These urban restaurants grow ingredients on-site, from patio planters to hydroponic systems, bringing flavors to diners’ dishes.
The Southwark Courtyard is a working herb garden. / Photography via Neal Santos
Some grow aromatic herbs in their gardens, using them to stew meats, season pasta dishes, and season cemitas. Others turn edible plants into syrups for botanical mocktails, grow lemongrass to garnish a cheesesteak, and choose edible flowers to serve as a garnish for drinks. There’s even a steakhouse that grows its own mushrooms in a hydroponic formula in the kitchen.
Here are a handful of urban restaurants that grow some of their own ingredients and what to order when you visit them. Just keep in mind that as seasons and menus change, not all of those pieces may be found at a given restaurant. However, ask them what they grow and they will probably be happy to tell you.
The Southwark Courtyard is a good seating position – it also houses a functional garden. Basil from the restaurant’s planters, for example, adds a dose of freshness to the ricotta gnocchi, made with chanterelles, capers and cherry tomatoes. And if you order the roast lamb shoulder, it comes with meat seasoned with tasty herbs grown on the terrace.
Grass herbs also appear on Southwark’s drinks menu, where they are used in a syrup for one of the bar’s signature mocktails, Drifting Through the Blinds, and infused with citrus, honey, ginger, egg white and refreshments. This foamy and refreshing drink is garnished with lemon balm (also grass) to give it an aromatic finish. 701 South 4th Street.
Although Ambra doesn’t have its own garden, it uses ingredients grown on the terrace of its sister restaurant, Southwark, just a short walk away. Think of it as the culinary way of borrowing and then never returning your brother’s clothes. incorporate fresh peppers and sorrel to the Green Meadow Farm beef dish, served with stuffed bell pepper, eggplant caponata (topped with sorrel), pine nut crumble, and cardamom juice.
Elsewhere on the menu, basil, oregano and savory summer herbs (from Southwark lawns) are used to spice up various dishes. 705 Calle 4 Sur.
At Chef Dionicio Jimenez’s Cantina La Martina, the new flavors on the menu are no coincidence: Several ingredients come directly from the restaurant’s backyard. In guacamole, for example, there is new purslane (a succulent edible that is equated with watercress or spinach). in terms of flavor and also found in Cantina’s enchiladas), tarragon and papalo. The latter herb, which has butterfly-shaped leaves and a flavor comparable to that of cilantro and basil, can also be found in cemitas, as is tradition in Puebla. kitchen.
On the drinks menu, grass rosemary is the star element of Tequila Ocho Rosemary Paloma, which pairs Tequila Ocho Blanco or Reposado, rosemary, grapefruit, lime syrup and Topo Chico. They also use rosemary and grass thyme to braise meats. Meanwhile, other lawn herbs appearing on the menu include mint, used in Cantina’s homemade sauces and as a garnish in drinks, and lavender, found in tres leches desserts. 2800 D. Street
The Logan Hotel steakhouse grows its own mushrooms right in the kitchen on its Urban Cultivator, a hydroponic formula that can be used to grow herbs, vegetables and greens indoors. And if you request a tour, executive chef Sonny Ingui will simply show you around. .
Ingui marinates some of the mushrooms grown there and adds them to some dishes, adding beef tenderloin tartare (with fennel, salted egg yolk and toasted bone marrow bread) and striped sea bass, served with shimeji and shiitake mushrooms, crispy jasmine rice, spinach, leeks, chili emulsion and nori furikake. They also appear in the pan-seared red meat belly, with shimeji mushrooms, Castle Valley Mill red grits, maple glaze and Dijonette French dressing, as well as the local mushroom garnish, topped with caramelized onions and chives. Although Urban Farmer isn’t growing enough to meet demand for all of those dishes, Ingui says they’re supplemented with mushrooms he buys from North Philadelphia’s Mycopolitan Farm as part of the restaurant’s efforts to focus on sourcing local ingredients.
When it comes to staying local, Urban Farmer is one of the only restaurants in town that has its own butcher shop on-site. The steakhouse is partnered with seven ranches and farms that supply full cattle, so all the butchering can be done on-site. There are 3 butchers on staff (plus Ingui and Urban Farmer’s team of chefs are trained) to keep the operation running smoothly. “We strive to maintain the integrity of the animal and use each and every piece of it,” Ingui says. The restaurant’s butcher program also includes dry aging, finishing those meats on the charcuterie board. 1850 Benjamin Franklin Drive.
At Sor Ynez, chef Alex Tellez has lawns on the restaurant’s patio, where an abundance of herbs and produce grows, adding radishes, serrano chiles, holy basil, Mexican oregano, sweet basil, papalo, horseradish, and marigolds. The Mexican restaurant incorporates freshly grown purslane into its fresh cheese plate (combined with corn, tomatoes, and salsa macha) and also uses chives as a garnish for many dishes. Edible flowers, also picked from the lawn, are used as a garnish for drinks. 1800 North America Street.
Although Sahbyy Food is not a restaurant, the Cambodian food vendor is noteworthy for its lemongrass cheesesteak. This cutting-edge menu item, a Best of Philly 2024 winner, has seen good fortune at FDR Park’s Southeast Asian Market since Sahbyy Food founder Pidor Yang began promoting it there in 2022. Yang grows lemongrass, the signature element of the cheesesteak, in the small yard of his home. Homemade Willow Grove, turning it into a paste to flavor the meat . The sandwich comes with poultry or beef and is made with papaya salad, cheddar sauce, Sahbyy Food pepper chips and cilantro on the side, all served on a toasted bun.
Yang began developing his lemongrass with stems he had collected at the market, planting the base in a pot or on his lawn to take root. “You name it, I’ll replant it,” Yang had told Foobooz in the past. I don’t throw it away and start the procedure again. ” She uses other portions of lemongrass for the paste as the growing season progresses, since some portions of the plant, such as the leaves, take a while to appear. Yang prefers to use the leaves, as they add more flavor and color to the pasta dish. 1500 Pattison Avenue.
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