By: Matthew P. Moll
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Music aficionados often argue that everything sounds better on vinyl. Eat Records fills that craving, offering a collection of records and used turntables., but it also provides a sort of vintage menu for those who prefer to please their palates with produced food.
Eat Records — part record store, part café — serves breakfast, lunch and brunch on the weekends. The short menu depends entirely on what is available from local farmers.
“Some people are confused about the menu because it changes all the time,” said Jordan Colón, who owns Eat Records. “It is not consistent in the fact that you can get one dish, but it is consistent in that the food is the highest quality.”
Every Saturday, Colón rolls his pushcart to McCarren Park in Greenpoint where he meets with the farmers that supply Eat Records with vegetables, fruits, eggs and meat for the week. He returns with a cart teeming with produce, his manual deliver system at capacity.
All eggs and some vegetables are from Garden of Eve Farm, which is located in Hempstead Long Island.
Garden of Eve is a 36-acre farm that serves two New York City markets and about 1000 households through their CSA program (Community Supported Agriculture). Their hens lay about 500 dozen eggs weekly.
“Garden of Eve is a versatile farm that has a lot of CSA member involvement in their markets,” said Liz Carollo, who works for Greenmarket, the nonprofit organization which runs most of New York City’s farmers markets. “Members work the farmers markets and work on the farm so they really have a vested interest in the food they eat and the farm itself.”
Eat Records does not own a CSA share but has an arrangement with Garden of Eve with vegetables and eggs. Saturday mornings in the summer usually mean Colón is at the market chatting with farmers about growing practices and what is seasonally available.
Colón buys about 25 dozen eggs a week. Recently, he decided to go to Garden of Eve with Carrollo.
“It is good to see where your food comes from and meet the people who produce it,” Colón said.
Colón’s interest in serving local produce began when a neighborhood friend moved upstate to start a farm called Cooked Goose Farm in Roxbury, N. Y. Now, Cooked Goose drops vegetables off once a week to the restaurant and offers CSA shares on a week-by-week basis at the café. Colón also learned about living off the land from his sister, a famer in Italy. His sister and her husband sell fresh bread they make from scratch at local markets Tuscany.
Although he himself began eating locally, it took a while to begin offering local food at Eat.
“I saw it as something hypocritical,” Colón said. “I was serving food that I did not consider good, but instead what I could.”
Colón made the change over this winter, stimulating creativity in the kitchen.
“It isn’t limiting at all,” Colón said. “If I found it limiting I wouldn’t do it. I think it is exciting to get a bunch of turnips and try to figure out what to do with them.”
Although Colón has found farms that are willing to work with his scale and needs, working with restaurants is generally not Garden of Eve’s specialties.
“We really put our CSA members first,” said Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht, who with her husband Chris are in their eighth season at Garden of Eve. “We work with a few restaurants that are willing to take what we have left over.”
For Colón making use of what is fresh and readily available is the relationship with farmers he prefers. Making the setup mutually beneficial for both parties.
“If our meat farmer has extra cuts of something he will let us know,” Colón said. “It really takes care of itself. We will take whatever is produced.”
