FROM THE FARM TO THE FORK
Eric Skokan, chef/farmer/owner of
Black Cat Farm Table Bistro in Boulder,
Colo., grows nearly all the vegetables
and raises many of the animals used on
the restaurant’s menu. His 70-acre farm
produces more than 95 vegetables and
eight types of livestock, including hogs,
sheep, chicken, turkey, duck, guinea hens
and quail.
Michelle Foik, chief operating officer
at Revolution Brewing, a brewery/
restaurant in Chicago, uses local farmers
to supply the meat for the restaurant.
“Before we opened, we visited a couple
of farms. We wanted to see how the
animals were treated and where they
were bred and raised.”
This stuffed pork chop with morel mushrooms
and rhubarb/saison sauce with local seasonal
vegetables is paired with Powerhouse
Restaurant & Brewery’s Saison Beer.
“The farm started as a backyard garden
to supply the restaurant with specialty
produce we couldn’t get otherwise,”
says Skokan. “Then, I fell in love with
gardening, and that evolved into farming.”
Foik and her staff get ideas by visiting
local farmers markets, where they
also buy some herbs, and cheeses for
cheese platters. “People like our food,
beer and service. They know we love our
community and talking to local farmers,”
she says.
In June, Boulevard Brewing Co. paired its
brews with local chocolates and cheeses
at SAVOR: An American Craft Beer &
Food Experience in Washington, D.C.
Pauwels paired brews with two chocolates
from Kansas City-based Christopher
Elbow Artisanal Chocolates. “We looked at
the fillings or ganaches in the chocolates.
We paired the salted caramel with a
Belgian Tripel. Salt and beer really work
well together. We paired another with a
raspberry filling with our Dark Truth Stout.
The coffee flavors and roasted notes in
the stout make the flavors really pop.”
He also paired beer with two cheeses,
one a smoked cheddar cheese by
Kansas City-based BobKat-Dan Gourmet
Products, which was paired with an
Imperial Stout. “The smokiness in the
cheese and the smoky notes in the beer
overlap," Pauwels says.
Skokan’s restaurant is in downtown
Boulder, and the farm is located about
five miles away. “The farm is a laboratory
for the restaurant. When I want to try a
new recipe, I begin with a seed catalog,
then grow it in the field and bring it into
the restaurant to experiment with it,”
he says. “Knowing how our restaurant
functions and how we care about locally
grown ingredients, craft brews are the
only thing we’d serve with our food.”
According to Ben Marcus, general
manager/executive chef at Powerhouse
Restaurant & Brewery in Puyallup, Wash.,
people want to know where things come
from, and are going back to basics.
“It’s one of the fun parts of my job. I
go down to the farmers market and
see what I can get. I brought in local
vegetables, and people appreciated it,
so I brought in some local meat.
Almost all the meat chef/owner Greg
Hardesty of Recess in Indianapolis uses
for his restaurant is from local Indiana
farmers. Also, in the summer, 70%-80%
of the vegetables he uses are locally
grown. “Over the years, I’ve developed
relationships with farmers. I’ve been
using the same beef and pork producer
for seven years.”
“This is how people want to cook when
they are at home. But they can come
out and get that great beer and have
someone else cook for them.”
Beer milkshakes are an unusual combination
at Powerhouse Restaurant & Brewery, says
Marcus. “We do a chocolate porter malt
milkshake. We get some amber malt from
our brewing supply outfit and combine it with
some nice ice cream and our porter.”
He also makes a milkshake with the
Powerhouse stout along with Baileys,
Jameson Irish Whiskey and vanilla ice cream.
stout that we make. We create a fudge
sauce with chocolate and the milk stout,
and use real mint leaves in the ice cream
that we often get at the farmers market.”
A popular dessert at Revolution is the
mint chocolate chip cookie with Mad Cow
fudge sauce, says Foik. “Mad Cow is a milk
Kathryn Kjarsgaard is a freelance food writer
based in Forest Park, Ill.
