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Months in the making, the Isle of Capri Casino Hotel opened the doors of their new buffet.
Featuring locally grown ingredients, the Farmer's Pick Buffet was unveiled to the public late last week. Following an invitational opening on Wednesday evening, members of the community were welcomed Thursday.
"Chef Jason Martin and our culinary team have done a great job of finding local food growers from our own backyard in central Missouri," Senior Director of Marketing Heather Rapp said. "It’s amazing how many fresh ingredients can be found locally, even during the winter. Right now, we’re focusing on local meats, eggs, sauces and dairy. As we move into the summer months, we’ll add in local vegetables and fruits. We plan on expanding our on-site garden to offer more fresh produce than ever before."
The Isle has partnered with area producers like Missouri Legacy Beef, Patchwork Family Farms, The Berry Nutty Farm, Central Dairy, Stanton Brothers and others. The goal is for chefs to use local meats, eggs, dairy, produce, jams, sauces, wines and other ingredients to prepare fresh meals each day.
Patchwork Family Farms is composed of 15 independent family hog farmers. Legacy Beef, a free-range ranch near Salisbury, Mo., provides a large portion of the beef found at Farmer's Pick Buffet. Even the barbecue sauce can be found locally through Spicewine Ironworks in Columbia.
"It's twofold for us," said Legacy Beef owner Mark Mahnken. "First, it means that more good, local, safe, high-quality beef is going back into the local community ... And secondly, it gets the word out that there are many entities that are interested in being local."
Legacy Beef has worked in conjunction with the Isle for nearly a year now. Mahnken said Legacy Beef is served at the Farradays' Bistro located within the casino hotel. Locally raised, Mahnken said the beef is finished on a free-range diet at the ranch in Salisbury. From there, it is processed, inspected and graded in Warrensburg.
With a completely new look and feel, the buffet is open daily, offering breakfast from 7-10 a.m., lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday, dinner from 4:30 - 9 p.m. daily and a Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
From flat-iron steaks to pastas and pastries, the buffet offers a large variety of foods ranging from $7.99-$19.99 per plate, depending on the meal.
Months in the making, the Isle of Capri Casino Hotel opened the doors of their new buffet.
Featuring locally grown ingredients, the Farmer's Pick Buffet was unveiled to the public late last week. Following an invitational opening on Wednesday evening, members of the community were welcomed Thursday.
"Chef Jason Martin and our culinary team have done a great job of finding local food growers from our own backyard in central Missouri," Senior Director of Marketing Heather Rapp said. "It’s amazing how many fresh ingredients can be found locally, even during the winter. Right now, we’re focusing on local meats, eggs, sauces and dairy. As we move into the summer months, we’ll add in local vegetables and fruits. We plan on expanding our on-site garden to offer more fresh produce than ever before."
The Isle has partnered with area producers like Missouri Legacy Beef, Patchwork Family Farms, The Berry Nutty Farm, Central Dairy, Stanton Brothers and others. The goal is for chefs to use local meats, eggs, dairy, produce, jams, sauces, wines and other ingredients to prepare fresh meals each day.
Patchwork Family Farms is composed of 15 independent family hog farmers. Legacy Beef, a free-range ranch near Salisbury, Mo., provides a large portion of the beef found at Farmer's Pick Buffet. Even the barbecue sauce can be found locally through Spicewine Ironworks in Columbia.
"It's twofold for us," said Legacy Beef owner Mark Mahnken. "First, it means that more good, local, safe, high-quality beef is going back into the local community ... And secondly, it gets the word out that there are many entities that are interested in being local."
Legacy Beef has worked in conjunction with the Isle for nearly a year now. Mahnken said Legacy Beef is served at the Farradays' Bistro located within the casino hotel. Locally raised, Mahnken said the beef is finished on a free-range diet at the ranch in Salisbury. From there, it is processed, inspected and graded in Warrensburg.
With a completely new look and feel, the buffet is open daily, offering breakfast from 7-10 a.m., lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday, dinner from 4:30 - 9 p.m. daily and a Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
From flat-iron steaks to pastas and pastries, the buffet offers a large variety of foods ranging from $7.99-$19.99 per plate, depending on the meal.
"The response from our guests was overwhelmingly positive," Rapp said. "We sat down with each guest after the invitational dinner and spoke about their meal and general experience. We received a lot of compliments about the ground-up renovation, and I believe that our guests really enjoy learning more about the local ingredients used to prepare their meal. Our guests also had great suggestions for improving seating and food placement. We have already started work on improving those aspects."
Local consumers and producers aren't the only ones benefiting from the new buffet though.
"We've increased our staffing levels in both the service and production areas to meet the expectations of the Farmer’s Pick concept," she added. "In addition, we were very happy that we were able to maintain staffing levels throughout the renovation. The majority of our employees are from Boonville and the surrounding areas in Cooper, Howard and Boone counties."
The Isle plans to continue operating the Farraddays' Bistro and Tradewinds Marketplace as usual. Rapp also said that no other renovations are scheduled as of yet.
