Hartford’s Firebox Restaurant’s managers want future patrons to know: When you eat here, your meal will not be laced with Chinese pesticides.
After Firebox opens its doors June 1, patrons will sit down to dishes laden with mostly Connecticut-grown food: Duck from Stafford Springs, beef and pork from Old Lyme, coffee beans roasted in Old Lyme, honey from Farmington, tomatoes from Glastonbury, and a litany of other local ingredients.
There will be no truck with countries of suspiciously lax food safety standards here, said Danny Meiser, general manager of the soon-to-open Firebox Restaurant at 539 Broad St.
Firebox’s creators are looking to cash in on their proximity to nearby power-lunching Capitol Avenue politicos as well as the character and history of their building – a converted foundry of vaulted wooden ceilings and exposed brick. But they’re staking much of their claim on emphasizing locally grown foods from a network of Connecticut producers.
It’s made their operations a bit more complicated, Meiser said. Most restaurateurs can place a few calls to major distributors and bring in a huge variety of foods from all over the world. If you’re going local, it’s not as streamlined.
It takes a bit more research and a lot more phone calls just to make sure, for example, that those tomatoes come from Glastonbury instead of Chile.
“But I know we’re going to get a better product from Glastonbury, and it’s probably going to be cheaper,” Meiser said.
Local doesn’t always mean “cheaper,” though, Meiser admits: Smaller producers with small output often have to charge more for their food. Meiser estimates that the average guest’s dinner will cost between $35-$40.
But price is secondary to the benefits, he said, which include a longer shelf life, better flavor and most importantly, patrons’ satisfaction that their food is of sound origin.
“Everybody’s saying, ‘local is the new organic,’” executive chef Jason Collin said.
Other restaurateurs, also, have realized their patrons’ preference for local foods, said Linda Piotrowicz, a spokeswoman with the Connecticut Department of Agriculture. The Farm-to-Chef Program, a department effort to coordinate producers with restaurant personnel, has a listing of 139 Connecticut chefs who are trying to add more local foods to their menus.
Going after local producers takes effort, Piotrowicz said, but Connecticut has a lot more to offer than most people think: A huge seafood industry, lamb, quality cheeses and much more.
Firebox hasn’t declared itself all-Connecticut-grown, but that’s not surprising, said Bill Duesing, executive director of the Northeast Organic Farmers Association. Meiser said that as “farm-driven American cuisine,” Firebox doesn’t need to import much from abroad.
