The Curious Pear Meet the Fat Radish

In In our humble five weeks in New York, we've heard the phrase 'farm to table' thrown around a lot. We hear it in bars, read it on menus, and see it up and down the aisles of every organic deli-mart the city has to offer. The Big Apple is famous for its food fads, but this one is particularly noticeable, with chalkboards across the city proudly proclaiming their partnered farm and their vegetable of the season for all to see.

So when did this latest (and seemingly unwavering) trend begin? The Fat Radish, which opened its doors in 2010, has long been noted as the pioneering restaurant of New York's 'farm to table' movement. The Lower East Side's gastronomic star is the brainchild of best friends Phil Winser and Ben Towill. Together they also run the design agency Silkstone, as well as two newer restaurant projects, The East Pole and The Leadbelly (the latter serves exceptional cocktails and oysters, right across the street from The Radish). The two seem to have been bound for creative partnership from the beginning. "We have a very similar philosophy about most things," Phil tells us, "so when it came to both food and design this outcome was the most natural one." Together they put their passion for sustainable, hands-on food into creating a restaurant that serves fresh, healthy fare in a warm and inviting environment. "Growing up in the English countryside, it was always about food in my family," says Phil, "and not only the food itself but the occasion of coming together and eating."

Though the rise of the Radish seemed to coincide with an anti-fast food mania in the New York food world, setting a trend was never Ben and Phil's intention, and a label is the last thing they want. "We don't call ourselves a 'farm to table' restaurant" Phil tells us, "we don't call ourselves an 'organic' restaurant either. We don't do it to be fashionable, we don't talk about it; we just do it."

We headed to The Fat Radish on Orchard Street, where a horde of restaurants, coffee shops and bars have sprung up in the last couple of years. The interior, much like the food, is all about the beautiful and the basic, awash with white brick walls, sturdy metal framing and a scattering of greenery. We sampled the vegetable green curry with coconut milk and brown rice, and The Fat Radish Bowl; a macrobiotic vegetable dish with adzuki beans, carrot-ginger and tahini. We also chatted to Phil Winser (Ben Towill was off hand-picking herbs in some upstate farm, we can only assume) about spearheading the most wholesome eating trend in recent times, whether he likes it or not…