Market Restaurant’s Downtown Beehives

Chad McIntyre of Market restaurant is bullish on local.  The Mordecai restaurant sits facing westward into the evening sun alongside chocolate shop Escazu.  Market has a deck that overlooks an organic garden complete with compost heaps and tools.  Inside, the clean restaurant is a backdrop for McIntyre's dishes- simple presentations staring local ingredients. This summer McIntyre teamed up with Escazu's Hallot Parson to start a new apiary project. Originally Market had a few beehives sitting on the rooftop, but six months in they were blown away by the tornado. That loss brought inspiration and gave way to a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund a redoubled commitment to the bees. 

I interviewed McIntyre on a hot summer evening on the deck of Market restaurant. The new beehives had only been in place for a little over a week.  The night before an alleged thief was caught making an attempt at stealing one of the beehives.  We jump right in and talk Kickstarter, sustainability and, of course, honey.

David: Bees are kind of endangered, right? Is it harder to get honey these days?

Chad: The price has definitely gone up.  I’ve even noticed that even with my honey suppliers, my beekeepers I deal with locally here.  Ben, who’s coming, he will actually tell you.  I mean the price is going up and there’s a bigger demand for it, I think, because everybody is starting to get a little bit more knowledgeable about the whole colony collapse disorder and exactly what’s going into the foods.  We kind of look at it as, yes, it’s great that we deal with the farmer and it’s direct food source. 

I think directly as of right now, there’s 120 food products on the market that bees are responsible for. 

I mean we wouldn’t have almonds if it wasn’t for bees, hands down, because pears are such a low odor flower, the pollen just doesn’t have a strong floral smell to it that they have to bring these into –  open pollination is really [tough]–  your yield is really small and so there’s other ways. You put blueberry bushes by your pear trees and they go everywhere. 

I mean really seeing that the price is going up and stuff like that.  My wife’s family for several generations have been beekeepers and her dad got out of it when her grandfather got some health issues.  So he has got some land in Louisiana and he wanted to get back into it and so, we’ve got a two-year-old daughter that I kind of wanted that to be part of her tradition as she carried on.  So, we really got involved in the whole thing kind of wholeheartedly and it started off kind of as a niche deal.  That would be kind of cool so I wonder if – maybe kind of like serving shrimp curry.  I mean it was just kind of one of those, “Hey, let’s try it,” and just happen to come by selling honey and we’re talking about bees and how much you pastured.

I said, “Oh, how much honey can I get out of my own hive?” you know, that type of a deal.  He says, “Well, I don’t know, There really aren’t many really downtown hives.”  There’s one at the museum.  The governor’s mansion has one.  There’s a lot of residential around here that actually have a lot of hives but as far as a commercial application, nobody was doing it and it’s cool.  Of course, me and Ben said, “Yes, let’s be the forerunners in this whole project,” and we don’t know if it’s going to work.  So, next thing I know I got two beehives on the roof last year and they do well.  We’re not looking to harvest any honey.  You know, get to taste some and we’re kind of brooding them if you will …

David: So you had them in the fall?

Chad: Yes.  Yes.  We had them up at the end of the last summer and they went really well but everything was great until a tornado came through and flipped both of them from off the roof.  I mean one was down by the dumpster type deal and so Ben was scraping up bees with a dustpan and a broom trying to get them back in the hive.  One came back really well.  It’s actually still on top right now and then the other one just didn’t make it. 

I mean at first I was thinking about the building and actually make sure everybody is all right and Ben calls me up.  I was at Farm to Fork, doing that thing out there and so, I’m 60 miles away making sure my restaurant is still standing and it came down so I was up there and that’s why I called, “You guys are about to get pounded.”  My sous-chef called me.  He said, “There’s a tornado rolling through town.”  I said, “What?” So, everything was fine but Ben calls me up.  “Yes, the hives got wrecked.”  I said, “Oh, let’s get these things built back up.  Let’s get something going,” and so, we were talking about it.  Ben kind of said, “Hey, for X amount of dollars, we can put some more hives up there.  We can build our own bee yard, our own downtown bee yard.” So I said, “How much is it going to take?” So he came up with a number and I said, “All right.  Well, I don’t have that money.  How are we going to raise this?”

So we started the Kickstarter project and it was kind of a last-ditch effort.  I really can’t think of anything outside of going to – somebody would say, “Hey, sponsor these hives for this private business,” which is really just kind of a super shot in the dark, maybe a guess.  Somebody each year pretty often who had the money didn’t say anything about it but we did it on Kickstarter and we ended up raising  $3200.

We asked for $2800 and when it got down to within about five or six days, we said, “Shit, we’re not going to hit this and we’re not going to get this money,” and within 24 hours of having that conversation, two people coughed up  a thousand bucks.

I said "Did not see that coming,” and then the $5 and $10 and $25 here and $50.  We have a bee dinner coming up.  All kind of gave to it and then we did  show the film out here in the parking lot setup with and a big screen projector and everything. [It was] a little warmer than I wanted to do but it is what it is, North Carolina summer. 

