Location:

Heirloom Café & Fresh Market
815 N Chase St
Athens, GA 30601

Event Date

Sunday, May 18, 5pm - 8pm

Chefs

Sal Speights
Matthew Palmerlee
Aaron Phillips
Brittany Gunter
Aly Moler

Farms

Anderson Farms
DaySprings Farms
Front Field Farm
Sundance Family Farm
Schermer Pecan Company

A portion of the proceeds from this event will support Food Bank of Northeast Georgia.

Heirloom Café & Fresh Market

The Edible Agriculture Tour is headed for Athens. Join us on Sunday, May 18 for EAT GA at Heirloom Café. The Edible Agriculture Tour is headed for Athens. Join us on Sunday, May 18 for EAT GA at Heirloom Café. Enjoy offerings from your favorite Athens chefs as they work with some of their favorite local farms! It's one afternoon that's sure to be 'Georgia-Grown' delicious!

About the Restaurant ▼

Heirloom Café & Fresh Market

815 N Chase St, Athens, GA 30601

Heirloom Café & Fresh Market strives to create that passion, community and joy for others. The Boulevard Neighborhood is a special place, full of historic homes of many different styles and full of many different people, but they all value their community. This neighborhood is in and of itself an heirloom, protected dearly by the Historic Preservation Committee and its residents, young and old.

The food that Heirloom Café & Fresh Market serves is also something special. We source as many of our ingredients as possible from local producers, farmers, and artisans. We bring you produce that was sewn, tended and harvested with care by people in your community. We pick our producers very carefully, making sure that they provide a product that could be considered an heirloom, that is highest quality and artisan made. Many of our farmers are working land that has been carefully farmed for generations.

About the Chefs ▼
Event Chefs

Sal Speights

Heirloom Café & Fresh Market

Executive Chef

Sal Speights, a native of Tifton, but a Chicago man at heart, has recently joined the Heirloom staff as chef de cuisine. Sal hails from a visual art and theater background, which ultimately led to a passion for food as a medium. His passion finds its outlet in rethinking historic recipes and creating simple but thoughtful dishes where the ingredients have room to shine. An avid forager, if you can't find him in the kitchen, look for him along creek beds looking for chanterelles after a rain or seeking out wild garlic in the fields. His overarching project is building a database to help immigrants around the world find a way to make the dishes they miss from their homeland with the ingredients found locally in their new homes.

Matthew Palmerlee

The Branded Butcher

Executive Chef

Matthew Palmerlee really likes making hot dogs. And we're not talking about Ballpark weenies.

Of course, the Branded Butcher executive chef and charcuterie enthusiast's chops go beyond those meat-centric options that anchor our menu. A veteran of Athens kitchens, including Farm 255 — where he served as executive chef and developed much of the local-driven ethos that informs his food today — Matt rose through the ranks over the course of a decade and a half, arriving at The Branded Butcher with leadership skills, and point of view, and yes, a knack for making darn good hot dogs.

That love of making playful, accessible food delicious is at the core of Matt's work at The Branded Butcher. During his tenure, the Butcher has grown into both a venue for special occasions and a place where diners can camp out at the bar with oysters and small plates on a modest budget.

As a member first of The Four Coursemen and now of Coterie & Tie, a local supper club composed of Matt, chef Eddie Russell and sommelier Nancy Palmer, Matt has developed a test kitchen/incubator in Athens that allows space for him to push his boundaries as a chef and vet new ideas for the Butcher's menu. Now the culinary producer on the Cooking Channel's Belly Up!, he travels the country, eating and bringing back fresh concepts to the Athens community. As the scope of his career has grown, taking him away from the kitchen from time to time, Matt has become a mentor and facilitator to the cooks who work for him, solidifying a place in Athens for thoughtful, unpretentious delicious food at the Butcher for years to come.

Aaron Phillips

Last Resort Grill

Chef de Cuisine

It could be said that Aaron Phillips got his Bachelor, Master and Doctorate degrees in the kitchen of Last Resort Grill. A fifteen-year Last Resort Grill veteran, Phillips started as a dishwasher while getting his undergrad from UGA and has been making his up the ranks in the kitchen ever since.

Now, as a Head Chef, he mans the kitchen and continues to wow Athens locals, visitors and the crowds of hungry University of Georgia students meal after meal. Aaron's love of good music and great food honors the history of Last Resort Grill, which opened as a 'Listening Room' in 1966.

In 1992 Melissa Clegg and partner Jaamy Zarnegar turned Resort into the beloved restaurant it is today. Over twenty-years later, The Last Resort has received numerous prestigious awards and reviews and continues to be the go-to spot for a great lunch, intimate dinner and amazing cake.

