Guide: Rural American Food Projects

a guide to my favorite restaurants, beverage-makers, and more across the rural US

I’ve realized over the years that the projects I seek out while traveling are, more often than not, rural. Visionary chefs, steeped in local traditions and community, seeking to celebrate the land around them and its farmers, hunters, fisherman, and more. America isn’t always given the credit it deserves as having its own rural foodways, so this month my City Guide is turning a spotlight on the restaurants, bakeries, breweries, and more that dot our country’s landscape. From visiting many of these places and from having run something similar myself once, I can tell you that it’s always an exhausting (though deeply fulfilling) hustle for those that operate projects like these; small, thoughtful enterprises in the food industry are always this way, but especially when your customer base isn’t built in, like it can be in a big city. This list is really just the tip of the iceberg: there are countless more projects I don’t know about, and others on my bucket list that I’ve never been to. The entire NE and SW aren’t mentioned here, for example, because those are regions I’ve spent very little time in as an adult–although, I will just briefly give a shoutout to Elmore Mountain Bread in Vermont, which is, for me, at the pinnacle of both American baking and community-oriented enterprises. Feel free to suggest other spots in the comments.

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Hama Hama, in WA

Southeast:

Milk Glass Pie/Old North Farm (NC): You’d be hard-pressed to find a more all-encompassing, multi-faceted project as this, and my friends

Keia Mastrianni

and Jamie Swofford are showing us all what it looks like to be simultaneously rooted in a regional past while actively building a better future. The two live on Jamie’s family land in Shelby, North Carolina, where he grows some classic crops of the region alongside newer ones he’s fell in love with from his time working in kitchens, including edible flowers, Mexican herbs, and more. From the fruit and herbs here he makes shrub, which you can find at stores all over the region. Keia puts a lot of this produce to use, alongside the amazing fruits of NC and SC, in her beloved pies, which she sells at markets and by subscriptions under the name Milk Glass Pie. On top of all of this, the two host events that bring in chefs from around NC and beyond to showcase their work, a platform that serves to uplift rising culinary voices in the region.

Walnut Family Bakery (NC): A lot of small, rural bakeries used to exist in the States. Most of those have fallen off at this point, a product of migration to cities, the heightened cost of ingredients and labor, and stricter regulations for kitchens to be up to code. Most of all, though, it’s because it’s really hard to draw enough people out to your countryside location to keep your business afloat. At my old baking school in Walnut, North Carolina, Camille Cogswell is trying to change that. Opening soon, Walnut Family Bakery will offer breads, a wide variety of pastries from the brick-oven, and some of the best damn pies you’ve ever had, all out of this magical little bakery in the mountains. For now, find Camille’s baked goods at various pop ups around Asheville and beyond.

Chicken Bridge Bakery (NC): Another remarkable small, wood-fired baking project in NC, run by some of the sweetest people you will ever meet. Rob and Monica, with the help of their kids, have been churning out amazing breads made from local NC flour for years and years, gathering a following at Farmers Markets in the Triangle. I’m a particularly big fan of the stencil-work on their bread, which is both beautiful and, at times, advocates for social justice.

Fonta Flora at Whippoorwill Farm (NC): For beer that could only be made in the Appalachian mountains, visit Fonta Flora’s brewery in Lake James, NC. Even before they opened this location, they were making their brews from foraged plants and terrific produce within the region, but getting a chance to enjoy these beers out at their farmhouse brewery brings everything together. Find beers here with foraged maple bark and native muscadine grapes, others aged in all kinds of barrels, and plenty of classic brews too.

Elliot’s (SC): Asheville folks have followed Elliot Moss’ work for a long time, seeing him run the beloved Buxton Hall BBQ in addition to some of his own projects–and they could tell you that he always carried his South Carolina roots with him, ensuring you could always find hash and bog on the Buxton menu. In recent years he’s moved home to Florence, SC, and opened up a BBQ joint there that I’m dying to visit. The menu has all the BBQ staples of the region, from pulled pork to ribs to fried green tomatoes.

