Some characteristics make food inherently better and the freshness of the ingredients used is one of them. For a long time, this posed a challenge to restaurants: how do you get fresh fruit, vegetables and animal products to your kitchen? In the past (and today in some cases), restaurants paid a high premium on transportation costs to ensure their ingredients arrived as quickly as possible. But now there is another and arguably better way: the local produce restaurant. 

What Exactly Is a Local Produce Restaurant?

A local produce restaurant is one that sources all (or most) of its perishable ingredients from within a much smaller radius than would be traditionally viable. There are several ways that local produce restaurants achieve this including:

• Having their location amidst a more rural area that has all the necessary supplies on hand.
• Using ingredients that can be farmed in small areas in more urban areas.
• Growing the ingredients themselves and strictly controlling the supply chain.

This might seem like a measure that is unnecessary considering food from restaurants has tasted good for centuries but most people who have eaten at these local produce restaurants can attest to their superiority.

What Do They Serve?

The great thing about a local produce restaurant is that their menu changes with the seasons as different ingredients become available. When a particular crop or vegetable is ready to be harvested then meals featuring it will pop up and become more frequent until they run out of that particular ingredient or the season ends. This means that you can go back to the same restaurant just a few months apart and find a completely different menu selection. This is a lot of work on the restaurant's end but it also is a far more enjoyable experience for you, the patron.

Environmental Benefit

A lot of local produce restaurants have made the switch to their current organisational method because of growing concern about the environment. The method of producing all the fruit, vegetables and animal products in a nearby location drastically reduces the pollution from transport and packaging that comes with a normal supply chain. This means that not only does your food taste better, but it is more sustainably sourced and indirectly better for the environment.

If you have never tried food from a local produce restaurant then you have to try it at least once but be warned: it can be hard to go back to normal food after you give it a taste. 

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