This is the first in an occasional series taking us behind the scenes at Pittsburgh restaurants. 

Pittsburghers dining out at micro-seasonal restaurants such as Fet-Fisk, Lilith, Apteka and Bar Marco will likely see specials featuring high-season tomatoes, the incoming bounty of sweet and hot pepper varieties and the final act of summer squash.

For now. In a couple of months, those same menus will feature winter squash, beets and carrots.

“Chefs who work with small local growers deserve a lot of credit for being flexible with their menus. I appreciate that they prioritize us,” says Megan Gallagher, owner/farmer of be.wild.er Farm in Natrona Heights.

While Pittsburgh restaurateurs can’t control the peculiarities of a growing season, they do have an array of locals reliably providing the fresh, tasty ingredients.

The following — four farms and one farm-to-table aggregator — are among the growers working to keep Pittsburgh chefs supplied with the ingredients they need to feed customers with peak-season vegetables and fruit.

Specifics: Coldco Farm

Over the past few years, Coldco Farm blossomed from a niche specialty operation to the region’s go-to farm for meticulously grown vegetables. The farm works with nearly 40 restaurants in Pittsburgh, though co-owner Jason “Joddo” Oddo says that 10 of them — including Apteka, Morcilla, Spirit, Butterjoint, The Vandal and Senti — account for most of his regular output.

You’ll often find the farm’s output shouted out on restaurant menus as “Joddo’s greens,” “Joddo’s potatoes” and such.

"I appreciate it. But it's also four other people who are growing this with me,” he says.

Oddo, who runs the farm with Nick Lubecki (Grow Pittsburgh, Butter Hill Farm), has developed a reputation for seeking hard-to-find varietals such as the pastel lineup of bitter-savory radicchio offered deep into the winter months.

Part of the strategy for high production with a small crew is to grow crops that don't require a heap of maintenance once they are planted. This process allows Coldco to focus on planting autumn and winter crops in the peak of summer while still having produce to sell.

“Peppers are a good example of this. If you can keep the weeds away when they're seedlings, all you have to do is pick them once they're ripe. You don't have to pick them in a very small window like you would lettuce. Potatoes are the same way, too,” Oddo says.

In 2016, Oddo began farming on a quarter acre as Bitter Ends Farm Co. (he was an original partner in the now-closed Bitter Ends Food). He kept the operation small and worked nearly all by hand until a trip to Italy in 2020 changed his growing philosophy. He and his small farm crew now produce on more than 7 acres using tillers and tractors.

“I'm interested in maximum flavor. Coldness tends to build sugar in the plant, so in a few months you'll get carrots as sweet as fruit,” Oddo says. “We can do it almost all winter if we're smart about the varieties we grow and how we protect the crops.”

Regrowth: Who Cooks for You Farm

Chris Brittenburg and Aeros Lillstrom of Who Cooks For You Farm are a foundational farming duo in Pittsburgh’s contemporary farm-to-table restaurant supply chain. The couple launched the New Bethlehem farm as a small, community-supported agriculture and farmers market operation in 2009 and have since grown into a bedrock midsized farm.

Early relationships with restaurants began organically, via discussions with chefs “venturing out of their restaurants and talking to farmers where they sell,” Lillstrom says. 

The first connection was sparked by a simple conversation at the CitiParks East Liberty farmers market. There, a chat about kohlrabi with Trevett Hooper — a chef dedicated to supporting local food systems who had just opened Legume in Regent Square, in 2007 — began a fruitful partnership.

At one point, Who Cooks supplied as many as 40 restaurants around town, representing about half of the couple’s business. That number dipped significantly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lillstrom says the farm currently works with around 10 restaurants, including Apteka, Dish Osteria, Eleven Contemporary Kitchen, Alta Via, Thyme Machine and Bar Marco, as well as the catering company Black Radish.

She anticipates that number will increase a bit as this growing season unfolds and continue to do so next season, especially with restaurant operators who are willing to pick up produce at the Bloomfield Saturday or Squirrel Hill Sunday markets.

“We’re all about feeding people, and we enjoy what we do,” Lillstrom says. “Independent restaurant owners know that fresh produce is only a phone call away.”

Collaboration: be.wild.er Farm

Megan Gallagher started farming for farmers markets on a single acre in 2016, expanding gradually since then. She’s now growing produce on a little less than three acres in Natrona Heights. While her business focuses primarily on selling an array of beautifully grown goods at the Bloomfield Saturday Market, she’s now working with eight to 10 restaurants weekly.

