Harvest Café head chef Kyle Wilkinson recently began making hot dogs in-house from local pork. The restaurant will feature a limited number of Chicago-style hot dogs on nights when national baseball teams play. (Photo by Holly Eitenmiller / for Chronicle Media)

They’re everywhere; popular restaurant chains with crowd-pleasing menus. And though the cuisine may taste good, is it good for you?

Then, there are places like Harvest Café in Delavan, a farm-to-table inn where the menu evolves from locally-grown ingredients. The number of farm-to-table, F2T, restaurants is on the rise, and, in March, Harvest Café was named by Only In Your State as one of the top nine F2T establishments in Illinois.

“Being listed first of the nine with Only In Your State, we’re really proud of that,” manager Kevin Myszkowski said. “We work really hard to bring the best there is in Illinois to our customers.”

It goes something like this; Myszkowski, the hunter-gatherer, scouts for farms that specialize in sustainable agriculture and orders the best meat, dairy and seasonal produce on hand.

The rabbit comes from Blue Fig Farms of Normal. Lamb is raised at Knob Hill Farm in Greenview. Henry’s Farm in Congerville specializes in produce, including arugula, rutabagas and parsnips. Ordering french toast? The syrup will come from Funk’s Grove in Shirley.

“If it’s not in season, though, like tomatoes, we just won’t have them,” Myszkowski said of the only downside of F2T. Items like scallops, tuna, crabmeat and French morels, he said, are ordered fresh and premium from top U.S. growers and distributors.

The ingredients are then handed off to the café’s free-range chefs, who are given carte blanche over the menu. Each are pedigreed; Head chef, Kyle Wilkinson, was schooled at Le Cordon Bleu, Sous chef Ashton Fuchs, studied culinary at Kendall College in Chicago.

In the kitchen, Myszkowski’s odyssey culminates in a menu nothing short of gourmet. Recent selections included parsnip and leek soup, roasted beet salad, shiitake mushroom pizza, pork loin with mushroom risotto, duck breast and oyster mushroom.

Harvest Café owner Libby Mathers spared little expense when renovating the 1890s building, which features hand-crafted woodwork and custom-ordered landscape work by west coast artist Don Tiller.  (Photo by Holly Eitenmiller / for Chronicle Media)

Fuchs bakes the café’s specialty sourdough bread with a four-year old starter that began with the juice of local peaches. Wilkinson cures traditional and Canadian bacon, smoked meats and makes sausage, including Mexican chorizo and Italian sausage.

Recently, he and Myszkowski mulled over a hot dog he’d just made from local pork. Wilkinson said he could make batches of 15 on baseball nights. They’ll serve them Chicago style, they decided, on a poppy seed bun with tomato, mustard and relish, pickle spear on the side, $7, first come first serve.

The prices at Harvest Café are surprisingly affordable, considering the caliber of cooking. A 10-ounce New York Strip dinner is $26. The rabbit and duck are $23. Fried catfish and chicken dinners are $12.

“People come here from Bloomington, Peoria, Springfield … all over,” Myszkowski said. “Not just because of how great the food is, but also because it doesn’t break the bank.”

However, when owner Libby Mathers decided to open the F2T restaurant in 2010, she spared little expense.

Harvest Café manager Kevin Myszkowski displays a $300 bottle of 2006 Peter Michael ‘Les Pavots’. Café owner Libby Mathers opened Hometown Wine and Spirits shortly after opening the café. The building is adjacent to the café, and also features spirits, cigars and gift items. (Photo by Holly Eitenmiller / for Chronicle Media)

Mathers renovated an 1890s former shoe store, outfitting it with a custom-made floor-to-ceiling bar. The booths and woodwork were also made to order from Midwest Woodworking of Morton. The floors and ceiling remained original.

Later, Mathers purchased and renovated the adjacent building in the same fashion as the café. One half of that building, which is twice the size of the café, became Hometown Wine & Spirits, a shop that features a broad variety of wine and spirits, as well as cigars and gifts.

Next door, on the corner, is the Exchange, a large, trendy pub that features pub fare and has an adjoining game room with pool tables. Each business features expansive rural landscapes created by contemporary artist Don Tiller of Port Townsend, Washington.

The Harvest Cafe menu changes monthly, the restaurant is open Wednesday through Sunday, and serves farm fresh breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It is located in the town’s historic district, at 317 Locust St.

—  Delavan cafe committed to being the best at  farm-to-table  —

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