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What could be better for a restaurant than an on-site garden? With menu ingredients just a few feet away, these restaurant gardens redefine the word “fresh.” Here are the winners for best restaurant gardens in Yankee Magazine’s 2014 Home & Garden Awards.
URBAN EXPERIENCE
Ledge Kitchen & Drinks
2261 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester, MA. 617-698-2261; ledgeboston.com
Outdoor space isn’t abundant in Boston, but that didn’t stop the folks at Ledge from creating a 4,000-square-foot garden on the roof. Somerville-based Recover Green Roofs installed it, and another Somerville-based firm, Green City Growers, maintains it and ensures that it’s producing plenty of produce to star in Ledge’s modern comfort food and craft cocktails.
RURAL OUTING
Primo
2 South Main St., Rockland, ME. 207-596-0770; primorestaurant.com
Chef/owner Melissa Kelly calls her restaurant a “full-circle kitchen,” and she means it. In the 14 years since she and husband Pierce Kushner founded the restaurant, they’ve grown their onsite farm into a thriving operation supplying meat, vegetables, honey, fruit, eggs, edible flowers, and micro-greens. Then Kelly’s team in the kitchen prepares them to their full glory in their signature rustic Italian style.
FARM DINNERS
The Herb Lyceum
368 Main St., Groton, MA. 978-448-6499; gilsonslyceum.com
This hidden gem of a country dining experience, set amid four acres of herb gardens (which guests may visit before sitting down to their meal), trees, and greenhouses, is more like a dinner party than a restaurant. There’s a set menu, it’s BYOB (with no corkage fee), and the food—which showcases herbs grown onsite—is carefully and thoughtfully prepared.
