chicken) and Meyer Natural Angus (beef), as well local suppliers like Polyface Farm (pork) and Parker Farms (jalapenos, bell peppers).

Petrilli said he helped broker the Charlottesville-Polyface deal after participating in Polyface founder Joel Salatin’s buying clubs.

“I’m a staunch believer of what he represents for food systems,” Petrilli said of Salatin’s holistic approach to land-animal management.

So far, a single Charlottesville store purchases around 300 pounds of pork (10 to 12 hogs) from Polyface per week—often to the detriment of Salatin’s individual clients. “I haven’t been able to get a pork shoulder from Joel for the past six months because Chipotle buys up everything he’s got,” he said, adding that negotiations are already underway to see about adding Polyface free-range beef to the next phase of the project.

“Hopefully, what we’re creating is a model for other businesses and family farms to follow,” he said of the mutually beneficial farm-to-restaurant arrangement they brokered down in the Shenandoah Valley.

According to Petrilli, Chipotle is determined to serve 100-percent naturally raised meats at its more than 800 locations. So far, they’ve managed to make all their chicken and pork offerings naturally raised across the country, with beef hovering around the 50-percent mark and organic beans bring up the rear at around 30 percent. Along those lines, the company pledged in 2008 to purchase at least 25 percent of at least one local produce item from small- and mid-sized farms in each region, with that amount set to rise moving forward.

Not that they draw the line at what goes on your plate.

Petrilli said new stores recycle as much building material as possible, stressing that the interior is always made with recycled everything (glass, brick, steel). Menus proudly tout their acid-free, 100-percent post-consumer waste pedigree. Recycling caddies are affixed wherever possible—though a Chipotle spokesperson stated that landlords often broker different waste-management contracts, which can limit recycling opportunities.

“We are constantly testing every manner of green products and practices,” the spokesperson said of their uphill battle to make the most of everyday waste. “It is a process.”

But in the end, it’s really all about the food.

Red tomatillo salsa delivers a respectable amount of heat, revealing a mixture of pureed tomatoes, hot peppers, garlic and cumin (kinda sticks ya at the end) that is saucy without being runny.

As promised, I can actually taste the individual ingredients of a bulging carnitas burrito (firm grains of herb-laced white rice, chilly-smooth sour cream, carefully shredded, well-seasoned roast pork, buttery-rich homemade guacamole, zesty snippets of corn, onion and peppers, as well as flashes of basil, paprika and parsley).

Steak tacos are remarkably spicy (beef braise brings the zesty), the generous chunks of peppery beef reigning supreme over soft tortilla shells stuffed with their signature blend of shredded jack and cheddar cheese, chopped Romaine lettuce and gobs of sour cream.

Beef barbacoa is just as pleasing, delivering cumin-y meat that partners well with the tasty bacon-laced pinto beans (savory pods dissolve when you bite into them), the outstanding guacamole (populated by meaty chunks of real avocado, a spritz of lemon and the zing of ground jalapenos) or any combination of all three.

Need a quick change of pace? Order your favorite item but have them swap in the chili-lime vinaigrette salad dressing (a little smoky, mostly sour and plenty intriguing) for the traditional salsas (you won’t regret it).

All told, Petrilli suggested that their food would fetch triple the price at a white-tablecloth restaurant based on the strength of their ingredients alone.

Still, Petrilli said that Chipotle prefers to keep costs low so that everyone can enjoy a gourmet meal, even on the go.

“We do all of this ultimately … because we know this makes the food taste better,” he stated.

Hunter’s Head Tavern
9048 John Mosby Highway, Upperville ; 540-592-9020; www.huntersheadtavern.com
Average entree: $13 to $20 ($$); Open for lunch, Tuesday — Sunday, dinner daily, Sunday brunch

The sleepy Upperville streets must seem light-years away from her previous life in Silicon Valley. Yet Cisco Systems co-founder Sandy Lerner continues to innovate in her own special way: this time, by breathing life back into rare livestock breeds via a carefully constructed dining circuit.

Today, Lerner sits atop a virtually self-sustaining food chain that includes: Ayrshire Farm (livestock), Hunter’s Head Tavern (restaurant) and the Home Farm Store (retail).

After spending 30-plus years as a vegetarian, Lerner said she decided to start Ayrshire Farm in an effort to preserve a handful of rare heritage breeds that seemed destined to otherwise disappear from the local ecosystem.