Pacific Northwest:

Barn Owl Bakery & Seabird Bakeshop (WA): Two of my favorite bakeries in the country are just a ferry ride away from one another, in one of my very favorite areas of the country. The San Juan Islands, located in the middle of the Puget Sound, boast an amazing food and agriculture scene, which is fully embodied in the work these two bakeries do. Barn Owl is sort of the holy grail for whole grain bakeries: they grow their own wheat and bake their bread in a wood-fired oven on Lopez Island. Seabird is the weekend project of my friend Brea, and taps into the local produce and flour and plants to make gorgeous pastries every weekend out of the Houlme space on Orcas Island. A perfectmulti-day itinerary for a baker, in my opinion, would be to combine a visit to these two spots with a trip to see either the Bread Lab in Burlington or heading to the Olympic Peninsula to see Chimacum Valley Grainery, which I highlight below.

Chimacum Valley Grainery (WA): There’s a lot of great new flour millers in the country, but few are operating in as many cool ways as the folks at Chimacum. In their fields, they’re growing wheat, rye, spelt, and more here, including doing buckwheat trials for the Bread Lab; in an old barn, they are milling this into amazing flour, and right next to that they are also turning some of it into malt for brewing. Attached to all of this is a small but mighty bakery, which serves the local community by taking that amazing flour (and produce from Stellar J Farm, who they share a property with) and turning it into delicious bread and pastry. While much of this isn’t open to the public, you can get in touch with them about a visit, or register for the baking workshops they teach onsite.

Hama Hama (WA): Where better to eat oysters than from the source? This seafood purveyor, located right along the Puget Sound on the Olympic Peninsula, has set up a large dining area outside for you to try oysters, mussels, fish, and just about anything else you can name from those waters. For colder, rainier months–and their are many in this part of the country–there are heated A-frame sheltered areas, and you can also purchase seafood on ice to take home and cook yourself.

No Clos Radio (OR): I write this as I’m in Italy, and I’m already pining for the type of European lunch or aperitivo that’s hard to find in the states: a couple of leisurely hours sitting outside, lingering over a bottle or a couple glasses of wine, and having some cured meats and cheeses or salads and entrees to accompany it. How nice, almost radical, it feels to not be rushed and to take in a view of the vineyard. Luckily for me, I work at a place that offers just that. This cafe is attached to Maloof Winery, as well as Fossil & Fawn and Monument, and you can try wine from all three here while having your choice of small bites or a fuller meal. It’s just 45 minutes outside of Portland, but amidst the rolling hills and vineyards, it feels like a world away.

Hiyu (OR): Hiyu, too, offers the type of experience I mention above, but in a bit more of a formal setting. The wine here is top, top notch–maybe my favorite in the States–and the food, offered in a tasting menu format or family style dinners, is rustic, comforting, and precise all at once. It’s less about pairing wine with the food here, but rather the inverse of that, with Hiyu’s wines being the true star of the region’s growing viticulture scene.

Foglight Farms (OR): Foglight does a bit of everything in Hillsboro, Oregon, but at the core of their work is growing some amazing vegetables, the kind that inspire you to cook. You’ll find them at the Portland Farmers Market, though a chance to see the full scope of the farm is to attend the events they put on there, ranging from dinners with some of Portland’s top culinary talent to yoga to writing circles to kids activities and more. Their motto is “farming as a creative practice”, and that holds true in all the work they do.

Dao Deli (OR): I’m a bit biased, but I think my good friend Anthony Dao is cooking some of the most exciting food right now on the West Coast. Dao Deli is his current project, and the format changes from time to time, but you can find him serving mediterranean delights each week at Hood River Common House for now in addition to doing various pop-ups in the Hood River and Portland areas. Give him a follow on Instagram to stay up to date on his latest offerings.

Midwest:

Milkweed Inn (MI): Something of a dream project, in my mind. Lane Regan and their partner opened up this BnB in the heart of the Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan’s UP a few years back, and it’s been booked up ever since. Here, in a region with great ingredients and serene beauty but few notable restaurants, Regan strikes a gorgeous balance between rustic and elevated, offering thoughtful tasting menus as well as relaxed bonfires. Plus, glamping, kayaking, hiking, foraging, and plenty more.

