The BEST Restaurant Experience I Have Ever Had!

I learned something new this weekend... the origin of the word 'restaurant'. We have been pronouncing it wrong the entire time! Bear with me here:  Rest-rant-too-er or Rest-ron-twar.  It originally meant a place to go to be restored. I learned that original restaurants were soup kitchens in Paris that served bone broth with medicinal herbs, where people went to rest and be restored.

Who knew food can really be so healing?!!  Epiphany Farms, in Bloomington, IL. , that's who! I have known this amazing group of individuals since 2012 and have been so impacted by their mission and passion for the farm-to-fork restaurant model.

Owners and Chefs, Ken and Stu were trained at the top culinary schools in the nation and their story is truly inspirational. They, very courageously, decided to move to the heartland of farming in IL. and do it all themselves. That is where the term 'farm-to-fork' came from. They realized how far the food they were preparing was traveling and how that drove costs (including cost on the environment) up, and began understanding the importance of sourcing ingredients locally, what it means to support small businesses, small/local farming and how that effects and builds a sense of great community.

I was treated like royalty from the time I walked in! The feel of this restaurant, which is located in an up-cycled firehouse from 1902, is like a combination of regal and down-home. I never thought I could feel both of those things at once, but one trip down there and I dare you to tell me different! You'll see ;)

The ambiance is as friendly and alive as the food they lovingly prepare and serve.Greeted with hugs and huge smiles, how can you not feel the energy of a life-changing experience?! That is exactly what Epiphany Farms is. An experience.

Have you ever seen the movie, 'Eat, Pray, Love?' You know, the moment in Italy when she is smiling and eating and just feels content and even overjoyed at the simple act of indulging? That was me ALL. NIGHT. LONG. I had a grin from ear-to-ear with every new adventure-on-a-plate that was put in front of me. Like a happy little child, my little legs dangled from the bar stool I was instructed to sit on (the 4th from the end of the bar, to be exact, so I had the best view of the kitchen!) I shuffled the food around with my fork to see which parts of this cuisine I could identify.

So many of the ingredients are things that grow naturally in our yards and in any disturbed soil, that we don't recognize as edible. It was fun for me to be investigative and then pleased over and over again with each bite. It's so sad to think that some people see food as the enemy instead of a healer!

With healing foods this delicious, for 5 hours straight, (yes..you read that correctly...5 wonderful hours!) I felt as if I had died and gone to organic food heaven. Better yet, it was like gourmet sex on a plate. Oh yeah, it was THAT good.  (gggrrrrrrooooowwwwwl and rrraaawwwwrrrr) LOL!

Does that surprise you? It shouldn't.  Look, when something tastes sooo good that you make audible yummy noises and  'the face', in public, you may as well just own it. Hahaha! Everyone else around you is doing it too! Trust  me. I looked around. I am unashamed to admit I now have a new crush ... on exquisite, farm-to-fork cuisine!

Everywhere I looked, people were engaged in conversation, people were laughing and smiling, the staff was joyful, talkative and hospitable. Service at Epiphany Farms was nothing shy of exquisite. They raise the bar on any experience I have yet to have at a restaurant (as you read above!).

At a very busy and hectic time in my life, this was the exact restoration I needed. My soul craves expansive, alive and passionate experiences. It's the only way to live, I'm convinced.

It's worth the drive to experience this farm-to-fork goodness. Oh yeah, and what they are doing for the environment, local community and changing the world one-plate-at-a-time, is also really important to me, but I am still in food-coma-love. The haze is heavy and full ... and so is my heart.