Bayless Gardens, a raised orchard in Bucktown that supplies Rick's restaurants
Beneath the elevated park 606 in Bucktown, a 93-square-meter vegetable garden supplies Rick's restaurants with vegetables, edible flowers, and herbs.
Beneath the elevated park at 606 in Bucktown, Bayless Gardens unfolds a lush and colorful landscape. The sun-drenched, 93-square-meter backyard is the main production garden: 13 raised beds yield specialty salad greens, edible flowers, and herbs destined for Rick's restaurants.
The raised beds are in production for 8 months of the year and generate more than 700 pounds of salad greens, 65,000 edible flowers, 250 pounds of aromatic herbs and 100 pounds of butternut squash.
During the colder months, production moves indoors: a 150-square-foot heated greenhouse, a 60-square-foot unheated outdoor greenhouse, and a garden with artificial lighting. Together, they produce another 150 pounds of salad greens and microgreens, several thousand edible flowers, and 50 pounds more of herbs.
The restaurants also take advantage of XOCO's rooftop garden, a 93-square-meter space where each season they grow more than 295 kilos of tomatoes, 57 kilos of chili peppers, 36 kilos of Chinese green beans, and a wide variety of specialty herbs. It's hard to find a more local product.
More than just an urban oasis that produces Frontera's "rooftop salsa", the gardens also give restaurant staff the opportunity to participate in food production.