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Restaurant Reviews

First Take: Harvest Seasonal Kitchen in McKinney

A completely sustainable concept is taking big strides to work with local farmers and ranchers.
By Lauryn Bodden |
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I’m a millennial. I’m a blond-haired, fresh-to-the-scene, recent college graduate that no one expects to understand or care about sustainability. Yes, the culinary world has taken to the concept of farm-to-table like it’s the newest cronut sensation, but do consumers actually realize what they’re talking about? What organic means? What non-GMO stands for? That gluten-free doesn’t refer to the absence of carbs?

Food cultures that once treated cooking and eating as central elements in maintaining social structure and tradition are being overcome by cultures dominated by cost and convenience of food. Social meals are a thing of the past and cooking is merely an act seen on television and defined by the books garnishing our coffee tables. New seasonal kitchen concept Harvest looks to challenge the average diner in a way that promotes a connection between them, the community and the environment from which their meal originated.

Photo by Lauryn Bodden.
Photo by Lauryn Bodden.
Who they are
Rick Wells of Rick’s Chop House and Chef Andrea Shackelford are the brains behind Harvest’s passion, design, and menu. Shackelford, a Dallas native and SMU alum, built her career around ‘farm-to-table.’ After honing her skills and forming close partnerships with farming communities, her resumé includes time spent with notables like Tom Colicchio, Kevin Maxey, Jeff Harris, Tim Bevins, and Graham Dodds.
I get it. They pick up their greens from the farmers market.
Yes, they take local and regionals farmers, ranchers and growers to build their food, but that’s not the full extent of their mission. Listen to Rick discuss his vision behind the restaurant’s roots and you will understand they don’t just throw around words like ‘sustainable’ and ‘eco-friendly’ to fit in with the cool kids. By working with neighboring communities, they create a forward-thinking, seasonal menu with consideration to the raising and harvesting of our food.

How’s the food?
Shackelford uses familiar, distinctive ingredients to create a southern menu with a modern Texas bent. She often takes two opposing flavors and interworks them to create a balance you find yourself coming back to. The menu separates plates into categories of Smalls, Greens & Grains, Water, Ranch, and Farm.

You know me as an avid fan of cheese and charcuterie, so I can confidently say Harvest’s selection will appease both the adventurous and more cautious diners. My favorite was a sharp cheddar spiked with intense flavors of horseradish and piled high on my slice of buttered, toasted baguette. Additionally, our table raved about the deviled eggs whipped with pickled mustard seed, pickled red onion, and garnished with a caramelized Texas pecan. As for the larger dishes, Shackelford claims she has a “passion for poultry.” The Nashville-style fried chicken with that familiar crisp exterior and moist meat interior cooked in a skillet. It pairs with a side of cornmeal dumplings in a sea of collard greens. Shackelford says it’s all done in a three-day brine and marination of spices. One individual claimed she “popped her fried chicken cherry” with this item and it was well worth the wait.

Chef Andrea Shackelford. Photo by Lauryn Bodden.
Chef Andrea Shackelford. Photo by Lauryn Bodden.

However, my heart goes out to Harvest’s Ribeye and Acorn Squash. The Farm Egg & Acorn Squash comes disguised as a cut of fried steak, but is actually a healthy filling of roasted squash coated with griddled wheat meal, sage, and mushroom, and topped with an over-easy duck egg. Shackelford smokes the ribeye, tosses it on the grill and plates it with mustard, pickled jalepeno, roasted carrot, fingerling potatoes, and leeks. It’s everything you want in a meat: buttery, fatty, tender and packed with those tantalizing juices. Desserts are old-fashioned classics with a twist like Grandma’s Tomato Soup Spiced Cake, which reminds me of a carrot cake with recognizable hints of that red vegetable. Or is it a fruit? Whatever, it sounds healthy, so I’m going to keep telling myself that.

Fun Fact:
Every dish includes a grain. Farmers are all about their grains because they bring nitrogen back to the soil and fertilize the land for continual production. Harvest looks to support this endeavor.

How are the drinks?
You’ll find a selection of interesting cocktails with infused spirits like blueberry and basil vodka, cinnamon and vanilla bean vodka, red apple gin, and charred peach bourbon. Don’t worry, there’s also a lengthy list of wines and a handful of local beers.

Photo courtesy of Harvest.
Photo courtesy of Harvest.
How’s the atmosphere?
Picture a rustic ranch with homey touches from Martha Stewart. Various forms of functional artwork line the inside, including photographs, pickling jars, drink infusions, lighting strung from rope, and dried flowers. Booths and wood tables line the century-old exposed brick walls and set the tone for a comforting, yet finer dining experience. However, it’s all about the detail. Rick designed and crafted the restaurant’s front doors himself. The luring scent you smell comes from seasonal candles that change alongside the rotating menu. And remember that Meats & Cheese board? The board itself comes from a tree struck down by lightning only weeks before that Rick was able to reclaim in time. Basically, they’re killing it on this whole sustainability thing.

So, they like to give back?
Aligning their mission with The Seed Project organization, the two look to fund the education and agriculture initiatives that support sustainable farming. The restaurant offers several opportunities for the project to raise funds, including their “Harvest Collection” (a series of art celebrating farms, ranches and artisans in the area), the sale of seasonal Harvest candles, the sale of Harvest’s own “One Heart Texas” wine and seasonal harvest dinners. The first seasonal dinner will take place on December 22.

Rick wants you to know:
“You may forget what we say. You may forget what you ate (most likely not though). But, you will never forget how we made you feel.”

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