“On Restaurants | Local products, health are trends” |
| On Restaurants | Local products, health are trends Posted: 11 Jan 2011 02:50 AM PST Jose Becerra was on to something when he opened an environmentally friendly restaurant that serves healthy food made with fresh, locally grown produce. Two years later, many of the business practices that are the foundation of his restaurant, Phat Wraps, top the list of hot trends for the restaurant industry in 2011. The National Restaurant Association, in its annual survey of 1,500 U.S. chefs, says that in 2011, the use of local produce and meat, menus filled with simple, healthy food, and "sustainable" business practices top the list of what's hot in the industry. "Restaurants are finding out people really do care where their food comes from, and now more than ever, they want to be eating healthier, fresher foods," Becerra said. Phat Wraps, 10 E. 12th Ave., serves minimally processed meats, produce grown by Ohio farmers, and bottled water in biodegradable corn plastic bottles. Even the forks are made from potato-based plastic. "We've turned a corner," he said. "The days of restaurants serving only fried food and high-carb, sugary drinks are just a thing of the past." What's driving the demand for locally farmed foods? Taste, said Jeni Britton-Bauer, owner of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. Jeni's uses Ohio-farmed fruits and herbs, as well as dairy products from the Snowville Creamery in Pomeroy, to make its ice creams. "Flavor is really the No. 1 driver," she said. " Local just tastes so much better, and that flavor slows people down so they can enjoy the food. If it tastes great and they know the story behind the food, they aren't going to inhale it and move on." Use of local ingredients doesn't speak just to freshness. "We much prefer giving a local farm our money than buying food from somewhere that we don't know where it came from or when it was picked," Bauer said. "We know these people, which makes us feel connected as a community." It doesn't get more local, though, than the Top Steak House's approach. The folks there grow their own. Craig Hoover, co-owner, has been growing small batches of tomatoes, corn, kale and collard greens on a small vacant lot on the South Side for three years. When crops are good, they end up on the menu. Tomatoes have been drizzled with olive oil and served as a simple salad, and sweet corn has been sauteed and served as a side dish. Hoover didn't set out to be trendy. "It's just part of my philosophy that better ingredients make a better product. You can't get better than homegrown," he said. The move toward locally produced foods is "a great trend, because the end result is food that is healthier and better tasting," said restaurant consultant Bob Welcher. He said it isn't a fad and probably will stick, as more restaurants try to stand out from the crowd. It's another way for independent restaurants to shine because larger chains don't have the flexibility and infrastructure to source local goods, Welcher said. And, it's just good business. "Restaurants can get a lot of mileage from promoting their use of locally grown foods," he said. "The community will view them as more community-friendly because they're buying locally, and they're serving a higher-quality product." • Babushka's Kitchen, a new Polish restaurant, will open soon in the former Scottie MacBean location at 4765 N. High St. There's already a location in Northfield Center Township near Cleveland. Another will open soon in Independence, also in the Cleveland area. • Rivage Atlantique, a new full-service bar and restaurant owned by Brett Holland and Bill Cosgrove, is to open this spring in the former Caffe Daniela space at 652 N. High St. in downtown Worthington. Holland and Cosgrove also own the Grandview Cafe. • The Old Bag of Nails in Gahanna has closed temporarily because of an electrical fire that destroyed part of the kitchen. The owners expect to reopen in the next two months. Meanwhile, the Pour House Tavern next door, which is part of the same company, will be serving many Old Bag of Nails classics, including fish and chips. • The Columbus Brewing Co.'s new restaurant in Scioto Mile Park is to open in July. Design Collective Inc. and Shaffer Construction have been hired to design and build the 2,400-square-foot restaurant and the adjoining 2,000-square-foot covered patio. Denise Trowbridge, Dispatch restaurant columnist, can be reached at onrestaurants@dispatch.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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