Detroit’s 141st farm-to-table restaurant, Corktown Pipsie’s, was stripped of its accreditation this week when it was discovered that its delivery driver, after leaving the farm, was stopping at a nearby bar before proceeding to the restaurant.
“Some of these stops were for over two hours,” says Gina Rapsish, Vice President of Michigan Farm-to-Table Trackers. “That violates the entire principle of farm-to-table.”
While she says that brief stops for gas or coffee are permissible, anything over ten minutes nullifies the implied contract between the diner and the restaurant.
Owner Mike Mistral – who also runs Patterson’s Celery House in Midtown – doesn’t dispute the bar stops, but says they shouldn’t matter. “If he’d brought the food into the bar that’d be different,” he says. “But since it stayed in the truck the farm-to-table concept still applies.” He says he’s considering legal action to get the accreditation back.
Meanwhile, a group of Pipsie’s customers is also looking at a lawsuit – not just demanding refunds for meals consumed, but an additional 300 percent for emotional distress.
“You tell all your friends you ate farm-to-table,” says the group’s leader, artisan repairman Leon Falls. “Imagine the embarrassment of having to go back and tell them you didn’t.”
There’s a simple solution, says Rapsish.
“Pipsie’s should simply re-brand itself as a farm-to-bar-to-table restaurant,” she says. According to her organization, there are already 45 such destinations in Detroit – with six more scheduled to open by December, since the farm-to-bar-to-table concept has not been impacted by the pandemic.
