Village Bakery folks opening Local Eatery restaurant in Laconia's historic train station

LACONIA — It's been about five years since Kevin and Gillian Halligan bought the Laconia Village Bakery. While business has been steady, it wasn't the kind of career Kevin had in mind when he was earning his degree from the New England Culinary Institute. The idea to start a restaurant had been clawing at him for the past year and a half until he became a man obsessed. Specifically, he wanted to be the first chef to open an eatery serving food made nearly exclusively with locally-sourced ingredients.

"I couldn't stop thinking about it. My wife thinks I'm nuts. Everybody thinks I'm nuts," said Halligan. Yet, touched or not, he's preparing to open Local Eatery next month. The restaurant will be located within the historic railroad station at Veterans Square, in the space that the Black Cat Café occupied for many years.

While he doesn't have a specific opening date set, Halligan is aiming for mid-August, and he plans to operate the restaurant five nights per week – Tuesday through Saturday – throughout the year.

It may sound absurd on the face of it, as even veteran gardeners venture to the supermarket for vegetables in winter and spring. Halligan, though, thinks he can stock his kitchen every month of the year with produce and meats that were raised nearby.

Marketing local produce to diners isn't a novel concept, though it seems to be growing in popularity. Halligan's bakery has been offering a "local" dish among its daily lunch offerings, and he said that's the item that customers are most likley to order, no matter what it is. Other restaurants might feature a local, in-season ingredient or meat in a daily special. But an entire menu based on local ingredients? "People use local stuff, they never try to base a whole menu on it," he said. Halligan thinks he can.

For starters, he's already got the contacts with local producers. He'll buy vegetables in bulk when they're in season and freeze or otherwise preserve them for the winter months. Fresh seafood is available throughout the year. He plans to purchase whole animals which, through the art of butchery and charcuterie, he can make use of every cut. There's also an array of local brewers and wine makers which have spread throughout the state, which offer their products at competitive prices. Cheese and eggs should also be available without much trouble. He's even in talks with a local farm about growing leafy vegetables in greenhouses all winter. "It's there, they can do it, why not?"

"I'm not going to say that it's all going to be from Laconia or Gilford, but I'm going to do my damnedest," Halligan said. His rule of thumb is to source "as local as it can be." When sourcing an ingredient, he'll look first to Belknap County, then statewide, and finally from other New England states. Not only does Halligan think he can cook year-round with local ingredients, he thinks Local Eatery will be priced competitively with other restaurants of similar quality. "It's doable," he's convinced.

"It really makes a lot of sense when you start to think about it. It's more work, but it makes more sense." The concept throws conventional wisdom out the window, and he's just fine with that. "It's taking a step back and eating food the way it's meant to be eaten," he said. "I can't wait."