Farm fresh fast food from Farmers’ Road

Posted by Rich Schwartzman on April 24, 2013

The Beatles sang about the “Long and Winding Road” and the Hollies sang about a “Long Dark Road” that had “many a winding turn.” Now, Courtney Rozsas comes up with the Farmer’s Road Drive Thru, a restaurant that aims to please the palates of all, especially the locavores.

The restaurant is in the Painters Crossing shopping center between T.G.I. Fridays and El Gran Rodeo. It’s a drive-thru that also has indoor and outdoor seating.

For Rozsas — who also owns Lotus Farm to Table in Media — it’s a fusion of fast food and healthy food from local farmers. There’s even a list of those farmers on a chalkboard in the restaurant.

“It’s a farm to table drive thru,” Rozsas said during a grand opening celebration on Sunday, April 21. “It’s better for you, farm-fresh fast food. We’re taking comfort foods and making them healthier.”

She said the idea for a fast food/health food restaurant has been percolating for sometime.

“In our area there are so many farms, so many resources, so many restaurants, but nothing you can get fast. You have your quick-serve restaurants that are healthy, but I think that these days we’re all on the go and have time constraints, so I wanted to make it more conducive for my customers and add a drive-thru,” Rozsas said.

Lunch and dinner entrées include the stadium dog, an all-natural grass fed beef hotdog with sodium-free sauerkraut, low sodium yellow mustard on a rye pretzel hotdog bun with an option to substitute a vegetarian hotdog. There’s the beef burger made from grass fed beef, local organic American cheese, turkey bacon, house dill pickle, lettuce, low sodium mustard on a multigrain bun. There’s also an apple sandwich, which is a grilled cheddar cheese sandwich with a slice of Granny Smith apple and raw honey on maple, sourdough bread.

Breakfast dishes include scrapple, pork roll, a tofu scramble, salmon wrap and a breakfast burrito.

Desserts include gluten free chocolate chip cookies, Rice Krispie and Linvilla Orchards candy apples. There are also kids’ meals, shakes and coffee.

Combo menu items will range in price from $6-9 per entrée. A sandwich only is about $2, Rozsas said.

The restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week, Monday-Saturday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Sundays, the restaurant will open for breakfast and lunch and will close at 2 p.m. so patrons and employees can focus on family dinners at home.

One of the reasons Rozsas chose the location is that she’s from western Delaware County.

“I’m from the area and I love the area,” she said. “I thought it was perfect, a no-brainer…I used to go to the movies here.”

(Photo: Courtney Rozsas welcomes patrons to her new restaurant, Farmers Road Drive Thru, in the Painters Crossing shopping center.)

About Rich Schwartzman

Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.