Krewe (MN): Krewe and it’s adjacent bakery, Flour and Flower, have been the pride of St. Joseph, MN for the last handful of years. The New-Orleans inspired restaurant boasts jambalaya, gumbo, and more in an area that’s come to love the spice and comfort of creole cuisine. The bakery has a wide selection of baked goods that feature local butter from Hope Creamery, plus a great selection of local flowers.

Russ Kendall’s (MN): Minnesotans like me would love to tell you that the North Shore is the Midwest’s best kept secret (though the UP can make a strong case for the south shore as well), a long coastline of Lake Superior that looks a lot different the plains of the surrounding areas, featuring cliffs, waterfalls, small mountains, and evergreens. There’s an amazing niche cuisine here, too, which is that of smoked fish. There’s multiple different smokehouses that dot the shore, but my favorite is Russ Kendall’s, which smokes a variety of Superior fish plus cheese. It’s not a restaurant, but you can sit outside or take your goods to the lakeshore for a perfect picnic.

Tortilleria Zepeda (WI): Corn abounds in the Midwest, which can make someone like me who grew up there wonder why there aren’t better quality tortillas. That was on the minds of Julian and Heidi Zepeda, too, who moved back from Puerto Vallarta to live in the latter’s hometown of Spring Green, Wisconsin. They’ve solved that issue, at least for residents of much of Wisconsin, Southwestern Minnesota, and a small amount of Iowa and Illinois. They also host occasional workshops on pre-Hispanic food and drink.

Driftless Cafe (WI): There are few regions in the country, in my mind, as overlooked as the Driftless region, a small area made up of SW Minnesota, NE Iowa, SE Wisconsin, and NW Illinois where the glaciers that leveled the rest of the Midwest long ago never reached. What that means geologically is hills and valleys, small cliffs, and beautiful vistas. It also makes for some amazing livestock and produce, from small farmers to big dairy producers like Organic Valley. It takes a talented chef, sometimes, to bring all of this together into a coherent vision, and that’s what you’ll find at Driftless Cafe, a James Beard-beloved all-day restaurant that serves unfussy yet thoughtful food. It’s a true celebration of all the region has to offer.

Mid-Atlantic:

Meadow Creek (VA): Where to begin with this cheese? It’s…simply sublime. The best in the region, maybe the best in the country, though I haven’t tasted enough cheese coming out of Vermont and California and elsewhere to make that claim. European methods meet a high mountain climate meet Jersey cows that have been cross bred with both New Zealand and French cows to perfectly fit the region. The result is American alpine cheese that is truly tied to the land it comes from.

The Shack/Maude and the Bear (VA): Staunton, Virginia has been home to one of the region’s most innovative restaurants for a while now. It started with The Shack, a small restaurant doing small plates that celebrated Appalachian produce and techniques, though now this restaurant has shifted into a more casual concept doing homemade pasta and pizza, plus ice cream and vegetables. But it’s more than that: the beets are roasted in the embers from the oven, the gelato has soy lees in it, and miso finds its way into the cacio pepe. This shift has made room for Maude and the Bear, run by the same chef, to become the tasting menu spot in town, and one that was nominated by the James Beard Foundation as one of the country’s best new restaurants. The ethos stays the same, but the plates get a bit more intricate here.

Troddenvale at Oakley Farm (VA): I was stunned by this cider; really, by the whole project. The owners know their stuff, being well studied in wine and cider alike, and apply that knowledge to a project that feels truly of a place. American varietals of apples get processed into ciders that are dry and restrained, not sweet and heavy like they often are stateside, and there are some fun natural wines being made here too. But it was really the emphasis on community that struck me, with the locals coming out to support the project at various events and the shelves of the cidery stocked with cheese, meat, flowers, produce, maple syrup, and more from like minded Virginia producers.

Hickory (VA): There’s few projects celebrating Appalachian cuisine as thoroughly as Travis Milton is doing in Bristol, where his tasting menus at the Inn at Nicewonder features ingredients like sorghum and ramps and collards, and dishes like Apple Stack Cake and Cornbread. It’s an elevated take on a humble cuisine–but not so elevated that it strays from the principles of the region.