What’s crazy: we’re already one week into 2016.

What’s crazier: we’re one week into 2016 and we already crossed one thing off our New Year’s resolutions list.

So what did we accomplish this early into 2016? We switched to using local produce. When Chef Jacob began working at Café Alfresco, one of his main goals was to switch to using local growers. He began ordering produce through the Dunedin Fresh Market before people even returned to work after New Year’s. By using local fruits and vegetables, we will have the freshest and best-tasting ingredients to complement the already mouthwatering menu at Café Alfresco. In fact, if you’ve had our fruit salad recently, you probably noticed the strawberries tasted amazing — they’re part of our first batch of local produce!

Now that we’ve switched to local, what’s next on the list?

Chef Jacob plans to build on the education of each of the staff based on their culinary interests. All the cooks at Café Alfresco are incredibly talented. If you need proof, look (or should we say “taste?”) no further than the food you eat here. He will spend one-on-one time with each cook to find out what skills or foods they’re interested in expanding. This way, he can start teaching each cook something they want to learn about and ultimately, have each cook help plan daily specials.

2016 is going to be an exciting year with tasty produce and new daily specials. We’re so looking forward to it!