Meet Modern Farmer’s Guest Instagrammer: Kensington Quarters
Say hello to Kensington Quarters, a restaurant, butcher shop, bar, and teaching space in Philadelphia.
For Michael Pasquarello it was a simple proposition: Locally grown food is simply better. His restaurant Kensington Quarters in Philadelphia (one of five he and his wife Jeniphur own) showcases this belief in a variety of ways, from the menu to the attached butcher shop to the cooking and butchering classes they offer in the restaurant’s upstairs space.
“The body is naturally connected to the environment that it exists in. I feel very connected to what is in season, and wanted to create an environment where others could experience that connection,” he tells Modern Farmer. “Sustainability is necessary if we want to exist in the future. Once we realized how easy it was to get these products, we never looked back.”
Pasquarello, 34, says Kensington Quarters is a model based on respect and trust. They seek out the farmers, growers, and makers who produce their products in a thoughtful manner without putting an undue strain on the environment, without genetically modified ingredients, and by using thoughtful pest management only when necessary.
“We shake hands and agree to support and represent them inside our space. It honestly is a very old-world way of doing things,” he says.
Like the use of local, farm-fresh ingredients, Pasquarello feels strongly about the whole-animal butchery concept as well. He and his team partnered with well-known butcher Bryan Mayer for the project (he has since left). Heather Thomason, who has been with KQ since the beginning, became head butcher in June. Chef Damon Menapace helms the kitchen. Pasquarello recalls years ago when they began ordering whole pigs for another of their restaurants, Prohibition Taproom, also in Philadelphia, thinking: “Wow, we better use this whole thing.” He quickly realized that a life had been taken so that they could feed people. He loves the responsibility of supporting farmers who have given animals a good life and a proper death. The whole-animal concept can be a challenge for small operations – one reason they decided to include a butcher shop in the space and to have their other restaurants mutually support one another – so no part of the animal gets wasted.
“On a head of beef you have very little whole muscle. The majority of the animal winds up to be grind, fat, and bone. We fill our fryers with beef fat, we make our stocks with the bone, and we serve some amazing burgers at our family of restaurants. It takes an army,” says Pasquarello.
The classes offered at Kensington Quarters are also part of the model. Pasquarello says teaching allows them to spread the message of local and thoughtful consumption, helping to bridge “the mind gap between the meat on your plate to the animal,” he says, and to bring awareness that an animal died to provide us with fuel.
Correction: A previous version of this story failed to include Heather Thomason, the current head butcher.
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