Here is an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat.
Craig LaBan: I'm thrilled to see the Rittenhouse Farmer's Market still ticking along each Saturday into winter, with hot cider and the Renaissance Sausage cart to keep us warm, as well as a new-ish Jersey seafood stand with everything from fluke to scallops from Barnegat - all of it fresh and local, not frozen. They'd sold out by 1 p.m. when we arrived. We were in plenty of time, though, to plunder the Rineer Family Farms - one of the best all-purpose stands around: grass-fed rump roast; eggs with yolks as bright as the sun. But most interesting, Rineer has also recently been selling freshly ground white cornmeal (great for crusting fish) and wheat grown on the farm in Pequea, Lancaster County, for $3.75 a quart. Owner Daryl Rineer typically grinds the whole-grain flour each Friday before the weekend markets (they go to Chestnut Hill's market every other Saturday, too), so you need to keep it in the fridge to retain that freshness. Also: I'm intrigued by the new Paris wine bar set up by London Grill next door to the restaurant because this will be the region's first showcase for kegged wines on draft (a national trend that is locally long overdue). And all the wines will be from local winemakers such as Allegro, Pinnacle Ridge, Galen Glen, and Manatawny Creek. There's a lot of plonk being passed off in local wineries, but there's also a surprising amount of good things happening. This is the first restaurant venue I know that will be putting its wines in front of a local audience at an affordable price.
