Well that's great - but Westport is the high end neighborhood where the VERY rich live - think Martha Stewart.

Nice if they opened this up in a normal neighborhood.

Paul Newman is pretty awesome. His line of food products,'newman's own' gives away all their profits to charity. His daughter is taking it to the next level by making their snack line organic. Some of the packaging is biodegradeble plastic.

I'm a vendor at the new Farmer's Market and I can tell you that it's easy to open a market in a "normal" neighborhood and we do plenty. Westport has more "normal" families than celebrities. They have been begging for this kind of market for years! Chef Michel is a very nice down to earth man and is very interested in helping the local farmer. He's really putting action behind his beliefs and we are thrilled to be part of it!

I don't mind that the restaurant and farmer's market is in Westport but what I do mind is that I'm certain that the prices will be Westport prices. This will prevent middle or lower income families from partaking in them.

Actually, we charge the same price as we do at all our other Farmer's Markets. Maybe it's more expensive than the grocery stores but the quality is much better.

I understand and appreciate the comments about affordability and would like to respond.

As many of us know, most restaurants that might be considered more affordable are often either corporate fast food or large chain restaurants. This unfortunate fact is based on their policy of buying the least expensive and most mass-produced foods available. The problem does not arise from locating restaurants in wealthy communities or celebrity neighborhoods as much as it does from the food policies that subsidize the artificially "cheap" food that allows large chains to net a high profit while selling food that does not benefit health or society.

Although many people don't realize it, all citizens have paid for this cheaper food through their tax dollars whether they "drive through" and eat it or not. Locally grown and heirloom foods do not enjoy the benefit of subsidies, which largely is the reason they are more expensive.

The explosion in awareness of heirloom, local and organic foods started in up-scale restaurants because these businesses, with the support of their client base, had the ability to charge enough for their menu items so they could remain in business while paying a fair price to the farmers and producers. They also made it a point to tell the stories behind the food, the farmers, fishers and producers in such a way that customers started demanding more of these wonderful foods. As a result, local and sustainable foods are more accessible today than they were just a decade ago.

Restaurants are also not as profitable as most folks think. It's not uncommon for a non-fast food, non-chain restaurant to net a profit of only 7% while fast food and chain giants net 20% and better at a much larger sales volume. Simply put, if a restaurant makes the conscious choice to pay more money for their raw product in order to support and preserve sustainable agriculture, they must charge accordingly or they will fail.

Our restaurant, while perhaps not as easily affordable to as many diners as we would wish, is priced at or below our competitors who operate in the same dining segment, and who do not support local/sustainable agriculture at a level similar to ours. As well, much of our proceeds will benefit a number of cultural and food-and-society related causes, as we are doing in subsidizing the Westport Farmers' Market.

Our hope is to raise enough awareness through our efforts and the efforts of others to keep the demand for these amazing foods growing, while strengthening the argument to either eliminate or redistribute food subsidies in a way that will level the playing field for all farmers. Achieving this level of societal change would make food that benefits human and environmental health more accessible for everyone.

I truly wish these dreams could be accomplished by deciding in which neighborhood to locate a single restaurant. Unfortunately, it is far more complicated than that. We do feel confident we're doing the right thing and believe it will help lead to the kind of real change that will benefit all society.

We're grateful for your comments and genuine concern.

Michel Nischan
CEO and Founder
Wholesome Wave, LLC
The Dressing Room, a homegrown restaurant

$100 for lunch for 2 today

2 burgers
2 glasses of wine each

WOW

Food was excellent but $100 is a big number for lunch.....but maybe not in Westport.

2 burgers
2 glasses of wine each
???
The burgers are expensive at $20, but they're delicious. $100-$40 = $60.
$60 is not a typical amount spent on wine at lunch and it's not really fair to criticize the restaurant for that.

I have been working on an organic fast food restaurant concept for over four years.We have found direct suppliers for all organic meats,produce,wld Alaskan seafood,spices and more.The concept will make organic fast food available for everyone with most entrees around
$ 10.00.We are talking to several investors now and are almost ready for startup.Check out healthfoodhut.com.Organic food can be made affordable if all the middlemen are not involved ,which is the basis of concept.All the suppliers are cooperative and supportive.Thank you.

I have been working on an organic fast food restaurant concept for over four years.We have found direct suppliers for all organic meats,produce,wld Alaskan seafood,spices and more.The concept will make organic fast food available for everyone with most entrees around
$ 10.00.We are talking to several investors now and are almost ready for startup.Check out healthfoodhut.com.Organic food can be made affordable if all the middlemen are not involved ,which is the basis of concept.All the suppliers are cooperative and supportive.Thank you.

$10 for a fast food entree? Chipotle has free range and other natural meats in their entrees and the prices are all under $6.

Good luck with the business, but you need to work on the price point. When 500 calories and a good supply of protein can be gotten for $1 at McDs, it's a lot to be charging 10x that.

Chipotle can only afford to sell at $6 because they are now owned by McDonalds and only their meats are natural or organic, not thier tortiallas nor most of their garnish. Macdonalds can afford $1 items because of the incredible subsidies received by the conventional suppliers for Mcdonalds. These subsudues include:

Transportation subsidies which greatly reduce the cost of trnsporting potatoes from the northwest and frozen nuggets and patties to everywhere USA

Corn and soy subsidies (close to $1B per year) for the feed for the animals use for McD's beef and chicken

Realestate tax rebates and pharmeseutical subsidies for the Factory Confinement Operations that raise the beef and chicken for McD's

Gee, look at all the advantage McD's gets over anyone trying to do the right thing. And look at all the other great stuff we get, like antibiotic resistant bacteria due to the high levels of antibiotics in this sector of the food supply, the trashing of our environment by the leeching of hazardous watse into etuaries and drinking water tables from the Confinement operationsthat produce "cheap" meat, 1.5M wild salmon killed because the Fed Govt allowed the NW potato industry to siphon off hundreds of millions of gallons of columbia river water during a drought so companies like McD's would have to pay slightly higher prices for potatoes from Northeast farmers.

Yep, your dollar sure buys a lot

You get what you pay for. The dollar menu is self answering.What do you actually eat for $ 1.00 ? Scary thought. Chipotle. Please ... They get their meats and produce from Mcdonalds supplier.And who is going to trust them.