By Todeline Defralien, SUNtv News Reporter

May 01, 2023

Seven Stars Resort & Spa’s newest restaurant venue, The Farm is opened in Grace Bay.

The upscale garden-setting restaurant venue is Seven Stars Resort’s fourth restaurant and is open for healthy breakfast options, lunch with a fast-casual menu of grab-and-go selections, and a more elaborate dinner service.
The family-friendly restaurant can seat up to 200 persons at their current arrangement and even more for private events.

In an exclusive interview with The SUN, Ken Patterson, CEO of Seven Stars Resort & Spa said what they’ve achieved in a very short period of time is actually beyond what they expected.

“We wanted a special place where people could come, relax and enjoy themselves, and compared to what it was six months ago which was a car park, we actually managed to achieve between all of us a wonderful and warm space where people are going to love coming to for the food and drinks, atmosphere and you’re actually in a Garden of Eden here,” he said.

He added: “We spent an often lot of time here on the gardens, the trees and placement of where they are going for the shades and for the smells so when the plants start maturing you will start getting some nice jasmine smells and rose smells and that’s going to really be a beautiful thing for both the smells and to really look at. The Farm started when we got our freight farm and when it was delivered on-site we said, you know what, why don’t we just build a restaurant onto the freight farm? We said to ourselves it is a 40ft container, but we can actually build because we have point four of an acre here, so we could build a wonderful restaurant and it’s based on what’s growing in our freight farm.”

Patterson said the restaurant’s menu is really designed around their hydroponic freight farm.

“This is a very different menu from The Terrace, Seven, and The Deck. The taste of what you get here is exceptional,” he said.

In addition, the CEO said this is the next stage in what they want to do with food in Turks and Caicos.

“We wanted to reduce our carbon footprint which we have done, apart from the container itself which will last forever if we look after it and there is no carbon footprint for the produce that we now put on the plates. We are literally importing seeds and everything else is water, its nutrients, light and that’s it.

What we’ve managed to achieve here is a restaurant which is now carbon neutral in terms of what we’re putting on the pates,” he explained.

He continued: “Our next step is obviously solar and I know that Fortis and the government are in discussions about the cost of electricity and selling solar power back into the grid, so until that is sorted out at a governmental level, it is not worth our while putting solar on the roof, but the roof is designed to hold solar. When there is a mechanism where we can actually achieve a decent price for the energy we make during the day back into the grid and get it back at night, when that happens we will go solar, and at that point we are really self-sufficient.”

Patterson revealed that close to 1,000 people visited the restaurant in the last three days.

He added: “We’ve been blown away by the interest and also the comments that we’ve gotten back. It’s a large space and a large restaurant, but we’ve broken it up into individual little parts so people can have their private tables.
They can have a big group table but because it is on such a large site if people want to come here with a group of one or with 60 we can accommodate them. We have a play area out in the back for the kids and it’s a safe play area and there are no sharp objects out there and their parents can watch them as they play.”

The CEO of Seven Stars Resort & Spa said the team worked very hard to get the sound right in the restaurant which is perfectly balanced from the front to the back entrance.

Meantime, Robin Janse, EAM Food & Beverage said the main reason they brought the hydroponic farm was that when one looks at the logistics of bringing food into the Turks and Caicos Islands and given the majority of food products are imported.

“We buy as much local foods that we can we by grits from North Caicos, but outside of the local supply, the reason for bringing the Farm here is that we’re able to grow right on site. Growing greens in Mexico, California or wherever it is being grown and bringing them here to Turks and Caicos obviously has a carbon footprint and on top of that by time it gets here it’s already very old,” he added.

He continued: “The whole idea is that we can grow on site and we use it basically as soon as we harvest it, so the great thing about that is that we’re not using a whole lot of resources to bring it down here and we’re cutting all of that carbon output from shipping it here and the other good part is that we have little waste and the only thing that we’re shipping here is the seeds, so there is very little carbon footprint on that.”

Janse noted that the product is better, it is grown on the property and the supply line is much shorter which is fantastic.

Asked how he feels about the completion of the restaurant, Janse said, “We broke ground on the building and the rest of the grounds in October 2022, so it came together very quickly. It was a really fun project and I think it really pulled together all of the resources that we already have at the resorts. We have a super strong landscaping team that came together and do all the landscaping on the grounds. We have an incredible carpentry team that did all the woodwork and all the carpentry that you see here on the property, our maintenance team was fantastic and our construction partner TDMG and we’re super happy with the project and now we’re just ready to open to the public and get some feedback, but it has been fun.”

He further revealed that the staff total of back and front of the house is roughly 25, but they are still building their team but should be closer to a 30-strong total.
Janse said they are very proud of what they’ve put together and it was definitely a team effort, adding that he government has been incredibly supportive of this initiative and getting this project done.

Edwin Gallardo, Culinary Director assured that the menu is not only based on salads and leafy green and added that fresh vegetable juice will be introduced.

“It’s not only salads and leafy green being concentrated but we also had the inspiration to introduce healthy lifestyle concept where we have a lot of fresh vegetable juice that is being introduced incorporating some of the greens that we use for the fresh juices as well. I think that it is the way to go forward; having a healthier lifestyle and the sustainability part of that concept as well is keeping what we have into most of the resources that we have and are able to execute from. We are trying to aim for a healthier way of getting food to go,” he said.

The grand opening formal event for The Farm restaurant is scheduled to take place in July 2023.

The restaurant, which offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner now opens six days a week and is closed on Thursdays.

The new restaurant concept, which is located on the corner of Grace Bay Road, just west of the Seven Stars Resort entrance, showcases a collection of chef-curated herbs, greens, and produce grown and managed by the culinary team in its on-site Freight Farm hydroponic farm.

Featuring garden-style seating and a standalone bar, the restaurant features ingredients harvested daily from the hydroponic farm, offering its own island version of garden-to-fork dining.

Using the Freight Farm hydroponic container farm, Seven Stars Resort & Spa, Grace Bay is the first resort to self-manage and grow its own produce. The result: a culinary experience that includes hand-grown and harvested ingredients rich with flavor, texture, and color.

Lead photo: Michael Hildebrandt - Restaurant Manager, Edwin Gallardo - Culinary Director, Christin Greene - Assistant Restaurant Manager, Ken Patterson - CEO, and Robin Janse - EAM Food & Beverage.