Since its founding, Oliveto has cultivated relationships with dozens of farmers, fishmongers and other suppliers. Starting this year, the restaurant has attempted to showcase those food producers through a web site, the Oliveto Community Journal.This web site is a response to the increasing erudition of restaurant consumers. Many diners don't just want to enjoy good food and wine, they want to know where it came from, and who produced it.
The Oliveto Community Journal includes profiles of farmers, ranchers and other suppliers. There are videos that track the current tomato season and the old-world practices of Mr. Espresso, an Oakland company that uses a wood-fired oven to roast coffee for Oliveto and other businesses.
Check out this Oliveto profile of Fully Belly Farm, a year-round producer of fruits and vegetables in Yolo County. The farm, which hosts an annual Hoe Down Harvest Festival (seen above), has been selling produce directly to Oliveto for 15 years.
One perk of interning at Oliveto is seeing farmers come through the back door with crates of produce or meat. Some clearly enjoy hanging out in the kitchen and deepening their relationship with the chefs that prepare the food.
This is not anything "new." In Europe and elsewhere, the first restaurants and taverns were started by farm families or people who wanted to sell produce or spirits produced by their friends in the community.
Responding to customers who are fed up by mass-produced, faceless plates of food, restaurants are getting back to their roots.