So we actually raised a little bit more money that night and so, we were able to pay for the hives.  We’re actually going to buy a couple of pieces of equipment, some more hoods and a smoker just so we have something here.  So I have to keep hitting up Ben to use his all the time but really just I was amazed just to kind of how everybody kind of came. 

Wow, nobody is doing this type of thing and doing beehives, and so we made the money for them.  We actually have – there’s three now.  We have a fourth the other day but sometimes bees fight amongst themselves.  It will be back up in the next day or so but yes, we’re going to do some fun stuff.

David: So you do all the side projects here?

Chad: I do.  I really do.  That’s one thing I would definitely say about all our employees here is everybody – yes, it is business first and foremost.  I mean we’ve got to make money here.  I’ve got to pay taxes and rent and utilities and all that other shit and put at least some money in my pocket; but from the beginning it has never been about just the money.  It has been about the neighborhood – this is that network spot.  This is that community hub and it’s starting to get where I want it to be.  It’s projects like this and we help out AHA, the Advocates for Health in Action.  We do the Raleigh Dig In.  We’re part of BugFest, which for some reason, this whole bug thing has been around my restaurant.

A lot of our farmers, we’ve become a big helper to those guys in the season because I can guarantee sales when I’m cranking here and then they take care of me in the backend and we’ve raised a couple of animals for the restaurant, from litter to slaughter.

I utilize everything in between and it’s great.  I mean I have fun doing it.  That’s the thing.  I have fun.  It would be great if I was making tons of money and I have fun doing it.  It makes it a lot easier but yes, so employees really kind of get involved in the whole thing.  I mean I never have to beg, “All right, I can’t do this thing.  Please, please, please, can somebody come help me with this thing?” It’s like, “Hey cool, I need this stuff.  Anybody want to work? Yes, dude.  Cool.  Sweet.”  So everybody kind of gets involved and it’s really kind of fun and we’re looking to do a couple more big projects. 

I can help farmers out throughout the season.  We can do projects and stuff with Escazu.  I think it’s a great pairing of those guys  –  “If you guys ever move anywhere, please let me know.  I want to come with you all.” I want to make sure we’re somehow still kind of tied together because those guys don’t get – I mean they get good press but they don’t get as much accolades as they should. I mean 1 of only 12 chocolatiers like that in the entire US.   Danielle is one of only two people in the US that I guess who does – finish confections from bean to finished product in the case.  It’s her and another at Atlanta and that’s it.  That’s it.  You may have a hobby as – I think Rick Bayless has a little chocolate machine.   Chef Bayless, Frontera Grill. Incredible rooftop garden, a thousand square foot of rooftop garden.   A thousand pounds of produce is what he gets off his roof in a season in Chicago.  I mean it’s incredible but yes, they need a lot more props than I think they’re given and it’s impressive.  There’s that whole foodie movement.  It’s really kind of – and it’s kind of niched in some areas.  People are kind of, “Oh, I do this because they’re single origin, this and that.”  Okay. What does that mean? What comes from this one area? Okay.  What does that mean? What are you doing for this thing? Why?

So people are just kind of, “Oh well, it’s a cool thing to do,” no there’s a purpose behind it.  There’s somebody’s name tagged to that product that you’re buying, that this is how they live and so I think when people really kind of see – my farmers are calling me and they say, “Hey man, you know, we’ll finish up at the farmer’s market.  We’re going to come by.”  It would be like Saturday and like 6 o’clock or 7 o’clock.  You know, is that an issue? I’m like, “Hell no, man.  I was like come in to eat.” 

One day we had a full restaurant and Ben Fields from Ben’s Produce, I get some of my stuff from him and he comes in and he says, “We’ll get some stuff and then kind of weigh it.”   I got a scale hanging from the garage door and in the middle of like a full restaurant, I’m weighing potatoes and carrots in the middle of dining room and stuff.  I’m like this is how it’s done.  This is the part that nobody sees.  This is the dirty part.  This is the part where it comes from so it’s kind of nice to be able to connect the people that come here and eat with the farmers and with the beekeepers and actually with the food. 

We’ve talked about doing a field trip when we get another animal to the abattoir and go see the animal slaughter and I’ve seen videos and I’ve killed animals and stuff like that.  I think more people would respect meat, as an example, if they saw things like that.  I’m not saying that it should be glorified, the killing of animal, but it’s part of life.  If you’re going to eat meat, this is where it comes from.

So I’ve met a little resistance from some of the guests.  “I just don’t want to know.” Well, no, you have to know.  I can’t personally knowingly – as passionate as I am about this and about just not wasting anything, say, “Oh it’s great.  Cool.” 