“By creating a dining environment that showcases the intense and varied flavor of these heritage breeds, it is a small but direct step in saving them,” she reasoned, warning that, “if there is no market for these beautiful animals, they will disappear.”

Granted, slaughtering animals in order to save them might seem hypocritical to some, but Lerner has the fiercely loyal clientele and thriving livestock to prove her seemingly counterintuitive plan is actually working.

She estimated that the farm is home to around 800 Highland/White Park beef cattle, around 20 to 40 rose veal calves—proudly pointing out that Ayrshire has been named the first certified humane veal farm in the country—400 Gloucester Old Spot hogs (orchard pigs), 2,000-plus chickens and perhaps 1,000 turkeys (in season). In any given month, she said they probably only slaughter around a dozen steers, lamb and veal calves.

Lerner stressed that they raise and slaughter all the poultry delivered to Hunter’s Head and the Farm Store right at Ayrshire. The farm also produces the brunt of the pork (save for the some bacon) and supplies the majority of the beef (some purchases outsourced to other local humane/rare breeds cattlemen), while lamb is purchased from neighboring Over the Grass Farm, and sustainable seafood is acquired as needed.

“We are able to quit buying from the commercial suppliers as the breed stock on the farm is now at a level that we can fulfill the majority of our needs,” Lerner said of the blossoming farm-to-fork project, her first hospitality venture ever.

Her commitment to humanely raised meats and heritage breeds means that if they run out of something, it’s simply pulled from the Hunter’s Head menu. Sure enough, stragglers who wander in toward the end of the dinner rush tend to be greeted by “Sold Out” warnings scrawled atop the daily list of featured items, whereas the kitchen crew tracks their own dwindling stocks by ticking off depleted specials on their “86 board of doom.”

The pub menu features most of their dining staples (a Welsh rarebit fashioned from swirled cheese, beer and onions; homemade burgers accompanied by an absolutely thrilling British mustard), while the “farm table” board chronicles seasonal offerings ranging from crab Florentine soup to asparagus, pimento and brie tarts to cinnamon-roll bread pudding.

Lerner said their fish-and-chips plate remains their reigning champion (seven years and counting) in terms of total sales, with the Ayrshire burger logging in at second place (also seven years running). Other local favorites include: baked chicken, pot roast, Guinness beef stew and veal scaloppine.

“We have customers who come just for the organic beef liver and onions,” she said of one age-old standard long since dashed from most conventional menus.

Though certainly nostalgic, the menu does make room for fresh interpretations.

Baskets of crusty, sour dough-like pub bread (produced by an artisan baker in Maryland but “finished” in the Hunter’s Head ovens) flanked by tins of sweet cream butter prove hard to resist—even for veteran staff. “It reminds me every morning, when I try to put on my pants, how much I really like this bread,” one bartender sheepishly admitted while rubbing his round belly.

Organic meatloaf summons an impressive hunka meat bolstered by carrots, onions and a tantalizing medley of heritage meats unfettered by any extraneous filler.

Piping hot turkey potpie sports a flaky biscuit crown that is more air-puffed buttermilk than cornbread rich. Beneath the surface reside gorgeous hunks of white-meat turkey, as well as carrots, onions and asparagus (quite prominent) sloshing around in a soothing cream broth.

And though the town probably boasts more retirees than new arrivals, Lerner said she gets her share of food-savvy young families that seem to understand the importance of rearing their own children on humanely raised foods.

“The Gen-Xers will spend a little more upfront on better food, as opposed to spending more later in health care and environmental restoration,” she said of the progressive eaters she sees filing into the dining room on any given night.

Food Matters Cafe
4906 Brenman Park Drive, Alexandria; 703-461-3663; www.foodmattersva.com
Average entree: $13 to $20 ($$); Open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday — Sunday, weekend brunch

As if cooking to the calendar weren’t enough of a commitment to sustainable dining, Food Matters Café chefs/owners Tom and Christy Przystawik decided to add another layer of transparency to their operation by granting customers access to their professional Rolodex.

Having established roots as a neighborhood eatery, the Przystawiks last year launched the Food Matters Community Supported Agriculture (FMCSA) program.

“We have a lot more variety than if you were just picking up from one farm,” Christy said of their all-inclusive program, noting that they began in 2008 with eight families and finished that year with 25 (a 300-percent increase). This year, over 30 families have already chipped in the $21 per week required to secure their half milk crate full of nature’s bounty.

