MARSHALL GREEN, CAFÉ ESTELLE
The concrete parking lot encircling Café Estelle is suitable for smoking pork bellies and turkey breasts, but not for growing the tomatoes, chilies, herbs and scallions chef Marshall Green often uses in his cuisine. So Green grows at home: “Front, back and in the basement, all in containers.” The literal fruits of his labor show up on a peak-of-season Caprese salad and in his homemade Thai-style hot sauce, to name just a few dishes. “It’s very rewarding,” he says, “and usually tastes better.” | 444 N. Fourth St., 215-925-5080; cafeestelle.com
MITCH PRENSKY, SUPPER
“It’s so low-tech,” Mitch Prensky says of the herb patch he cultivates in the backyard of his South Street restaurant Supper. “Last spring one of my servers said they wanted to start one, so we went down to Home Depot, got some herbs and built the garden with milk crates.” What started out on a lark has quickly blossomed into a jungle of mint, thyme, parsley, pineapple sage, Thai basil, Texas tarragon and a single green tomato plant that sprung up out of nowhere and became pickles for Supper’s house-made charcuterie plate. And the garden may be growing: Prensky also has a project in the works to source Supper’s ingredients from its very own farm. | 926 South St., 215-592-8180; supperphilly.com
JEFF MICHAUD, OSTERIA
Diners sitting in the sun-washed solarium at Osteria can catch a glimpse of a trim garden wedged between the restaurant and the Old Zion Lutheran Church next door. Chef Jeff Michaud is the man behind the green space, though he admits he gets some aid from Linvilla Orchard farmer Rob Ferber, who nursed and transplanted heirloom black cherry tomatoes, artichokes, chard, kale, salsify and herbs for the garden. Plants that proliferate, like radicchio and lettuces, make it onto Osteria’s regular menu, while ones that produce smaller quantities are used in Vetri’s Saturday night degustazioni. | 640 N. Broad St., 215-763-0920; osteriaphilly.com
OTHER RESTAURANTS THAT GROW THEIR OWN:
Thoreau, Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia and Noble: An American Cookery
