Sometimes a city and its local business owners make an effort to stand out. Foodie business owners in McKinney are certainly doing just that with options that include eco-friendly restaurants where all food is locally sourced to sandwich counters at boutique shops that tout green eating, and of course, what city is complete without a one-of-kind brewery that will make you feel like you have stepped across the pond?
The restaurant Harvest, located on the main square, not only offers some of the best food in town (think: crispy green tomatoes, deviled eggs for appetizers and beer battered Texas Striped Bass or Chicken Fried Chicken for a main), but the décor is a lazy, shabby chic with an overall maxim to work with only local and fresh vendors. The menu is seasonal, featuring organic, and while owners say, “We aren’t changing the world,” they also add, “but we hope to plant a seed of consideration of sustainability for future generations to come.”
Harvest owner Rick Wells began working with local/area farmers when he was putting together a charity farm-to-table dinner several years ago and it was so well received, he did another one the next year. Seeing McKinney’s success of the farm-to-table dinners and the real shift in McKinney toward more organic, locally-grown/raised food, Harvest was born. 112 E. Louisiana
Since 2010, the owners at Patina Green and Market Kaci Lyford (an interior designer) and her mom Luann Van Winckel have been offering organic food and great niche shopping. Kaci’s husband, Robert Lyford, is the chef at Patina and folks say his sandwiches are to die for; both delicious and organic. The location also offers monthly reservation-only farm-to-table dinners held on second Saturdays and they serve breakfast and lunch on the food side of the place with a seating area in the back. One of Robert’s sandwiches was named by Food Network Magazine as the best sandwich in Texas and the market overall is organic with non- or minimally-processed foods, fresh dairy and produce. 116 N. Tennessee
Franconia Brewing Co. has a variety of sustainable practices in McKinney as well and the owner, Dennis Wehrmann is a fifth generation brewmaster. Wehrmann says he practices a green lifestyle because it is how he grew up. In a 6,000-square-foot facility the company began in 2008 and they now have six different beers to choose from six seasonal beers and two specialty beers, which are the Triple Dunkle and the Double IPA.
Wehrmann says his product is 100% natural, meaning no artificial flavor, no spices, no food coloring and no additives and the facility is a trash-free environment where everything produced is also 100% recyclable. The building is also energy-efficient and on the top of his carport there are solar panels.
Offering tours every Saturday at 11 a.m. with anywhere from 150 people on a good day to 40 on a slow day, he charges $5 per person and there are no food trucks for after the tour either. Instead, the owner encourages folks to head into other parts of the city to enjoy lunch after tasting the beer. Wehrmann says green for him is no big deal since it is how he was raised. “It’s a lifestyle,” he says. 495 McKinney Parkway