The Red Bird Café
New farm to table restaurant in Homewood
At work – Clifford Vogel-Gosik and Zion Epperson are cleaning up after their work day. The Red Bird Café infuses their water with community grown lemons.
The Red Bird Café opened May 1, and it’s the newest restaurant in Homewood. This café is farm to table, which means all of its food is made from the local farms.
Café owner Kim Nolen said she is proud of having a commitment to serving farm fresh foods made by local farmers.
“I think that others share this value of knowing where our food comes from, who is producing it, and how they’re producing it,” Nolen said. “The farmers that I’m dealing with hold those same values. They don’t use pesticides or herbicides, and treat their animals humanely.”
Nolen also put some thought into naming her new café.
“The red bird is our state bird and it shares some characteristics that we share. Like it’s a bird that doesn’t migrate, so it’s always in it’s home base like we will be,” Nolen said. “It’s a social bird, so it intermingles with other species of birds, not just other cardinals. That’s what we do, we intermingle with each other and make new friends.”
Senior Reilly Puffenbarger works as a barista in this new café and said it will do Homewood a great good.
“Small businesses all together help knit the community more. I think it’ll make our farmers more useful to our community, and they will get paid more,” Puffenbarger said.
Puffenbarger said she loves the idea of eating farm fresh foods because of the healthy aspect that gets you energized.
“With everything being locally grown I feel like it will keep the money within our local economy,” Puffenbarger said.
Sophomore Ethan Richert recently went to The Red Bird Café and said he absolutely loved the idea of using locally grown foods for all of their menu items.
“There’s not many other farm to table restaurants that are located in the area, so I think adding another option is a good idea since there’s a lot of attraction towards it,” Richert said.
Richert said he really enjoyed his grilled cheese with tomato jam, his service and the trendy interior.
“The food was amazing, the people were great, and the interior was astounding with decorative tables and chairs that gave it a comforting vibe,” Richert said.
