Celeste Farms’ dinner series has been held at a meadow on the farm. (Photos courtesy Celeste Farms)
For his latest food-focused venture, Ian Newell, owner of Fan restaurant Goatocado, has taken the farm-to-table concept to a new level. He’s brought a table to a farm.
This summer Newell debuted Celeste Farms, a 4-acre farm at 7001 Osborne Turnpike in Varina that hosts multicourse dinners, private events and more.
The pastoral venue, which sits about six miles from downtown Richmond, is quite a different backdrop from that at Goatocado’s flagship restaurant on Main Street in the city and its planned second spot on Westover Hills Boulevard on the Southside.
But Newell is no stranger to Varina. He’s lived in that part of eastern Henrico for about a decade – initially on a houseboat at the Kingsland Marina – and bought what was then known as Victory Farms in 2018 for $340,000.
Newell said he didn’t have a precise plan for the land when he bought it but he’s now excited to offer a true farm-to-table dining experience at Celeste.
“Varina is a beautiful and very special place to me,” Newell said. “To be able to go from the city to a rural environment immediately … that’s a big part of what we’re doing out here. My mission is to preserve that for what it is.”
Ian Newell
Celeste’s main public offering for now is “The Farm & The Chef” dinner series that has been running every few weeks since June. For $125, guests get a tour of the farm and a multicourse meal prepared by chef Ashton Carter, formerly of Moto Restaurant in Chicago.
The dinners are served at a long, wooden table in a meadow and are prepared using vegetables grown on the farm. Newell said the goal is to eventually produce all the ingredients for the dinners on-site.
“We started raising chickens for meat for the dinners, we have bees on reserve for next year, and we have a variety of fruit trees – citrus, lemons, limes, oranges – that we put in the greenhouse in the winter,” Newell said. “We have a really fairly large, complex operation going on out here for the size of the farm we have.”
Before rolling out the dinner series, Newell said he’d used the farm to grow leafy greens used in Goatocado’s menu and sold at local grocers such as Ellwood Thompson’s.
As the seasons turn, Newell said Celeste will offer different events, ranging from higher-end dinners to more casual, charcuterie-heavy meals. He added that the farm also has a handful of private events lined up.
Newell said it’s been rewarding to see strangers gather for a meal in a rural setting.
“We’re really trying to curate this whole space to be this kind of magical showcase and give people a place to come see chickens, see how vegetables are grown,” he said. “People seem to be walking away (from the dinners) just like glowing with the whole thing. They meet, then they go on the tour, and they feel a lot more connected with the farm.”
Meanwhile, back in the city, Newell said that he’s also been working on plans for the Forest Hill Goatocado but that he doesn’t have a timeline for its opening.
Newell founded Goatocado as a food cart in 2013 and opened its first brick-and-mortar spot in the Fan in 2016.
Celeste Farms’ dinner series has been held at a meadow on the farm. (Photos courtesy Celeste Farms)
For his latest food-focused venture, Ian Newell, owner of Fan restaurant Goatocado, has taken the farm-to-table concept to a new level. He’s brought a table to a farm.
This summer Newell debuted Celeste Farms, a 4-acre farm at 7001 Osborne Turnpike in Varina that hosts multicourse dinners, private events and more.
The pastoral venue, which sits about six miles from downtown Richmond, is quite a different backdrop from that at Goatocado’s flagship restaurant on Main Street in the city and its planned second spot on Westover Hills Boulevard on the Southside.
But Newell is no stranger to Varina. He’s lived in that part of eastern Henrico for about a decade – initially on a houseboat at the Kingsland Marina – and bought what was then known as Victory Farms in 2018 for $340,000.
Newell said he didn’t have a precise plan for the land when he bought it but he’s now excited to offer a true farm-to-table dining experience at Celeste.
“Varina is a beautiful and very special place to me,” Newell said. “To be able to go from the city to a rural environment immediately … that’s a big part of what we’re doing out here. My mission is to preserve that for what it is.”
Ian Newell
Celeste’s main public offering for now is “The Farm & The Chef” dinner series that has been running every few weeks since June. For $125, guests get a tour of the farm and a multicourse meal prepared by chef Ashton Carter, formerly of Moto Restaurant in Chicago.
The dinners are served at a long, wooden table in a meadow and are prepared using vegetables grown on the farm. Newell said the goal is to eventually produce all the ingredients for the dinners on-site.
“We started raising chickens for meat for the dinners, we have bees on reserve for next year, and we have a variety of fruit trees – citrus, lemons, limes, oranges – that we put in the greenhouse in the winter,” Newell said. “We have a really fairly large, complex operation going on out here for the size of the farm we have.”
Before rolling out the dinner series, Newell said he’d used the farm to grow leafy greens used in Goatocado’s menu and sold at local grocers such as Ellwood Thompson’s.
As the seasons turn, Newell said Celeste will offer different events, ranging from higher-end dinners to more casual, charcuterie-heavy meals. He added that the farm also has a handful of private events lined up.
Newell said it’s been rewarding to see strangers gather for a meal in a rural setting.
“We’re really trying to curate this whole space to be this kind of magical showcase and give people a place to come see chickens, see how vegetables are grown,” he said. “People seem to be walking away (from the dinners) just like glowing with the whole thing. They meet, then they go on the tour, and they feel a lot more connected with the farm.”
Meanwhile, back in the city, Newell said that he’s also been working on plans for the Forest Hill Goatocado but that he doesn’t have a timeline for its opening.
Newell founded Goatocado as a food cart in 2013 and opened its first brick-and-mortar spot in the Fan in 2016.
This sounds very similar to Dinner in the Field, which is also in Varina. I’m all for more unique dining experiences and I wish them well.