Eating local is strangely difficult. Food raised nearby is not often advertised, nor widely distributed. It arrives in small batches, available for limited times each year. The window to enjoy an Ohio summer strawberry opens as quickly as it shuts.
But local food is worth it. That is what the siblings, Ben and Sarah Cohen, will tell you. They closed their seven-days-a-week restaurant in Bowling Green in order to offer an entirely local weekend brunch at Black Kite Coffee and Pies in the Old West End. Their menu, like their ingredients, changes from week to week, season to season. I went along with the Happy Badger crew on part of their weekly gathering of local produce, and then sat with them on Saturday while they transformed their fruits and breads and vegetables into a meal that was actually worth all the trouble.
In the Field
Ben and I drove out to Hill Avenue to visit University Church’s garden. They are nonprofit, and rely upon Americorps and individual volunteers to keep the green space going; providing a community garden for anyone who needs some soil to pursue their tomato dreams, while serving over 40 at-need families with fresh fruits and vegetables. They also stock local chefs with greens, if they volunteer time at the garden.
Scott Delaney manages the University Church garden. Delaney is thick haired with olive skin; his jeans are covered in red soil stains. “It is a completely communal effort.” said Delaney as he showed us some herbs. Several weekend weedwackers stood nearby, hunched over while toiling their plots. Delaney’s two-year-old daughter walked with us through the garden. She did a little jump when Delaney fed her one of the garden’s fresh raspberries.
We walked to a patch of unblossomed white bulbs attached to long, green stalks. “These are the garlic scapes,” said Delaney. He took a knife and chopped off a couple for us to try. They smelled and tasted like concentrated garlic, fresh and biting. “These will be perfect for the pesto,” said Ben.
“Traditional food is the most interesting to me,” said Ben, who is 29, and has the crazed hair and glasses of a young Albert Einstein. He learned to source and cook with his sister when their parents opened the original Happy Badger on Central Avenue in 2000. They have been cooking ever since, and plan to make their brunch part of an interconnected local economy by keeping all sources and customers local. “When you spend money here, it stays here,” said Ben.
On the Table
Soul music blared from the kitchen while the tables at Black Kite filled at 11am. The menu at Badger Brunch is different every week, depending on what their sources have available. “It’s not easy, but the ingredients can speak to you,” said Sarah.
I ordered the Strawberries and Cream Croissant French Toast. It was made with a croissant baked the day before in an oven one mile away at All Crumbs Bakery on Adams Street, soaked in Madeira custard overnight, and pan-fried. It was then topped with whipped cream from Calder Dairy in Michigan and strawberries from that morning’s trip to Toledo’s Farmers’ Market. The outside of the croissant remained flaky while the inside was saturated with sweetness. The strawberries on top were as lush and red as a summer sunset.
I took a bite of a friend’s omelet, topped with pesto made from the University Church garlic scapes. It was more refined and palatable than the rawness of the garden, but it kept the same green freshness that Delaney chopped for us less than two days before.
The Cohens’ partner, J. Vahle, spoke to me in the kitchen after I ate. He told me that the food they make is based upon their collective experiences. I looked down at my paper menu, printed that morning and stained pink by strawberries that I watched Ben buy just hours before, and I knew exactly what Vahle was talking about.
Badger Brunch is on Saturday & Sunday, 10:30am-2:30pm at Black Kite Coffee and Pies
Dorian Slaybod is 28, a local attorney
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and happily living in Toledo.
