Scotch Eggs at Harvest Room

Now open about three weeks, the 170-seat Harvest Room (7164 W. 127th St., Palos Heights, 708-671-8905) plants a flag for local-ingredients, nonindustrial-meats food in the southwest suburbs, an area less saturated with Michael Pollan buzzwords than the city. “We wanted to use local farmers,” says Carri Sirigas, a co-owner. “By which we mean within about 250 miles of our restaurant”—when seasonally possible. Grass-fed beef, free-range chickens, and cage-free eggs contribute to a scratch-food menu by chef David Johnson II, also including pickling, preserves, and five types of homemade sausage. Of the more than 20 different teas on offer, ten were hand-blended by Sirigas and her sister under the banner Two Sisters Brews, with ingredients such as licorice root, dandelion root, and marshmallow lemon balm. Even the red in Harvest Room’s red velvet pancakes comes from beet juice rather than red dye. Interesting phenomenon, that—a natural substitute for an ingredient that’s artificial in the original. Next up, the artisanal Twinkie.

Photograph: Keith Claunch