Vedge owners to open Ground Provisions, a vegan market and restaurant, in Chester County
Due to open in about a month, it’s the former Innkeeper’s Kitchen at Dilworthtown on Old Wilmington Pike.
Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby of the Center City vegan destination Vedge are venturing out to Philadelphia’s western suburbs for a second business, a plant-based market-restaurant called Ground Provisions: Market & Dining.
Due to open in about a month, it’s the former Innkeeper’s Kitchen at Dilworthtown (1388 Old Wilmington Pike, West Chester). One side will be a country store and wine shop, while a 24-seat restaurant will be on the other. There will be additional seating on the front porch.
The name comes from steamed root vegetables like cassava, taro, pumpkin, and sweet potato that’s served all over the Caribbean.
The small country store and wine shop will offer specialty groceries and favorite local products like Small Valley rye flour and Susquehanna sunflower oil, as well as grab-and-go wrapped sandwiches, salads, and containers of picnic-friendly fare such as vegetable charcuterie, plant-based cheese, pickles, olives, pates, rillettes, smoked dips, and marinated farm vegetables, along with breads, crostinis and crackers, and condiments. Some of it will be sourced, but much of it will be made in house.
The store will be open every day.
Landau and Jacoby said the intimate eight-table restaurant would feature a modern fine-dining menu that will be approachable both in cost and atmosphere — “special, exciting, and just the right amount of fancy without the pretense and overly long format of a traditional tasting menu.”
The meal will be five to six courses, priced at $75 a person. There will be two seatings a night, four or five nights a week.
“Think of the menu as ‘farmhouse cuisine,’ a snapshot of time and place, rustic and elegant but with a modern touch,” they said.
Brandon Berringer, who has spent five years on and off in the Vedge group, is chef de cuisine, while Danny Dimartino, who was the opening manager at Vedge in 2011, will operate the front of the house. Local farms and seasonal organic vegetables will be featured, and some items will be used from the couple’s micro farm, Lost Glove Garden, 10 minutes away.
There will be a full beverage program with natural wines, beer, and cocktails. Wine and beverage pairings for the meal will be available.