The Brazos Valley's top five agricultural products -- beef, broilers, hay, cotton and nursery plants -- reaped more than a $1 billion return statewide in 2007.
A handful of local restaurants are set to showcase local and regionally grown products Wednesday and hope to increase that economic impact and spur production of local food.
Bryan-based Messina Hof Winery & Resort's Vintage House Restaurant, La Riviera and Christopher's World Grille will turn to local fare for their menus that day as part of the Texas Department of Agriculture's inaugural Go Texan Restaurant Round-up.
The three restaurants, which are committed to spotlighting local food producers such as Truman Chocolates in College Station and Madisonville's Monterey Mushrooms, will donate a portion of their proceeds to the Brazos Valley Food Bank.
Messina Hof will participate in the event throughout the month, co-owner Merrill Bonarrigo said. The state's inaugural Texas Wine Month also runs through October.
"One of the key promotion materials for Texas wine is trial," said Bonarrigo, who owns the winery with her husband, Paul. "The restaurant is the perfect place to get that trial."
As chairman of the Texas Wine Industry Development Advisory Committee, Paul came up with the idea of getting restaurants involved in marketing Texas wines and products, Merrill said.
Nearly 200 restaurants will participate in the one-day event this year, according to the Go Texan Web site.
Merrill said the Vintage House would not participate solely for the purpose of promoting Messina Hof wines.
"We want all the growers and producers in the area to be featured on restaurant menus here in the Brazos Valley," Merrill said. "It supports the local economy."
Messina Hof's Go Texan menu will feature products from regional producers such as Blue Bell, Truman Chocolates, Monterey Mushrooms and Joy Pottery, a specialty pottery company located across Old Reliance Road from the winery.
Christopher Lampo, owner of Christopher's World Grille, said he hoped the event would help spur a new bumper crop of local food producers.
"Whenever it's been possible, we have purchased local goat cheese and other items," Lampo said. "We would like to be able to buy more in the Brazos Valley."
Lampo said his menu, which was still under development, probably would feature more in the way of regional cuisine than products grown in the Brazos Valley. He said he was trying to find sources for Texas beef and Texas-grown fruits and vegetables.
"If more local products become available and this gets attention, we would have more of an opportunity to feature regional cuisine," Lampo said.
But Christopher's and the Vintage House Restaurant have already had several opportunities.
Christopher's served four to five special meals last year for groups of regional tourists. Two were culinary tourist groups.
Such groups plan their travel primarily around the opportunity to experience the wines and foods indigenous to a region. The Bryan-College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau -- eying the burgeoning trend -- identified culinary tourism market as a growth opportunity in its 2008 marketing plan.
Christopher's served six- to eight-course meals to the Houston chapters of Les Amis d' Escoffier's, an organization that gathers for epicurean dinners, and the International Wine & Food Society, a gastronomic society. The meals cost as much as $80 per person.
"Messina Hof has been offering a culinary destination for two years, encouraging people to come, stay at the villa and visit Truman's Chocolate, the mushroom factory and other local producers," Merrill Bonarrigo said.
Several local restaurants have signed on for the Texas Department of Agriculture's Go Texan Restaurant Program, which was launched in January.
The program offers restaurants connections to local products and growers, advertising and branding opportunities and exposure at events and festivals spotlighting Texas cuisine. It now includes some 300 restaurants.
Abuelo's Mexican Restaurant in College Station, La Riviera, Messina Hof and Pepe's Mexican Cafe in Bryan are all members, as is Tex's Bar BQ in Brenham.
According to the Go Texan Web site, Texas is the second-largest agricultural state in the U.S., accounting for about 7 percent of the total U.S. agricultural income. The food, horticulture and fiber industries generate about $73 billion a year for the state's economy.
Brazos County-grown produce generated about $8.2 million in statewide economic impact last year, part of a local agriculture industry that generated nearly $2 billion statewide, on the whole in 2007.
For more information on the Round up, visit www.gotexan.org/restaurantroundup/.
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