Help Bring the Farmers Diner to PLG!

On Sunday, a few neighbors gathered with the owners of the Farmers Diner, a highly respected Vermont-based restaurant specializing in simple, locally grown food. You may have read about them a while back in the New York Times Magazine, where the Diner was heralded as a model franchise for locavores. The owners of the Farmers Diner are looking to open a restaurant in New York City—most likely, in Brooklyn or Queens—and so the gathering was a sort of "get to know each other" affair, with PLGers trying to woo the restaurateurs to our neck of the woods. The evening ended on a pleasant but noncommittal note.

Now that the Farmers Diner has gotten our hopes up, we will not rest with a meeting! To further demonstrate neighborhood support for the Diner, we're seeking signatures for a group letter — a pledge, if you will — to send to the owners. It reads:

As residents of Prospect Lefferts Gardens, we would be thrilled to have a Farmers Diner in our neighborhood -- so much so that, instead of merely begging you to locate in our neighborhood, we are making a personal pledge: Should you choose our neighborhood, each of us will personally promise to do whatever it takes to insure that the restaurant succeeds. For most of us, that will mean patronizing the Diner regularly and often (several times a week for those of us who don't cook), as well as bringing guests from nearby neighborhoods. For others, that may mean investing, helping with publicity, or drawing on local connections to help with any of the restaurant's basic needs.

We are convinced that the Farmers Diner would thrive in Prospect Lefferts Gardens -- and feel strongly that both the restaurant and the neighborhood would benefit.

Please join us in reaching out to the Farmers Diner: SIGN HERE.