Carr’s Restaurant
“How’s your wife?” Tim Carr asks a frequent
customer at his Central Market stand in downtown
Lancaster. Conversational exchanges over the refrigerated
case of prepared foods like smoked chicken
and penne pasta, asparagus soup and jumbo lump
crab cakes, are practically a market tradition.
“I like to keep up with my customers. We really get
to know each other,” Carr explains.
Carr opened his market stand in 2005 as an offshoot
to his restaurant, located just across Market
Alley in the Hager Arcade building. He also has a
specialty grocery and organic foods store in Lancaster
County’s Manheim Township.
“I’ve always tried to feature as many local foods as
I could in the restaurant and at the market stand,”
he says. “It’s good to support Lancaster farmers
and, during the growing season, why wouldn’t you
go with locally grown produce? There’s no comparison
between a locally fresh tomato and one
that is shipped. Anyone who enjoys food can tell
the difference.”
Heirloom tomatoes, free-range chickens, picked ripe
strawberries and organic asparagus are some
of the foods that Carr buys from his fellow Central
Market standholders to stock his three locations.
“We’re trying to be a good neighbor and support
other growers and standholders,” Carr says. “And
anything that grows in Lancaster, grows well and
tastes great. It’s a place that harkens back to what
was. Lancaster is blessed in that way.”
|
