A patchwork of raised garden beds combines to make an arable third of an acre at Harvest-on-Hudson and owner Bruce Bernacchia has put his postage stamps of good earth to good use for 10 years.
As a boy in Yonkers, Bernacchia, 50, saw what a backyard could produce in the able hands of his grandparents. “They lived off that quarter-acre garden,” he said, seated beside beds of chilis, tomatoes and flowers at his Hastings-on-Hudson restaurant. “I saw what a small garden could produce.”
Bernacchia and his staff grow 12 to 15 varieties of tomatoes and an equal number of chilis; six types of both eggplants and Italian beans, squash, herbs and zucchini. On the islands of the parking lot, the corn is as high as an Escalade”™s eye.
When the harvest and the plate are mere feet apart, the result is freshness of the highest order ”“ and that is exactly the point. Harvest-on-Hudson arranges its menu to accommodate what is ripe just beyond the kitchen window. For what the garden cannot produce, Bernacchia said the restaurant is focused on the 100-mile philosophy of drawing food from as close to the restaurant”™s front door as is possible, “the 125-mile philosophy for seafood from Montauk.”
Bernacchia cited local foods as a trend in the restaurant industry. “Call it an evolution,” he said. “It”™s an evolution in recognizing the quality of locally produced food. You get a noticeably different product with local food.”
That equation also embraces a seasonal accent, with the menu falling into step with the seasons. The restaurant”™s garden-grown radishes start the gustatory year. The peppers and tomatillos are ripening by mid-August. More cold-tolerant seasonals like green tomatoes (for frying) close the year.
“Working with what”™s available at the right time of year ”“ that”™s the whole focus of the restaurant,” Bernacchia said. “You can”™t hurry the seasons.”
In college in Colorado, Bernacchia maintained “an enormous garden.” At the time, he did not intend enter the restaurant business. “I was real estate driven,” he said. “But I was drawn into restaurants and it has worked out very well.” He owns four: Harvest-on-Hudson (opened 1997) and Dobbs Ferry”™s Half Moon (2008); and in Montauk Harvest on Fort Pond (1994) and East by Northeast (2002). He shares credit for designing and building the restaurants ”“ Harvest-on-Hudson”™s Tuscan ambience offers no hint of the building”™s history as a truck garage ”“ with his wife, Carol.
The two “Harvest” restaurants ”“ in Hastings-on-Hudson and Montauk ”“ employ what Bernacchia calls “a garden theme around a working garden.”
Vincent Barcelona has been executive chef at Harvest-on-Hudson for four-plus years. “For a chef to walk out and build specials around what comes out of the ground and off the vines allows for great creativity,” he said.
Harvest-on-Hudson seats 200 inside, 150 outside and can accommodate 40 persons in a private dining/events room. Half Moon seats 200 inside, 150 outside and 30 on a private dining loft.
