Regenerative Restaurant
Two weeks ago, Christina and I attended Force of Nature’s What Good Shall I Do Conference at Roam Ranch in Fredericksburg, Texas. The focus of the conference was regenerative farming and we were both struck by the way in which the word regenerative was used in so many contexts beyond simply farming and rebuilding soil. One presentation in particular, Becoming Regenerative Beings Through Developing a Regenerative Mindset, stuck with me. In it, Tre’ Cates, founding partner of nRythym, suggested that the regenerative model can be applied to all different parts of life, including industry and business.
It got me thinking…
What is “that” word??
Ever since we finally surrendered to the fact that we do, in fact, own a restaurant, Christina and I have been struggling to find a title/theme/word that properly describes what we and our team are building together at the Modern Stone Age Kitchen. After attending this conference I believe, we finally found it in the word regenerative.
So, I started Googling.
First, I pulled up definitions for regenerative:
- to regrow or be renewed or restored
- the ability to regrow or become better
These were great and certainly directly applicable to how we view it in the regenerative farming model, especially as it relates to soil health. Then, I began to find definitions like this from the Cambridge Dictionary:
- relating to the improvement of a place or system, especially by making it more active or successful, or to making a person feel happier and more positive
That was more like it! Just like Tre’ Cates’ presentation this definition inspired me to think about how what we are building can play a role. So, I switched my Google search terms.
Time to Google
I received multiple hits for regenerative kitchen which were focused primarily on development of recipes that used regeneratively sourced ingredients. What I was envisioning was so much more and certainly not as plant based as most of these recipes seemed to be. Just how regenerative farming means more than just simply building soil, what we are building is accomplishing more than just supporting regenerative farming practices.
Searching for the term regenerative restaurant resulted in something interesting. There was only one full result for the term and, believe it or not, that single hit was actually for a restaurant near us in Baltimore!
Woodberry Kitchen was a fantastic restaurant that, according to their website, accomplished their vision of regeneration by sourcing locally, excluding GMO/commodity/industrial monoculture which makes an economic impact to regional producers, paying fair & equitable wages and benefits to staff, and engaging in waste-stream management. After Covid, it reopened and rebranded as Woodberry Tavern and an event space, Woodberry Gatherings. Although they no longer specifically call out the term, regenerative restaurant on their new website, their profiles still speak to the same important goals as when it was the Woodberry Kitchen.
Regenerative Restaurant??
Now, that was more like what I was thinking – Regenerative Restaurant. This term embraces what we do in the kitchen, in the front of the house, through the non-profit, and behind the scenes… everything! We feel we can apply the same principles that regenerative farmers bring to the land to our restaurant to make a significant impact. In this case, it is not soil health that is the primary focus (although that is certainly still a piece of it all even at this stage in the food chain as you will see), but rather community health. And, most importantly, if we do it right, it rebuilds everything.
Because of our approach, the Modern Stone Age Kitchen and Eastern Shore Food Lab have direct contact with the following touchpoints –
- Farmers
- Ranchers
- Abattoirs
- Delivery People
- Our Own Team
- Customers
- Chestertown and surrounding area
- Schools, organizations, etc
- Environment
- Indigenous and traditional groups around the world
We work hard to not just support, but do our part to help build each and every one of these up to make them better. Whether that means from a health, financial or educational perspective, this is exactly what regenerative means.
A regenerative restaurant builds up ALL of these.
A regenerative restaurant continues to build and nourish the community.
And, now that we have a label for what we are we can do it even better!
P.S. Of course we just purchased the URL too 😉
gluten free AND sourdough? What’s the deal with that? 
Love Woodberry Kitchen!!! We’ve been there twice, amazing food and drink.
Awesome! We need to make a trip back ourselves!