It was 3:00 in the afternoon when I saw RE Farm Café at Windswept for the first time – that golden hour of afternoon that seems slow for everyone but restaurant workers ramping up for the evening. I could say that I knew that the restaurant would be different when my fingers wrapped around the welded meat cleaver that had been repurposed into a door pull, but that isn’t the truth. I knew a long time before that.

Like a lot of us here in Happy Valley, I’d been following the story of a new food experience by Duke and Monica Gastiger, recent owners Spats Café and Speakeasy and The All-American Rathskeller for the last few years. As long ago as 2016, I wrote an article about RE Farm Café for HappyValley.com headlined “Good food takes time!”

RE Farm Café at Windswept suddenly burst onto the food landscape and stole the show immediately in 2019. Within weeks of opening, it had won the PRLA 2019 EcoHero award and Green Building of the Year Award from The U.S. Green Building Council Central Pennsylvania. In January 2020, they were notified that they won a National Restaurant Association PA Good Neighbor Award for outstanding community service. Reservations filled up as seats at their restaurant that made inventive food (that was just as delicious as it was organic and sustainable) from ingredients grown onsite at their farm. Their CSA kept local households stocked up on delicate greens, hearty squash and finds like turmeric all summer long. Their REpast program – where their chefs prepare ready-made meals to take home and enjoy – nourished busy families.

At their first anniversary nears, Monica said that her favorite part about their debut year has been community. “We have made so many friends as we’ve launched RE Farm Café at Windswept,” she says. “We’re so grateful for our community. This next year we are looking forward to more friends and more community. It’s a win-win.”

We’re farmers now

In 2013, Duke and Monica started to explore the idea of a sustainably constructed farm-to-table restaurant that would grow its own food. When they couldn’t find a farm to sell enough acreage to realize their dream, they took the leap to buy an entire farm, establish infrastructure, begin vegetable production while transitioning to organic practices, introduce livestock, and build a restaurant on-site. After a few years, they finally landed on Windswept Farm near the airport … and then the real work began.

Using the rigorous performance standards set forth by Living Building Challenge, they started to construct RE Farm Café on the footprint of an existing house that had graced the property. Working with their architects, they set about making a building that was both self sufficient and energy efficient, using reused and repurposed materials as much as possible.

Right away, that meant two things – educating people to their vision, and finding hands to help them along the way. “We’d meet with banks and their first reaction would be ‘How cool!’ but then the next comment would be, ‘You know you could do this for less if you’d just do this instead,’” Monica remembers. Installing things like solar power called for a higher startup cost, but one with immense returns. “We heard ‘You can’t do that here’ a lot,” she said. “Traditional banks don’t always recognize the impact that investing in the future may hold. For example, the extra insulation and tight construction combined with solar energy make for a super tight building. The long-term energy savings pay for the increased construction costs and then actually make money. Thank goodness WPPSEF and AgChoice were willing to invest in a vision of the future.”

It Takes a Village

Once the plans were approved – and funded – the Gastigers were on site helping with the grueling work of repurposing materials for the building. Their LLC bought flooring from the State College Area High School Auditorium and meticulously cleaned and refinished it for the restaurant’s flooring. A local farmer’s downed black walnut trees became shelving, cabinets and the massive bar that graces the main dining room. Crates from Harner Farms formed shelving for their wine cellar.

One day, Monica saw the construction team laboriously chipping mortar from old bricks so they could reuse them and she took over. “I told them to show me how to do that so they could do something that I didn’t know how to do. My friends asked me how they could help and I said, ‘Well, I have all of these bricks!’” An impromptu email went out to a handful of friends and soon a group was gathered at the property, drinking wine, chipping mortar off of bricks and laughing. “Pretty soon I had people calling me and saying ‘how do I get an invite to one of those work party things?’” she said with a laugh. “It was hard work and we had the best time.”

Things started to come together, thanks to the support of a growing community. The Café was slowly finished, thanks to numerous work parties by family, friends and university student volunteers. Once construction was in the final stretch, they assembled a team of composers (chefs) who each had a unique skillset and knowledge of food and farm. Windswept Farm filled with crops and animals. And then they waited.

The final piece of their plan – their Garland induction cooking suite– hit a shipping snag when a part manufactured in Switzerland was backordered. “Once we finally got the induction suite, we served our first meal within just a few days,” Monica says. After years of planning and hard work, this last minute delay meant that there was no option of a soft open, so they hit the ground running … and it worked.

Peak freshness and mismatched plates

The Café posts an anticipated menu each week that features only foods that are at peak ripeness and freshness at the time. They offer an early session with a three course dinner along with a five course late session. Diners purchase their tickets ahead of time, which helps their composers plan the meal and reduces waste. The reservations fill every night, with the most popular seating, by far, being the chef’s counter where diners can watch the composers work. Diners eat off of mismatched dishes repurposed from second hand shops and donations – one woman even brought a set of dishes with her to donate when she came to eat. Napkins are made from old table clothes and textiles, filling the tables with a mish mosh of color like an old-timey quilt.

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and passionate as diners come in as guests and leave as friends.“We’ve had remarkable feedback from the community whether they are enjoying a sunset and dinner, touring the farm, volunteering, enjoying REpast our homefoods service, being a member of our CSA, or having their business meeting/retreat at RE Farm Café,” Monica says.

More than a meal

And, just as the Gastigers had first envisioned, RE Farm Café at Windswept does more than just provide delightful food – it creates an entire experience that enriches, educates and connects us. It provides space for business meetings where coworkers can get away, connect and grow. It is a venue for sustainable, breathtaking weddings. It is a place where people celebrate and connect. It’s a place to find true community.

“Community connectedness is integral to all of our well being,” Monica says. “And we want to be a part of that cog that helps connect to this community and moves in a positive direction for all of us.”