Sounds like a lot of locals got wise real fast.

Tom said the restaurant deals with a wide variety of distributors at different times throughout they year, including: Tuscarora Organic Growers (organic fruits, vegetables), Rosetta Angus Beef (beef), Lyon Bakery (baked goods), Pipe Dreams Dairy (artisan cheeses) and Rappahannock River Oysters (aquaculture seafood).

The Przystawiks also tend a pair of personal plots in a community garden on Capitol Hill that has yielded: wild flowers (used to decorate the tables), mixed herbs, chili peppers, radishes, beets, spinach and arugula.

Tom estimated that in season, which is during the months of May through October, he’s able to harvest about 75 percent of the restaurant’s regular herb stocks from the community garden.

And while he’d certainly love to keep all organic all of the time, Tom said real-world concerns often trump his shopping ideals.

“Those of us who want to do the local thing … would like to inventory things through canning or freezing. But that requires some investment of time, money and space,” he said of the logistical constraints with which he wrestles on a daily basis.

Factor in additional obstacles like bum growing seasons, labor-intensive items (fresh peas are meddlesome because they rarely come pre-shucked) and just plain hard-to-find local delicacies (think mushrooms, ramps and fiddleheads). Tom said sometimes shelling out cash for exotic ingredients is the only viable alternative.

“I know we all struggle with that, because it’s difficult decisions,” he said of the thin line between compromising his personal philosophy with coordinating the best possible meal for his patrons.

“We’ve never said that we source EVERYTHING locally,” he stipulated. “But we try to.”

The flipside of FMC’s mission, then, is to instill in staff and customers an appreciation for what’s coming next.

“Anticipation is more exciting than the actual product,” Tom said of the waiting game that is seasonal cooking. He noted that after seeing nothing but root vegetables the past few months, he’s keyed up to enjoy fresh strawberries and asparagus this spring.

“Just knowing the things that are coming in season … when it’s their time, I get excited about them,” he said.

Overall, Tom said patrons seem to be of two minds. “There’s people who just want to have a meal. Maybe they’re glad to know [about the locavore focus], but it doesn’t affect their buying decisions,” he suggested. Others, however, seem “very excited” being able to ostensibly trace everything on their plate back to its place of origin.

“It makes them feel like they’ve learned more about us, and [they] appreciate it,” he said.

Staff members are just as likely to get in on the act. This is evidenced by servers who unabashedly promote the chefs’ connection to local producers and actively campaign for guests to further investigate the pleasures of sustainable dining.

“You might as well have grown it in your garden and sauteed it in a pan at home,” one enthusiastic server gushed while describing the simplicity of their straight-from-the-fields philosophy.

More often than not, the food follows suit.

Zesty ground chorizo and jolly butternut-squash nuggets (bright orange cubes bursting with sweet) liven up brown butter-soaked penne like nobody’s business.

A hearty seafood chowder arrives chock full of carrots, silky-smooth celery root, Yukon gold potatoes, tender scallops and savory bites of haddock.

Homemade fennel sausage is as big as a burger and twice as flavorful, but battles for attention amid a cacophony of accompaniments (toasted oat roll is slathered with sweet mustard on both sides, while the sausage remains buried beneath both sauerkraut and caramelized onions).

Meanwhile, Christy reiterated that anyone is welcome to join FMCSA—whether they frequent the restaurant or not.

“We really don’t have a limit for the number of people we can do this for,” she suggested.

(March 2009)

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Fighting the Good Fight (Mostly)

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, March 16th, 2009

Happened upon this hastily scrawled shopping list carelessly left behind (strike 1) at the pharmacy counter of my local Giant:

Found it interesting that the author took the time to seek out organic, fat-free milk and cage-free eggs (the non-descript “H2O” could denote self-bottled water, but I’ll play the cynic here and assume they were going the pre-packaged/designer route – strike 2), yet could not pass up the opportunity to feast upon the trisodium citrate (industrial flavor additive), partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil (genetically modified cooking agent), dried corn syrup (industrial sweetener) and distilled monoglycerides (industrial emulsifier) found in every Fruit Roll-Up:

(strike 3! You’re outta here, buddy!)

Anybody else ready to cop to their Achilles’ heel snack(s)?

(I’ve been known to enjoy a Drake’s Devil Dog (or two), but can claim blissful ignorance as I refuse to read the nutritional content).

–Warren Rojas

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