Back to the Land

YOU’RE SAVVY ENOUGH to wish to dine responsibly. You visit farmers’ markets in season; perhaps you cultivate a vegetable plant or two. You’ve restructured your personal menu to allow those vegetables more opportunity to shine, and you may even be paying the price for locally sourced meat. Or you’re on the brink of discovering all this, and would like to know where to begin.

Let me recommend Origins Café. Located in the wilds of Cooperstown, New York, far enough from the village to bring nothing baseball-related into view, this seasonal restaurant has been successfully operating for 14 years. And if you didn’t know that everything they serve is carefully chosen and good for you, you’d be lulled into enjoying it as just another fine restaurant.

It was founded by sisters Kristen and Dana Leonard, who grew up on this property. “Forty-two years ago, our parents started a little greenhouse here,” says Kristen, “basically a small nursery in a little hoop house in a place that evolved to be the café. We literally grew up there, in a little crib in the corner of the greenhouse. And then like anyone who grows up in a small town, you want to get out and travel as much as you can. So we went off to school and studied environmental sciences. And that's actually how we got into food. It was through more of an environmental sustainability lens.”

You’ll be traveling a succession of small roads to get there; if you arrive when the place is busy (be sure to make a reservation), the parking lot may be crowded enough that someone will be on hand to help direct you to a space. A riot of greenery then greets you, dominated by a fountain surrounded by ferns. And then it looks as if you’re approaching a greenhouse rather than a dining room. In fact, it’s both.

My foursome had an early reservation in order to attend a performance at the nearby Glimmerglass Festival that evening, and we had no difficulty getting out with plenty of time to spare. Whatever table you’re given, you’ll be dining amidst greenery and breathing the refreshing air that such an environment offers. 

As befits the setting, it’s a casual place. I may have seemed overdressed in my ascot-enhanced slacks and sport coat ensemble, but I’ve long felt my job as a fashion plate is to make everyone else feel underdressed. My wife and I were joined by our daughter Lily and her boyfriend, Joe. Lily first began accompanying Susan and me on restaurant-review visits when she was two; she is now 28. She has also put in her time in both back of house and front, so she knows her way around an eatery. She’s not easily impressed. She was very impressed by this place.

Origins’ mission is “to source food from local farmers,” explains Kristen; “to decrease food miles.” Adding, “Fresh air is better.” It’s an extremely worthy mission. The single-page menu, which changes daily, lists the farms and orchards from which the ingredients originate. What remains is to offer it in a toothsome garb. This they do splendidly.

Dana was the original chef, says Kristen. “In the beginning, I ended up doing a lot of the front of house and event planning, and my sister just kind of naturally gravitated towards that. Then people who were drawn to the mission came into the equation. Since then, we've built a good team of people who have more of a culinary background.”

I’d ordered a cocktail before the youngsters arrive – a jalapeño margarita ($13) with organic tequila, a drink that hits the spot on a hot summer day yet wasn’t so spicily enhanced that Susan couldn’t enjoy a sip of it. Lily and Joe each went for a different tequila drink – a blood orange paloma ($13) that sports a cheery rose color and tastes deceptively sweet. In other words, a good dating drink.

The wine list features organic house wines in five popular red and white varieties as well as a Prosecco, and are yours for $9 per glass or $30 for a bottle. Beyond that are four whites, priced from $49 to $52 a bottle (the $52 one is a nice Riesling), and three reds, similarly priced. We ordered an Argentinian Malbec for $45, and were extremely pleased.

For starters, there’s burrata, a buttery Italian-invented cheese made from mozzarella and cream; it was offered with fig preserves, fruit, and a baguette for $18 the evening we visited, and you’re invited to add prosciuto for $5. (And why wouldn’t you?) Also on the appetizers list was white bean soup ($10) made with home-grown herbs, and a cucumber, dill, and feta salad ($12) made with Chicory Creek Farm organic greens. 

But we sailed right into entrée-ville, pondering the four offerings and deciding, as is only right when you’re reviewing a place, to opt for one of each. The Creamy Tuscan Fettuccine ($22) that landed in front of Joe was dressed in a cherry-tomato cream sauce, garnished with white beans and Swiss chard, rich and filling. Not my first choice for a hot night, but, having tasted it, I’ll look for it on a future visit.

Lily enjoyed the Summer Vegetable Bolognese with Creamy Polenta ($25), no doubt sold on the polenta alone (it’s a frequently made favorite in our house). The meat sauce featured Elk Creek grass-fed beef, with homegrown zucchini and summer squash to fill it out – and of course with a generous dusting of parmesan cheese.

For Susan: a trio of tacos ($24). She had the option of Elk Creek grass-fed beef in this entrée but went for the compote of black beans and squash, delighted by the garnish of pickled red onions, roasted corn salsa, cilantro-laced green chili sauce, a not-too-terrifying chipotle crema, and queso fresco to finish. And she ate modestly enough to get a later meal out of the leftovers.

Not so with me. I dove into my bowl of South Indian Red Lentil Curry ($22) with typical gusto, absolutely won over by the ginger-garlic coconut curry sauce, with cilantro flavoring the rice and a side of naan, which helps to clean the bowl as one’s appetite continues to pulse with desire after you’ve spooned up the last of the curry.

Incredibly, it all started with a food truck. “A very small food truck,” Kristen observes, “that we pulled up to the front of one of the greenhouses, and that was in 2012. And we started with a really simple menu since our background wasn't in culinary training. We figured if we just find the best ingredients and keep it super fresh and simple, we could let the food speak for itself.”

Now they frequently feed up to 100 people, “and the space changes every day because we're still an operational greenhouse. In the spring we’re packed to the gills with plants everywhere and we don’t really move them out until after the last frost. And then, because we also do concerts and other different kinds of things, it’s always changing.”

 We had none of the desserts on offer because I brought a birthday cake for Joe – a rich, massive, seven-layer coconut cake that’s one of my specialties. After cutting four slices for the table and pressing eight more slices upon willing members of the staff, we still brought home a quarter of the thing. 

Otherwise, you could avail yourself of carrot cake ($8) with maple-roasted walnuts, elderberry tarte ($10) served with cardamom whipped cream, dark chocolate zucchini cake ($9), which I hope is still available when I return, or limoncello tiramisu ($10).

One of the more impressive pursuits at the café is an educational program for kids. “It’s a free program,” Kristen explains, “open to anyone that can get here. So they're mostly from Cooperstown, Milford area. It goes the whole length of our season, from the end of April to the second week in early October, so any week after school we have a group of anywhere from 10 to 25 kids, and it's a pretty wide age range. We always have some fun activities lined up, and it's nice for kids to feel at home in the garden and have a place to get a little wild.”

Origins Café is serving lunch, during the summer, Wednesday through Saturday from 11 to 3, with brunch on Sunday from 11 to 3 and dinner Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 5 to 8:30. They take all the major credit cards. To assure yourself of their hours, especially as the season changes, visit their website. https://originscafe.org.

Origins Café 
558 Beaver Meadow Road
Cooperstown, NY 13326
607-437-2862
www.originscafe.org