Wine Dinner at Newman’s Restaurant

Orchard Inn in Saluda Hosts Summer Wine Dinner August 14

By Frances Figart

Newman’s Restaurant, located in the historic Orchard Inn in Saluda, will host a Summer Wine Dinner on Sunday, August 14. Hors d’oeuvres will be served at 6:30 P.M. with dinner to follow at 7 P.M. Executive chef Stuart Partin has planned this event in partnership with Sow True Seed, an open-air pollinated, untreated GMO-free seed company in Asheville.

“As a fine dining chef, I have always searched for the finest ingredients available, which over time has led me to become an avid gardener,” says Stuart. “I started our garden at the Inn to provide our guests with the freshest ingredients available and also to be able to offer some unique varieties of vegetables.”

This year Stuart and his team constructed a 4,000-square-foot organic garden to produce the majority of their own produce for the restaurant. “I choose to use Sow True Seeds for all of our seeds because I believe that what they are doing as a business has a huge positive impact on farming and our environment as a whole,” he says.

The food at Newman’s Restaurant is inspired by the season and the harvest from the garden. The menu changes weekly to reflect the vegetables currently being harvested. Both the garden and the Summer Wine Dinner play a part in ongoing efforts to make the Inn more sustainable and to cultivate a community atmosphere.

Born and raised in South Carolina, Stuart started cooking at a very young age. After graduating high school, he moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and began to devote himself to culinary arts. He later returned to the region to get a culinary degree at the University of South Carolina, and has spent the last several years building relationships with local farmers and developing a deep love for foothills ingredients. Stuart says cooking high-end cuisine is his passion, and he loves to share it with others who are intrigued by innovative ways of preparing local foods.

“I am very excited about the Summer Wine Dinner as it will be a unique opportunity to feature our garden vegetables prepared with creative culinary techniques,” says Stuart. “I am also excited to partner with Sow True Seed as together we will showcase the beautiful produce that we have grown this year.”

Among other delectable dishes, the five-course meal will include North Carolina flounder ballotine, Chiba green edamame tortelloni, pan fried sweetbreads, Chanterelles, grilled Cherokee yellow wax beans, tempura burgundy okra flower, pickled and roasted Clemson spineless okra, pan seared lamb chops, Malabar spinach puree, scalloped patty pan squash and lemon rind tart, Chiba Green edamame-vanilla bean ice cream, and many fine wines from France and California.

“The menu is a true fantasia of local and seasonal and we’re thrilled about this awesome opportunity to take part in an event with a top-quality restaurant using food grown onsite with our seeds,” says Chris Smith, communications and marketing manager at Sow True Seeds. “I’m going to make some custom seed packets for table decorations and am quite excited about it.”

Reservations for the Summer Wine Dinner are $120 per person and can be purchased by calling 828.749.5471. For more information, visit orchardinn.com and sowtrueseed.com, and like Newman’s Restaurant on Facebook.