Father and daughter team Travis Burch
and Jessica Rothacker take family dynamics seriously at their Athens, Ga.,
restaurant, Heirloom Café and Fresh Market. The tightly knit family atmosphere
is evident in every aspect of the eatery: staff, community and even where its
ingredients come from.
With a family business atmosphere, Rothacker
is able to emphasize what she deems most important: “great
food, service and community," according to the restaurant’s website.
In order to focus on this type of
environment, Heirloom Café brings its management and staff to the farms where food
and ingredients are sourced from. Chefs and servers become knowledgeable about
the food’s background and are able to converse with customers about its origin
and why buying local matters.
Last week, Rothacker and Burch took their
staff to Darby Farms in Good Hope, Ga. Daniel Dover, Darby Farms owner, has more
than seven years of experience delivering Heirloom with fresh, locally grown meats.
“It’s hard for people to understand why
they should pay more for a product that is … humanely raised. It is easier for
the customers to understand if the servers are able to communicate with them,”
Rothacker said.
She and Burch look to hire staff members
that are interested in the “cooking and sourcing” of the food and able to
promote the restaurant’s mission of buying and supporting farms from the area.
“[The cooks] have a lot of passion for
food,” Rothacker said. “[It’s] inspirational for them to get to come out here
and they come back to work with a new reason on why they’re doing what they’re
doing.”
Heirloom manager Aura Morris is proud to
be a part of a business that not only provides its customers with enjoyable and
tasty meals, but supports the local economy as well. With a background in
farming and passion for how food is grown and where it comes from, Morris is
the perfect advocate for Heirloom.
“Our customers tend to really care about
the food and where it comes from, and it’s nice to tell them from personal
experience what the farms are like, where the food comes from. Our mission is
to be a local food-focused restaurant,” Morris said.
Over the years, the trend for using food
from homegrown farms has increased exponentially. However, Heirloom is the expert
when it comes to supporting its local community. Field trips to their producers
and suppliers show just how invested the restaurant is in supporting farmers
who are not only their business partners but neighbors as well.
“We seem to fill that niche really well.
The people who come to eat with us really seem to care about those issues too
and are just really curious about what it is that we are doing and why we are
passionate about local food,” Morris said.
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