Welcome to Farm Fresh, a new feature where Eater joins chefs on their trips to local farms and farmers markets, to see what they're buying and how they plan to use it.
[Photo: Amy Jett]For any restaurant that has any interest whatsoever in sourcing food locally, one quality is especially helpful: proximity to a market. Capdeville is particularly lucky in that regard, located so close to the Saturday morning version of the Crescent City Farmers Market that, even if they weren't particularly interested in it, it'd be difficult to pass up the opportunity to grab fresh produce. As it is, their "Saturday Lagniappe" menu has two items?shrimp & grits and the "farmer's market salad"?that rely on whatever co- owner James Eustis and Kitchen Manager Cory VanDenBerghe can get at the market that morning. Eater tagged along last Saturday to see what they picked up.
Obviously they got shrimp, fresh caught in Breton Sound by Kay Brandhurst of Slidell's Four Winds Seafood. For the salad, they picked up romanesco from Perilloux Farms in Montz, Louisiana and strawberries from Isabel and Miguel Mendez of Independence, Louisiana. We also learned that they have a soft spot for Isabel Mendez's tamales, which she sells at the market, as well as the fresh juices sold by Amanda's Frozen Fruit Bars from Jefferson.
· Capdeville [Official Site]
· Crescent City Farmers Market [Official Site]