NORTH COVENTRY PA – Chef John Alff knows his way around several kitchens. He’s worked in food service businesses across Philadelphia and the surrounding region for more than a decade. On his website, he explains how he sought out employers from whom he could learn “a new perspective” on cooking, about working with different foods, and gaining insights into opening restaurants.
Alff used that accumulated knowledge, and the results of years of experimenting he’s done on his own, to create a thriving business, Phoenixville-based Vesta Kitchen.
He began by “providing small batch sauces, pantry items and packaged prepared foods” to local retailers, and selling directly to consumers at farmers’ markets. Meanwhile, Alff also continued to cater events for clients he’s attracted since 2018 in an earlier enterprise, Vesta BBQ & Catering.
The latest addition to the chef’s businesses was introduced last week (March 16, Saturday), as he, friends, and happy customers all celebrated the opening of Vesta Kitchen’s first bricks-and-mortar location. The store is on the north side of the Suburbia Shopping Center, 50 Glocker Way, North Coventry, and has been in stages of planning and preparation since last November.
It features an abundance of fresh, hand-crafted pantry items: varieties of hot sauces and condiments; meat and vegetarian quiches, both whole and by the slice; flavored dips, jams, pickles, prepared salads, soups, and wraps. All are created with “exclusively local and responsibly sourced ingredients.”
Perhaps the most notable endorsement of Alff’s local-first philosophy arrived last year, in the form of a Local Food Promotion Program grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It invested more than $746,000 into the chef’s planned project to work “with locally and ethically-minded farmers.” His was the only proposal in Pennsylvania to win the USDA program award in Fiscal 2023.
With “Vesta Kitchen’s expertise,” the department wrote, producers at dozens of local farms are anticipated to “create high-quality value-added products” resulting in a “consistent revenue source” for the farmers involved. Its grant support, USDA added, is intended to help Vesta Kitchen “grow additional partnerships and increase sales channels … allowing more avenues for farmers to get their products to market.”
The entrance to the new store is decorated with a map titled “Chester County Love,” and identifies about 30 of Vesta Kitchen’s suppliers. The map itself has local origins, too. It was created by artist, illustrator, and muralist Dave Yasenchak. He’s the owner of Stuff Dave Made, who attended Boyertown Senior High School and graduated from Lebanon Valley College with an art and art history education.
In a Facebook post, Yasenchak underscores how Alff’s insistence on using local suppliers and talents benefits not only his patrons but an entire creative community. The store, Yasenchak wrote, is an “amazing new business that’s supporting so many others. A rising tide lifts all boats.”
Vesta Kitchen’s North Coventry store is open during March and April on Wednesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Photo in collaboration with Getty Images on Unsplash+,
used by Travels With The Post under license
Early Week Stuff March 25-27