Casbah, Alta Via Pizzeria and Butterjoint are her largest customers, with Woodfired by Lorelei, Georgie’s Corner Cafe, Scratch and Co., The Vandal and Dish Osteria among her other clients.

Gallagher says it’s a symbiotic relationship. Each week, she texts and emails chefs a curated list of available produce and keeps them informed about what’s likely to be ready in the coming weeks.

“Certain restaurants like to order specific things,” she says. “Plus, sending out specifics to every restaurant allows me to feel a little less stressed out about overselling and then disappointing someone.”

Direct communication and a select group of regular customers enable chefs to make specific requests. This arrangement also allows Gallagher to swiftly sell any unexpected surplus, resulting in highly seasonal, often very fleeting, menu specials for restaurant customers.

While she does offer midweek deliveries, Gallagher finds the Bloomfield Saturday Market the ideal place to receive immediate feedback from chefs on her produce.

“I love the market pickup. It’s such a pleasant thing because it’s when I get to interact with the chefs personally. You get to see them reacting to the vegetables,” she says.

Systems: Three Rivers Grown

You’ve likely eaten produce and other farm-prepared items, such as yogurt, sourced from the dozens of farmers and ranchers Three Rivers Grown works with.

Since its inception in 2014, the business has focused primarily on serving as a connector between the regional grower economy and retail grocery businesses, including Giant Eagle stores and the East End Co-Op, as well as institutional operators like Parkhurst Dining.

More recently, however, it’s expanded deeper into the restaurant trade.

“We have a business that works really well, but why not try to fold this in?” says Jonathan Scharff, who spearheads restaurant sales for Three Rivers Grown. “There's a special energy that comes with working with chefs and restaurants,”

It started slowly, with chefs from Apteka, Morcilla and Wise County Biscuits coming to the Lawrenceville warehouse to pick up produce, dairy and other supplies. Earlier this year, Speckled Egg co-owner Jacqueline Schoedel reached out asking for pasture-raised brown eggs.

“That was our launch into delivery. If we're doing eggs for them, why not expand even more?” Scharff says.

The Porch at Schenley, Bar Marco, Pusadee's Garden and Vivo are among the other clients they've built relationships with this year.

“Chefs are a lot more excited to engage in locally grown food again now,” says Three Rivers Grown co-founder Nathan Holmes.

Three Rivers Grown has long-standing connections with farmers throughout the state (as well as Ohio), so they can draw from a deep well to offer reasonable prices and consistent product availability.

For example, they recently delivered peaches from a farmer in State College that were picked ripe and sold for under $1 per pound to restaurants in Pittsburgh. They sent the farmer photos of how those peaches were used at restaurants.

“I didn't think it would matter, but the feedback from the farmers is that they get so excited to see the food they grew used by all of these chefs in Pittsburgh,” Scharff says. “They're growing for someone with a face rather than not knowing where it landed.”

Table to farm: Churchview Farm

In 2015, Tara Rockacy had an excellent idea for her Baldwin borough farm: Instead of bringing produce to her rotation of up to 15 of the region’s most dynamic restaurants, she’d bring the chefs to the farm. By 2020, she’d stopped selling directly to restaurants entirely.

Now, Churchview Farm is the place Pittsburghers go for a table-to-farm dining experience. From June through October, there are at least 13 Sunday farm dinners, six picnics and three special monthly events, prepared by an array of talented chefs.

The roster of Churchview restaurant partnerships includes some of Pittsburgh's heaviest hitters: Morcilla, Lilith, Balvanera and Parlor Dim Sum are among those on the sold-out 2024 roster.

“Every year things change,” Rockacy says. “Even if the same chef did a meal the same week the previous year, there are still going to be variables about what’s available that are going to inspire the menu they create.”

Each winter, Rockacy plans the upcoming season, giving chefs a broad overview of what likely will be available for their multi-course dinners. As their appointed evening approaches, the conversation turns to the finer details, with chefs adjusting their menus based on what’s in abundance.

These menus are as seasonal as it gets. In fact, some of the produce served may have been harvested just hours before dinner.

“The vast majority of the chefs that cook at Churchview see it as something that they can lean into and get more excited about.

“They’re able to be creative and inspired by having to work with what’s on hand. That’s something they aren’t necessarily able to do in their restaurant menus, even ones that are highly seasonal,” she says.

First Published: September 8, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: September 9, 2024, 3:23 p.m.