Our Philosophy

Fresh Foods Foraged Conscientiously

Honoring the farm-to-table spirit, Open Kitchen is committed to providing guests with handmade foods using fresh and sustainable ingredients.  Executive Chef Kenneth C. Hughes and his culinary team source from local food producers and stay as organic and natural as possible.
Open Kitchen actively seeks out:
  • Farms that practice sustainable agriculture for menu items such as our Grilled Angus NY Strip from Creekstone Farms.
  • Purveyors that provide the safest, highest quality, and best tasting meat products for menu items such as our and Crisp Roasted Half Smart Chicken®.
  • Sustainable seafood options for our chef’s daily special menu including wild-caught seafood.
Open Kitchen is a proud participant of the American Farmland Trust’s Dine Out for Farms™.

Fresh Foods Made Openly with Care and Love

Our “Open Kitchen” is the heart of our Bistro.  As a 2012 Snail of Approval Award recipient, we embrace the Slow Food movement’s philosophy that aims to celebrate the kitchen and the table as centers of pleasure and community.  The values that all of our team members live out each day at Open Kitchen are the joy that comes from caring for our guests through a time-honored craft of cooking and providing gracious service and hospitality.
Our Chef’s Counter is surrounded by butcher block tables that create an engaging and spirited atmosphere allowing guests to go “behind-the-scenes” and experience what’s going on in the kitchen.  As an “open” kitchen rather than a “secret” kitchen, our culinary team readily shares insights into cooking techniques, recipes, sourcing of ingredients, and perhaps most importantly, their time with guests.
Amid the noise and haste of modern living, Open Kitchen aims to connect our guests to a dining experience that stimulates the senses.  We aspire to provide guests with a culinary retreat for gracious living…a place to relax, unwind and share in the joy of food and wine.

Fresh Foods Paired with Chef Selected Wines

Our wine selection reflects our philosophy that there is a magical relationship between wines and foods.   We believe that finding the right match between food and wine is like discovering a new recipe in itself.  Furthermore, we believe this relationship is everchanging, depending on external factors, such as the season, as well as internal factors, such as the spirit and mood of our guests.  Thus, our wine selection is ever evolving.
Open Kitchen has established special relationships with a diverse blend of wine purveyors that bring forth boutique, hard-to-find wines that pair beautifully with our menu profile, the season, and our guests’ taste preferences.
All of our wines are available “to-go” at retail pricing.  Please ask one of our team members for more information.

Fresh Handmade Foods

Our belief is that real, good-for-you, and tasty foods take time and can only be made by the human hands.  From our inception, Open Kitchen has always stood for “made-in-house” fresh foods.  Our evolution continues with Executive Chef Kenneth Hughes who brings his philosophy and experience of the farm-to-table movement from his early training as a chef working at L’Auberge du Soleil in Rutherford, Napa Valley in the 1980s.
  • The honest, richnesss of our sauces and soups come from stocks made-in-house from vegetables and meat products.
  • The freshness of our meat and seafood dishes come from handpicking the best products and then breaking these down to exactly how each dish will be served so the care continues throughout the entire process, from raw ingredients to finished foods.
  • All of our desserts are hand crafted to bring out the best flavors of the ingredients.
We believe cooking and dining are human experiences that bring out the best within all of us.  As our Executive Chef Ken says:  “A meal helps to break down people’s guard. To eat, taste, sense, talk … food and the table have allowed us to make human connections.”

Come dine with us.

Open Kitchen Reservations