Meet Caroline Glover: a James Beard Award-winning chef, and the owner of Annette Scratch to Table in Aurora, Colo.
Food is our love language, so we feel honored when some of the country’s most talented chefs use our greenhouse-grown greens on their restaurant menus. The story of Caroline Glover’s restaurant hits close to home — our first Colorado greenhouse is located on the same block as Annette and we’ve been supplying our greens to her for years. We paid a visit to Annette (a quick 2-minute walk from our greenhouse) to catch up with Caroline and learn about her story.
Tell us about Stanley Marketplace and why you chose it as the location for Annette.
Stanley Marketplace is a fairly large marketplace located in Aurora, just across the border of Denver. It’s full of a lot of small and independent business owners and being surrounded by people doing the same thing as you on the same scale is so helpful. You know you can reach out to others, ask questions, and so it’s a nice place to have your first spot.
How did you hear about Gotham Greens?
My husband Nelson and I used to live in New York and knew of Gotham Greens. When you opened the greenhouse right here in 2020, it just felt serendipitous that we would start using the greens for the restaurant.
We use a boatload of the Bibb lettuce (a.k.a. Baby Butterhead) at the restaurant. We have a butter lettuce salad on the menu that’s been on since day one. It’s just the most lush salad out there and I think switching to Gotham Greens made a huge difference. When people come to Annette, it’s something that usually everyone orders.
“…to have this lettuce available 365 days of the year, right next to us, it just fits in so perfectly with the ethos of our menu.”
Tell us about this famous butter lettuce salad!
Our butter lettuce salad [featuring] Gotham Greens is so simple, but sometimes I think the most simple things are the most delicious. So, it’s basically a head of butter lettuce and we use a house-made tarragon dressing, pickled shallots, a little bit of shaved radish, ricotta salata, and candied sunflower seeds on top. It’s very minimal ingredients, but every ingredient is really important to the salad, and when you have them all together it’s such a beautiful way to start the meal.
What is your menu philosophy at Annette?
The food philosophy at Annette has really been the same since day one. We have a really small menu and what is in season or near us (local) is what informs what’s on the menu. We don’t change the menu at a certain time of the year — instead we have a rolling menu change. The reason the salad has been on the menu since day one is well, because everyone loves it, and also when Gotham Greens moved in — to have this lettuce available 365 days of the year, right next to us,
it just fits in so perfectly with the ethos of our menu.
Any closing words to our readers?
The next time you’re in Colorado, specifically Aurora, come visit us at Annette! Try the butter lettuce salad, and you can actually see the greenhouse right next to us where everything is grown.
