Visconti’s makes most of ‘fresh from the garden’
Posted on 02. Feb, 2010 by yvettedavis in News
by Yvette Davis
WENATCHEE — Candy Mecham and Dan Carr are sticklers for freshness, just like the Italians are.
“In Italy, they don’t eat vegetables that are out of season,” Carr said. “We don’t adhere to that, but do we serve the best we can find at all times.”
Fresher means more flavor, said Carr, who is the executive chef and director of operations for Visconti’s Wenatchee and Leavenworth restaurants and the new Cured shop in Leavenworth. And more flavor means happy customers, he said.
To get their hands on the freshest vegetables around, Carr and Mecham, Visconti’s owner, hired some help.
Andy Kahn of Sunnyslope Farms produced tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumber, basil, rosemary and thyme for them last year on a quarter-acre farm Kahn leased on Horselake Road in Wenatchee.
The restaurants easily went through what the 400 tomato and 100 zucchini plants produced that season. And they would like to see more.
Farm-to-table for restaurants is a concept just catching on here, Carr said. Eventually he’d like to see a restaurant-focused farmer’s market where local restaurant owners could buy enough of what they needed weekly or even a couple of times a week, to offer the freshest produce to their customers. He looks to the possibility of the Pybus Public Market as one option, but said he would gladly take another if anybody’s got one.
“Our whole goal is make our own products and stay with the farm to table locally gown vegetables” Mecham said.
Carr said he and Mecham are already working out the details of a 2010 garden.
In the meantime, the couple admits to being a little stumped over winning this year’s Readers’ Choice award for Best Restaurant When Someone Else is Buying. Their pricing is on par with similar area restaurants, they said. However, the couple does serve U.S.D.A. prime rib and top sirloin applewood grilled steaks, which Carr said cost around $34 per plate including wine and dessert.
“But they’re the best steaks money can buy,” Carr said.
The steaks are served with pasta or garlic mashed potatoes or risotto and are good sellers at both Wenatchee and Leavenworth Visconti’s restaurants.
“Steaks are a huge part of our dinners,” he said.
Plus, it means they have something on the menu for diners who maybe don’t want Italian, though Carr and Mecham probably can’t imagine a day without Italian food. Which is good, because the Wenatchee Valley is about to get more.
The much anticipated Olive Garden restaurant is slated to open in April at the Wenatchee Valley Mall in East Wenatchee. When it does, they will feel it, Mecham said, but Olive Garden will not change their strategy.
It may even be good for them, Carr said.
“We will feel it when they open, but if they get more people interested in Italian food in this area, a year from now we will have more customers. In that sense, competition is good,” he said. “They will help educate consumers about Italian food, which we will keep doing right.”
The Wenatchee Visconti’s was started by Mecham and her ex-husband 25 years ago Jan. 1.
Candy Mecham and Carr opened the Leavenworth Visconti’s in May 1999 and the Cured shop in August 2008. The downstairs production facility didn’t start producing pepperoni, salumi, sausages and other Italian meats they also serve in the two restaurants until May 2009, but so far sales have been brisk. The shop had a busy Christmas season, Carr said.
The two restaurants are also open for lunch, where customers can eat off the Gold’s Gym Menu, perfect for those looking to shed a few pounds in 2010 without sacrificing flavor, Mecham said.
Runners up in the category were Shakti’s, Smokeblossom, the Cottage Inn and the Windmill.
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