Entertainment > Dining

Posted on Fri, Nov. 07, 2008

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Hyatt restaurant goes local

The new Harvest Kitchen/Bar focuses on locally grown and produced ingredients.

BY DENISE NEIL

The Wichita Eagle

Before, it was a typical hotel steak house, with leather booths and dim lighting.

But after an overhaul, the Hyatt has an all-new restaurant with a progressive concept two years in the making.

It's called Harvest Kitchen/Bar, and it replaces both of the hotel's previous eateries -- the upscale Southwinds and the more casual White Rock Cafe.

The new restaurant, which officially opened two weeks ago, uses the increasingly popular farm-to-table concept, meaning that the menu consists of dishes made mostly of locally grown, locally produced ingredients.

"The majority of everything that's served is local to the city or state of Kansas," said Stephen Stewart, the Hyatt's general manager. "The benefits are obviously huge, especially in regards to freshness."

Executive chef David Wirebaugh spent months developing a menu that felt like Kansas -- dishes such as buffalo bolognese, harvest pot pie, roasted squash, and smoked ham hock with white beans.

Then, the Hyatt staff embarked on a tour of farms, testing produce and looking for the best local suppliers, Smith said.

About 80 percent of the ingredients used to make the dishes come from Kansas providers, Stewart said. Yoder Meats and Liberty Produce -- two companies that provide Kansas ingredients -- will be the restaurant's main suppliers.

"It's a working project," Stewart said. "Our goal is to eventually be 100 percent local."

Harvest's menu does still have a few holdovers from the Southwinds days -- a couple of popular steak dishes and some Hyatt signature corporate recipes.

But the dining room is completely remodeled, with a simpler approach -- and much brighter lighting.

Harvest serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily and still will offer the special Sunday and holiday buffets served at Southwinds and White Rock Cafe.

If you go

What: The new restaurant in the Hyatt Regency featuring a farm-to-table concept

Where: Inside the Hyatt Regency, 400 W. Waterman

Hours: The restaurant is open for breakfast from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m., for lunch from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and for dinner from 5:30 to 10 p.m. daily.

Dishes: Among the tempting dishes: A cider-braised Yoder pork roast with roasted root vegetables and polenta corn cake; salt-and-vinegar-brined pork porterhouse with blackberry ketchup; pickled garlic with turnips and parsnips with pork cracklings; country liver pate with juniper berries and garlic wheat crostini.