Bon Vie farm to table cuisine
HOBART — Chef Ceaser Cicala, who runs the kitchen at Bon Vie’s farm-to-table restaurant in Hobart, says he wants people to be thoughtful about the food they eat.
So I am trying to be more reflective as I sit down to one of his creations – pork chop with apples and smoked butter – and consider my surroundings.
It’s a gorgeous, quiet summer evening. The sound of a waterfall – it’s actually a small dam – runs quietly in the background. The patio looks over a small offshoot of Lake George.
The pork chops and the accompanying watermelon caprese salad are light and mild, very colorful. This is not pub grub you shovel down with a pitcher of booze. This is a meal to be savored. I feel like I’m having dinner at a friend’s backyard patio.
In fact, this used to be a house, once upon a time. The converted Victorian home was first built in 1895, and was renovated for dining by Bon Vie’s predecessor, Bistro 54.
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Now it’s Bon Vie, one of a handful of farm-to-table restaurants in NWI that makes for an intimate, informative dining experience.
“We wanted something different for the area,” owner Laurie Farver-Busch told me. “You don’t see a lot of farm-to-table restaurants anymore, I feel like. We want customers to experience the taste of the good life.”
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Bon Vie restaurant in Hobart
It’s fun, but it’s not easy, Cicala tells me, to put that together.
Bon Vie’s menu changes week to week, as Cicala runs around nearly 24/7 to local farms and markets to gather ingredients.
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Pork Chop with Apples & Smoked Butter with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes is available at Bon Vie in Hobart.
Each locale in NWI has its own niche, Cicala explained; this past week he went to Johnson’s Farm Produce for rhubarb and blueberries, then Griffith for heirloom tomatoes, then to Crown Point to pick up pork chops.
Rhubarb is currently a menu stable as Cicala tries to take advantage of the roughly one-month window in which its locally available. Other items like spring onions and morel mushrooms are also around in blink-and-you-miss-it fashion.
Cicala keeps a running list, several pages long, of components he’ll need for each dish, each week, and is constantly adding addendums for things – this week it was freshly picked asparagus – that he’ll want to incorporate in the near future.
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Maddy Olson serves guests Lucas Sgouros and his wife Jennifer McQuade.
“We’re pretty blessed here in Indiana,” Cicala said of the abundant farmland, which makes up roughly two thirds of the land area in the state. “It took me a year just going around learning the different farms here, seeing who had what.”
The freshness of the product also allows Cicala to be more creative in terms of style and preparation, he said, particularly with meat, which in many kitchens has to be torched and scorched to account for the unknown origins or possible health risks its picked up along th way.
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Bon Vie executive chef Ceaser Cicala prepares his Chicken Wellington.
“When I go to the Hobart meat locker,” Cicala said, “I have complete control. The cows are right there, I can see what they’re eating. The cuts I get aren’t more than a day or two old, you can’t get much fresher than that.”
It’s a process, Cicala notes, that can’t really be done at a larger scale. Bon Vie has nine tables and can fit roughly 40 people at capacity. The small kitchen is big enough for just Cicala and the waitstaff to bus meals when they’re ready.
![Bon Vie farm to table cuisine](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=150%2C101 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=200%2C134 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=225%2C151 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=300%2C201 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=400%2C268 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=540%2C362 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=640%2C429 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=750%2C503 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=990%2C664 990w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C694 1035w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C805 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C894 1333w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C990 1476w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/e9/de9da3ae-1586-5276-8eb8-a384b49cac9f/66903ae2a7987.image.jpg?resize=1758%2C1179 2008w)
Bon Vie bartender Genel Thompson prepares a Watermelon Fresca drink at the bar.
Bon Vie doesn’t have a giant walk-in freezer like some larger restaurants; just a regular fridge, packed to the gills with meat and prepped items but no larger than what you might have at home.
While it would be wonderful, from an environmental and health perspective, for more places to source hyper-local, it’s not always feasible.
“Most walk-ins are loaded up with $15,000 worth of inventory,” Cicala said. “Bigger operations have to buy a bunch of stuff from a bunch of suppliers.”
The menu rotates depending on season and what’s available, but Cicala does try to orient around core staples. Cicala is Italian and the menu is often influenced by that cultural tradition.
“I’m always making pasta,” Cicala said. “I love homemade gnocchi. Always trying to put that on the menu, I can’t help myself.”
For photographer John Watkins and me, we got a chance to sample his Italian stylings within the watermelon caprese salad. Cicala had “kicked it up” (but how many notches? Emeril wants to know) with broccoli alfalfa and a fun combo of herbs like mint, basil and kale.
![Bon Vie farm to table cuisine](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=150%2C86 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=200%2C115 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=225%2C129 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=300%2C172 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=400%2C229 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=540%2C309 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=640%2C366 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=750%2C429 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=990%2C567 990w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C593 1035w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C687 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C763 1333w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C845 1476w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/nwitimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/9a/e9a9a223-bb63-549e-b3f4-f63d27e506f1/66903adba5923.image.jpg?resize=1902%2C1089 2008w)
A Watermelon Caprese salad is available at Bon Vie in Hobart.
The plate also included both heirloom baby tomatoes and larger slices, as well as mozzarella pearls and ovolini, for a nice mix of textures as well as decorative plating.
“I want to have fun,” Cicala said. “The more components that play nice together that you can put on a plate, the more it stands out.”