White Oak Pastures, a grass-fed beef and lamb and free-range pastured poultry farm in Bluffton, Ga., has added a restaurant, named Pasture to Plate, to its facilities.

The restaurant offers the farm’s 80+ employees a place to eat their breakfast and lunch and also provides an eatery for visitors to the farm and a space to entertain or host after-hours functions. White Oak Pastures is in a rural location that is 15 miles from the nearest restaurant, requiring farm employees to spend most of their lunch break in transit and spend more money on gas.

The farm’s eating pavilion began as a stick building with a roof and picnic tables underneath. Now, it has turned into a 30’ x 90’ open building that will contain a commercial kitchen and seat all employees comfortably. The open floor plan is built in the farm’s organic garden and features industrial ceiling fans every ten feet to keep guests cool.

Pasture to Plate is a farm-to-table establishment, with the meats and most of the vegetables coming directly from the fields and abattoirs at White Oak Pastures each day rather than from a distributor. Next year, White Oak Pastures’ garden will double in size in order to provide all the vegetables for the restaurant.

Pasture to Plate’s chef is Evelyn Taylor. White Oak Pastures will not offer a menu for the farm’s restaurant; instead, Chef Taylor will only serve one option for each meal. The restaurant is currently serving lunch and will be adding breakfast in the future. The pavilion is also in the process of acquiring a beer and liquor license.

In addition to providing a place for employees and guests to dine on a daily basis, the eating pavilion will also host celebrity chef demonstrations and meals. Chef Kevin Gillespie of Woodfire Grill christened the restaurant kitchen on June 30 during a silent auction dinner, and Chef Ron Eyester of Rosebud and The Family Dog will be preparing a meal at the restaurant in the coming months.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2012 at 3:00 pm and is filed under News.