Lucky Tree is a phenomenal coffee shop. I’ll definitely be visiting the new location. Hope they succeed!
It’s the “wholesome” version of the Mad Men “Lucky Strike… it’s toasted” episode where they repackage something inherent to the product as a differentiator.
Like the Domino’s ads that said their pizza sauce came from real tomato farms, or Tropicana orange juice bragging that it comes from Florida.
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The cynic in me presumed that was the case. At the end of the day, things grown usually happen on a farm, even if they are genetically modified or processed.
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So… No lunch, dinner, or alcohol options?
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Here’s a nice little summary - in short, it once meant something, but the lack of regulation has turned it into background static
The simplest definition of farm-to-table is food that moves directly from fields to commercial or home kitchens. It isn’t supplied through traditional means such as wholesale or retail vendors. However, the term isn’t regulated. The phrase farm-to-table can refer to food sourced locally from small or large operations. It can also be applied to vegetables and meats sourced through farmers markets and community agricultural projects. In general, farm-to-table means that the food on your plate was purchased directly from the grower.
But without regulation, there’s really no way to know if it’s true or not, right? It just seems like it could be marketing to push prices higher.
Exactly - To me, Farm to Table means they grow their own food. So unless they turn Moore Square into a small farm, this is not Farm to Table.
It’s just marketing speak. But I’m glad someone is taking over this spot. Farm to table or not.
I think it is generally accepted that if it’s bought directly from the grower, that still counts.
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Generally the restaurant advertises/provides the name of the farm/whatever they are buying from. Like, if you go to St. Roch’s they’ve got the source for their oysters on the board.
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I think it is similar to “cage free” or “free range.” A fancy new food marketing word meant to make you feel better but have little to no impact on the product you are purchasing.
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It’s been quite the day… I never knew people had so many feelings about something I have always glossed over!
Meanwhile no one has even tried to discuss my point that if this is breakfast only, it’s kind of a shitty plan compared to an all day food place…
Edit: apparently they also will have farm to table lunch. I hope that doesn’t trigger anyone.
And be roasting coffee there. So the park can smell like burned coffee instead of just hobo pee.
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Colin the Chicken will have a word with you
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Curious: Does every coffee place that roasts smell like burned beans, or is it just Cup A Joe Hillsborough Street?
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Lol that’s exactly where my mind went. I honestly am not sure.
CupAJoe roasts the absolute $h!t out of their beans, so I wouldn’t use them as a baseline 
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Perhaps it’s simply a means to justify higher pricing. In its best execution, seems to me that farm to table is about a local approach to sourcing which supports your neighboring farmers and offers a product that’s actually from where you’re eating it. When catered to strictly as seasonality dictates, it’s a challenging business model - the strictest adherence to ‘only using what’s best and fresh right now’ restricts what ends up on the plate - which then needs an understanding consumer.
Hopefully they are looking to get as many things as possible from local purveyors.
If you see the US Foods truck there on the regular rather than folks from our surrounding farms and regional distributors, then yeah…elevate your cynicism.
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The economics of farm-to-table don’t really work out. 99% of restaurant food is produced at industrial scale and distributed through wholesale markets and major distributors. Like it or not, that’s the world we live in. Small producers can’t compete at scale.
While there will always be niche market of socially-conscious customers willing to pay higher prices, farmers want stable demand and predictability in a notoriously fickle, seasonal, weather-dependent industry. Most restaurants fail in their first year, so selling direct to restaurants involves a huge amount of risk, often borne by farmers themselves.
Farm-to-table seems like a nice alternative to “Big Ag”, but it doesn’t quite pencil out, except maybe as a loss leader. Most farms still look toward established distribution channels when it comes to balancing the books.
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Honest to goodness real craft, high quality, closer to the source benchmarks have indeed been relegated to niche and it’s the low down dirty shame of our industrialized capitalist systems.
Farm to Table principles are a ‘1%’ more folks should factor into their value quotient rather than the more, more value engineered crap that make up the majority of scale.
Epilogue : Maybe this cafe, which has only signaled its intent is not the right hill for this battle.
I plan to go check it out and see.
My take is that the cynical absolutist approach is the easiest way to scoff at the difficulty of implementing principles of ‘better inputs, better outputs’ throughout our culture. That is not to assume anything or to say that F to T is not used as marketing. Rather, it is to encourage, explore and support the folks swimming upstream so that we might actually expand the cost-basis and tip the scale.
Of course, you do you — bitch and moan about cheap 5 over 1s or complaining about the cost of burgers or eggs, fine - but if you’re not voting better with your dollars, you’re simply another cog in the machine…
Edit II : Hardees’ Roll Eyes, well, gosh darn it…must be like Uncle Jesse commercial advice. !!
Edit 3 : Meanwhile, many on this forum want some sort of major league stadium – junk show clusterF___, lack of quality in house capitalist BS, while we have you captive and overcharge you for standard low grade commercial lameness which also includes public tax dollars to funnel up the rear-end happy jig of some more than able to support themselves B—id’ness_group that doesn’t need or deserve the support.
Check your cynicism where appropriate.
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Hence why I am skeptical about it being real and not just a marketing gimmick.