No, I can’t do that so we really try to – I mean really kind of make people aware of just where it all comes from.  So I’m not preaching anything new.  I mean there’s Food, Inc and the Walmart machine and all these other great movies that are out there.  I think with that and with the internet, people are becoming more aware of it and so I think they just kind of really see  that there are places like this that kind of connect everybody in the community and that they – there’s a reason behind it.  Like I said, I don’t specifically have one thing in my life that's an atrocity and it made me change this way.  I’ve seen the industry change.  I’ve seen prices go through the ceiling and you look at the grand scheme, people paying 25 cents for a loaf of bread 70 years ago and now a loaf of bread is three bucks.

It’s kind of pathetic when a gallon of water is more than a gallon of milk and it’s more than a gallon of gas.  It doesn’t make sense.  It does not really make sense to have clean drinking water – can’t drink gasoline but it’s cheaper to buy than freaking water.  Like I said, I got a daughter.  I kind of want to be able to be responsible for her to have some of this stuff down the line.  Bees and pollination are definitely – to me, an immediate quick fix.  It’s a win-win situation.  They get a good home to stay and we get honey from it.  That’s downtown Raleigh honey.  You want to taste Raleigh, that’s the honey.  That’s it.  That’s where it comes from.

The daisies on the sidewalk on Boylan Bridge and the flowers out of Logan’s and roses on the grave over at the cemetery, that’s what that tastes like.  That’s it and it’s kind of cool to be able to put that into there.  Not to sound too chi on the whole thing but there’s that life force that goes with it.

I guess it’s kind of how I really focus on a lot of my stuff is just ebb and flow, push and pull.  There’s reasons you do certain things and a reaction has an equal and opposite reaction and food should be the same way. 

David: Do you see honey becoming a bigger part of your menu?

Chad: It is.  All my vinaigrettes, we use honey and a lot of desserts we use honey.  In savory dishes, we use honey.  I use more honey now than I have in the past years because I’ve got a good source.  That’s a good thing.  If you buy stuff at the store, like anything about the store, you kind of don’t know what’s in it.  It’s like honey but what else is in there? I’m not a big conspiracy theory person but I know that some people will cut their honey with like corn syrup or mainly corn syrup.  Like they can thin it out but no big industry.  Just you kind of get a lot of stuff that’s just – it’s all over the place and I personally do not like Monsanto.

You could put that on the record.  They can sue me, take whatever.  I don’t care.  I do not like Monsanto.  I just don’t believe in their practices and to know that some of those honey could possibly have come out of their fields and GMOs, there’s – like I said, you put good things in, good things come out.  If you put bad things in, bad things come out. 

Like I say, we kind of focus on a lot of the process part.  We take a lot of the processed sugar and just place it with honey so it’s nice.  Like I said, there’s – it’s like getting grapes in New Hampshire and getting grapes in California.  It could be the same grape but it’s going to taste different.  It’s going to be a different taste from different areas and it’s kind of fun to be able to play with that.  It’s kind of – Ricky Barbers, the president of the beekeeper’s association, I bought honey from him too.  He lives out in Bunn and there are a lot of sorghum trees and so sorghum is a very heavy pollen …

It gives a very molasses taste to the honey, you could taste the sorghum.  Ben brought me some honey out from Fuquay and it was out just kind of in a field type deal and it was just light.  It was I mean almost golden in color, just is very light and then one in Garner two miles away was next to – it wasn’t sorghum but it was kind of just like in pine and kind of a mixed wood area and it was this almost red amber color and that was it.  That was roll cap off, honey through a strainer and nothing done to it and it’s kind of cool to see where the bees eat.

Then I know that I could taste it and I go, “Cool, there’s kind of a light flavor to it,” and I could taste some flowers in it so we’ll do a lighter dish with this one or this one is very molasses.  I want it to stand up next to a pork dish or something.  I really want it to kind of not get lost in something and so it’s like wine.  I mean it really is.  I think people really kind of – are starting to kind of – especially with honey, I think.  I think that’s going to be the next big thing is single-origin honey, which is kind of cool because there’s a need to say, well, this area has this and …

David: Do yours have a definitive flavor?

Chad: They do.  I’ll tell you what, we’ve – I’ve tasted it out of just out of the screen and it’s light.  It’s not any pronounced flavor.  It’s just almost a light honeysuckle sweetness to it which is kind of cool because it’s like I said, there’s a lot of them in there.  The Raleigh Housing Authority – there’s a lot of just ornamental flowers out here and so you get just kind of almost a nice floral taste with it and it’s cool.  I mean it’s really cool.  I wouldn’t really cook it down or do anything like that because I’m afraid I would lose a lot.

We will get going to get half of it.  Escazu will get half of it. Danielle (Escazu), I think she can get a little bit more mileage out of honey than I can. Because she can just do a little bit and chocolate people are kind of they’re savoring that little thing and unfortunately I get at lunchtime people powering down stuff and they’ll blow through the flavors.

Escazu's Hallot Parson, Market Chef Chad McIntyre, and Bee Keeper Ben Crawley

 

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Market Restaurant Ben Crawley Honey Hallot Parson Chad McIntyre Bee Hives

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