Farmers Revival Salad Eats

Remember how a week or so ago I wrote a post about salads (which is SHOCKING if you know me and how often I don’t eat salads) and Farmers Revival Salad Bistro’s Kickstarter? Sadly, it doesn’t look like the Kickstarter has enough momentum to probably pan out (unless there is a generous benefactor out there that comes through! Hey, it’s possible right?). Thank goodness, Dave Rose is determined to see this dream come true, and I am hoping he will succeed in finding funding in other ways. Meanwhile, Dave happened to host a Bloggers Dinner to continue to market the concept, and I was excited to be able to finally taste one of the world inspired salads I had been reading and seeing in photos.

I made the trek out to Gresham – see, true dedication and curiosity on the goodness of these salads, as it took me 1.5 hours to get there on the Max from my work location! There, we visited the location of this dinner, Mark’s Northwest Table, which is owned by his parents but happens to be closed on Mondays. And this is where I first find out that this restaurant serves high teas on certain days. WHAT! HOW ADORABLE.

But I was late (I got a little turned around by my slow phone’s GPS even though it was only .5 mi from the station) and last to the table, so I caught up with the other guests, which included Talk. Eat. Drink. Portland. with all three bloggers present!, meeting for the first time the lovely Jane of In the Pink and Green who just moved here (1 month!) to Portland, and Amy who had helped set up this dinner from Eating My Way Through Portland. We started with a little icebreaker that Dave suggested of listing our favorite restaurant, which again, so cute (as if we weren’t already all going to be talking about food the whole dang meal).

We also got to hear about Dave and how he first came up with the idea of the salad bistro and the research he has done. He was very forthcoming with noting obstacles he was having, seen and unforeseen, and realistic about the economics of a small business start-up, but also so passionate about he not only wanted to deliver flavorful food but also food that is really good for you, and that all the ingredients we were eating were fresh from the Gresham Farmers Market only a few blocks away. We also enjoyed his honesty about how many greens he has cleaned as he continues to basically eat salad and taste test recipes everyday, and how he really is putting in his 10,000 hours (per the book Outliers) to become a real expert!

Then, it was time for eating! We started with fresh warm bread, and a vegan minestrone soup which was full of flavors and vegetables galore- the photo doesn’t do it justice because it was before I started digging in and unveiled all the vegetable goodness. I should have taken a picture after spooning some of the goodness up the the surface… but instead I got wrapped up in talking and eating and then it was all gone! Dave explained that this soup will be a staple on his menu, because based on his focus groups everyone raved and said this was their favorite. Dave is planning to offer 3 soups daily though, so this will just be one of the fabulous options!

We took a little break to check out Dave in the kitchen assembling the salads. Although he was painstakingly arranging them for our dinner, he explained that he did think carefully about the realities of lunch service, and estimated that Farmers Revival would be able to put together one of the set salad menu items in about 3 minutes! Obviously if you are requesting your own custom mix of ingredients for your salad, that would probably depend on what you select.

And now, for the closeup of that salad before it gets enjoyed by yours truly. Dave and his family are vegetarian, and Dave explained that at first when he transitioned his daughters to this new diet, there was mixed success until he started making these salads- which the girls just loved eating and mealtime has never been a problem again. I definitely noticed how full I got from this salad too- it was fulfilling on all levels.

This salad represents everything that Dave is aiming for: affordable and fast but healthy eating and delicious in that it touches all the taste senses, sourced locally and influenced by world cuisine. Dave is hoping to cover several countries in the set salad flavor choices on the menu, ranging from this Indian inspired one to Italy, Japan, Thai, and more! You can see this Indian inspired salad is chock full of baby spinach, red leaf, fresh mint and cilantro, but also golden beets, roasted cauliflower, curried quinoa for some umami as well as plays on textures, some sweet from the currants and yet that curry vinaigrette really kicks it up (Dave roasted spices to make that vinaigrette). I am not going to give away everything that is in this salad recipe, but let me tell you there are more than a dozen items in this salad. Dave’s genius is putting together combinations you would probably never even dream up, and when you see the list you may even wonder if you would like, but let me tell you, you will be surprised and the next thing you know, the bowl is empty.

Dave’s sister and mom have just started making mini-pies (these are available for now at Mark’s NW Table), and although Dave wants to offer healthy desserts such as yogurt with various toppings at Farmers Revival (and his daughters are helping to come up with some combinations for him!), I agree with him that since we just saved some calories, I have a little bit to spare on some homemade farmers apple pie. Yes, the ingredients are from the Farmers Market- this one is apple pie, but the ladies have also made peaches and marionberry! The crust was crumbly soft butteryness just adding a little bit of texture to the chunky apples inside.

You can also read the viewpoints of this same meals here by my other fellow food bloggers!

• Talk. Eat. Drink. Portland. Farmers Revival Salad Bistro Food Bloggers Dinner
• In The Pink and Green Farmers Revival Bloggers Dinner Recap
• Eating My Way Thru Portland Farmers Revival Dinner with the Bloggers

I wish the best to Dave and his family, as well as hope we will be seeing Farmers Revival in the downtown area soon. I would be there on opening day, believe me, these are among the best salads I have ever had in my life! I would happily recommend it to anyone to grab a lunch who works downtown, and as often as I recommend food carts there is nothing quite like this. The flavor profiles that are in his salad creations really are complex and are more than any normal person would ever think to put together from any salad bar, and knowing the ingredients are coming from farmers is a good feeling. This is also so much better than any salad I have ever gotten catered for lunch. I would love to be able to drop in and grab some of these salads just to take home for a meal, or to take on a picnic or trip also. My mind even wandered to the idea that if Dave wasn’t so busy with fundraising, how amazing would these salads be with my upcoming wine/appetizers potluck gathering I am hosting- it would be so fun to pair different wines with these flavorful salads to bring out different profiles of them, and how often can you say that with a salad?

If you would like to find out more about Farmers Revival, visit here:

• Twitter: @FarmersRevival
• Email: farmersrevival@gmail.com
• Facebook: Farmers Revival Facebook
• Kickstarter: Kickstarter for Farmers Revival (ends August 19)