Local Flavor
written by maggie matsko
L
ong 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.
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2 0 1 9 D i sc o v e r Wes t V i rg i n i a
farm-to-table dining destinations
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.”
Provence Market Café
Photo by Provence
Market Café.
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.” 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.”
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. 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