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07.06.11

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Phaedra

Hyperlocal

By Justine McDaniel


Farm-fresh meats and produce? Check. Some of the county's best wine? Check. Organic, pure dairy? Check. But what you won't find at Peter Lowell's Zero Kilometro dinners is anything grown outside of Sebastopol and the Highway 116 corridor. Every Wednesday evening, owner Lowell Sheldon and chef Daniel Kedan serve a three-course $35 dinner with all ingredients coming from within approximately five miles.

Sheldon and his team were inspired by stories from one of their regular customers about his home in Italy, where the idea of serving only food that comes from one town is commonplace. "It made sense because [local food] is already a focus of ours," says Sheldon. "Everyone thinks of Italy as this amazing place where every town has a cheese maker and a rancher and all these farmers and winemakers. The small towns like Healdsburg, Sebastopol and Forestville all have these as well, so for us it was really a realization that we can be just as local as any town in Italy."

Sheldon recently started his own farm, which currently provides about a quarter of the ingredients for Zero Kilometro. Other items include wilted Laguna spinach, goat's milk polenta, Felton Acres roasted chicken, a Redwood Hill Farm cheese plate and more.

"[It is] a challenge," says Sheldon, "but the reward is the vibrancy of really supporting the community."

Peter Lowell's, 7385 Healdsburg Ave., Ste. 101, Sebastopol. Three-course Zero Kilometro dinners each Wednesday night. 707.829.1077. www.peterlowells.com.


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