Why we’re building tarrytown local
fox schanzer - Chef and culinary director
I’ve spent most of my adult life trying to cook the way I believe food should be cooked, seeking out ingredients and cuisines that are meaningful to me, and searching for people to cook with. Over and over, I found myself stuck between what I knew was right and what the system made easy. The deeper I went, the more I got hung up on the same questions: Who is this food actually for? Does it matter? Is this making anything better? What I noticed, though, was simple: The more I cooked with purpose, the better the food tasted, and the more alive I felt doing it.
Eventually, the question clarified itself: Where can I go to cook food I actually believe in—and who should I be cooking for? The uncomfortable answer was that the place didn’t exist. Or at least, it didn’t exist in a way that was accessible and uncompromising. So if I wanted it to be real and alive and democratic, I’d have to build it. Food isn’t just fuel or flavor. It’s culture. It's economy. It’s biology. It’s one of the most powerful tools we have to heal (or harm) our bodies, our land, and our communities. The way we grow and eat food influences how we feel, how we care for one another, and how connected we feel to where we live. In many ways, it’s one of the most essential ingredients in a full, healthy life.
I want to cook in a way that takes that seriously. That means cooking with ingredients I know intimately, sourced from people I trust, grown in ways that make the world better instead of worse. It means the food reflects the place and time we live in, and the values we claim to care about, without hiding behind buzzwords or compromises. It also means cooking with and for people I care about. Tarrytown Local is my attempt to prove that this kind of cooking doesn’t have to live on special occasions or be reserved for people in certain socio-economic brackets. Good food, food that’s thoughtful, delicious, and responsible, can exist out in the open, every day, in all of our homes and eateries. Honest food. No tricks. No compromises.
steve wazny - owner and operator
I’m opening Tarrytown Local for myself and others.
Over the last decade I’ve worn a few hats, most behind desks. But working in restaurants was finally the right fit. In the kitchen, I feel close to the world: to the people I work with, to the people eating in the dining room, and to nature. So I’m opening Tarrytown Local for myself. To give myself a place to work, to provide for my family, to care deeply, to celebrate successes and sit with failures, while staying close to people and place.
I’m also opening it because I need a place like this. I get swept up in a culture of convenience. I want reliable access to affordable, healthy food, and I want to buy it in a way that gives back to the people who grow and make it.
And I’m opening Tarrytown Local for others: our customers, employees, and producers. I worry about American food and life sometimes. I see a lot of divided and lonely people, and a culture that deepens those divides. I see a food economy that exploits people and exhausts the extraordinary natural bounty of this country.
But learning how good food is grown and made, what makes it delicious and what makes it nourishing, is heartening. When people care for the land, plants, animals, and one another, the result is better, more delicious, healthier food. You really can taste the difference that care and compassion make when food is treated with respect from seed to plate. And when we choose food that is truly grown and prepared with care, we tend to support our neighbors. We strengthen our local economy. We reconnect to place, to each other, and to ourselves. It’s all just so intertwined.
I hope Tarrytown Local will carry this message. Through good food, grown close to home, I want to help my community move toward a better place, a kinder, healthier place.
katrina poulin - head baker
My background is in data, systems, and strategy, which taught me to pay attention to the impact of seemingly insignificant variables.There’s a ripple effect from the choices we make upstream, what we prioritize, where we cut corners, what we decide is “good enough” - these small decisions shape our outcomes over time in very real ways.
Tarrytown Local is where I want to make those ripple effects visible and intentional, where we prioritize quality and flavor, don’t cut corners, and keep pushing the idea of what’s “good enough”. As the miller and baker, I’m especially focused on flour, an ingredient that quietly determines everything that comes after it. Most baking starts with a default bag of white all purpose flour, but flour can be so much more than that. Different grains, different farms, and different milling choices, different methods of fermentation bring distinct flavors, textures, and personalities into a loaf or pastry. By working with freshly milled local grains, we’re baking with ingredients that are nutritious, support regional farmers, and make everyday bread and pastries more interesting and more delicious.
I want to share what I’ve learned about grains through food that feels familiar, comforting, and exciting all at once. If someone takes home a loaf of bread and feels a little bit curious about the grains behind it, that’s the kind of connection I’m hoping to make.