Brittany Gunter

Epting Events

When she's not serving as Sales Director at Epting Events, Brittany Gunter is the Praline Queen of the Southeast. Over the last several years, she's traveled across the Southeast - from Thomasville to Charleston, to Nashville and Atlanta - making the Epting Events' signature dessert, freshly made pecan pralines.

Epting Events is a family of party-goers and party-throwers. We fashion unforgettable experiences and transform moments and milestones into stories to be shared. We deliver genuine Southern hospitality through our exceptional events and cuisine. It starts with a story, and then we collaborate with you to tell your story through an event experience that we oversee down to the last detail, from food to fun, so that you can feel like a guest, too. We consider it an honor to celebrate the moments and landmark occasions in our clients' lives. After all, we love a good party.

Aly Moler

Frozen Pints

Love at First Taste

Like most great ideas, Frozen Pints™ started as an accident...

Someone spilled a beer near the ice cream maker, and in a moment of (slightly inebriated) inspiration, we found our calling. After a short debate over which beer would do the honors, we chose our favorite and dumped it in. We got some crazy looks from fellow partygoers, but we were on a mission. Instead of dumping the hopped up cream to start a new batch, we let our two greatest loves intermingle and watched what happened. We couldn't be happier with the results.

Our philosophy is simple. We use the finest craft beers and freshest local ingredients to bring you flavor combinations you've never experienced before. Or really, it's the flavor you always knew, but you've been apart a while, and it seems different somehow.

Check out Frozen Pints on Live! with Kelly and Michael!

About the Farms ▼
Particpating Farms

Anderson Farms

Anderson Farms is a small farm in Madison County, Georgia, just outside of Athens. The farm is focused on producing pastured pork using a variety of breeds.

All pigs are antibiotic-free and raised on forages and locally grown feed as available. Hogs are given ample space to forage in both woods and pasture.

DaySprings Farms

DaySpring Farms is a family owned and operated farm founded in 2011. We are located just outside of Danielsville, GA. DaySpring Farms is currently USDA Certified Organic, in addition to being Certified Naturally Grown.

We have begun our 3rd growing season here at the farm, and, in addition to our usual market garden selection of vegetables, we are excited to be doubling our production and growing a full acre of the Smarty grape tomatoes. We will also be growing an acre of winter squashes this season, and in the early fall we will be starting production from our on-site flour mill that we are in the process of constructing, which we will be using to grind the wheat we are growing. Soon we will be able to offer locally grown, organic certified flour products and wheat berries.

Front Field Farm


Front Field Farm is the realization of a life-long journey.
We take the best ideas and techniques we've learned and apply them to our certified naturally-grown produce.

Front Field Farm, located in Covington, GA was established in 2009. We are a small organic farm trying our hand at market vegetables and flowers. We love the learning and try to embrace the struggles. We are committed to growing organically and sustainably. Our crops include varieties from all 11 vegetable families. Some of our particular favorites include Sungold cherry tomatoes, Soleil summer squash, Japanese sweet potatoes and Diva cucumbers. In addition, we are growing field flowers and culinary herbs. We are currently expanding our operation and growing season with the addition of greenhouses and hoop houses. We thoroughly enjoy being part of the Athens Farmer's Market community of local growers and consumers.

Owners/Growers - Jacqui Coburn and Alex Rilko

Sundance Family Farm

We are a family farm growing a diverse variety of vegetables, herbs, flowers, fruits and berries. We also raise chickens, heritage turkeys and goats. Our three children are the heart of our farm. They enjoy the healthy food they help harvest and realize what it takes to get from a seed to the table. We are Certifed Naturally Grown and have sold produce in the Athens area since 1998. Currently we sell at Athens Locally Grown, Athens Farmers Market, local restaurants and from the farm. We are also planning a C.S.A. in the near future. We also appreciate all the Locally Grown customers that have supported us through the years, allowing us to do what we love, Growing good food.

Our goal is to provide healthy, locally grown food to our community, while supporting our family.

Schermer Pecan Company

In the wake of WWII, Alton and Lula Schermer founded the Schermer Pecan Company out of their home.

Some people said they were nuts - they took it as a compliment.

Alton hand-selected the best pecans and Lula handled the packaging and hospitality.

After WWII, Alton took note that non-profits needed a little help raising cash. Schermer Pecans partnered with organizations on fundraising projects to enable local folks to "shell" out for community projects.

In 1997, Frank Weatherbee buys Schermer Pecans and Putt Weatherbee, Frank's son, continues Alton and Lula's tradition of rigorous standards, quality service and warm hospitality.

Putt is inspired by pecans - from watching the buds break in April to harnessing the latest in technology during harvest time.

Being fifth generation growers and third generation owners, Schermer Pecans is one nutty family affair.