Food at the new Chef’s Table at Little Dipper Farm restaurant doesn’t have far or long to travel before it gets into the talented hands of chef/owner Brian Paszko and onto customer’s plates.

Most of the vegetables at Paszko’s farm-to-table restaurant are grown on the farm where the eatery is located at 499 Wolf Den Road, Brooklyn, Conn.

The eggs used in homemade pasta, cakes and pastry are laid by the farm’s free-range, antibiotic-free chickens and the honey for glazing local, free range chickens, is made in its bee hives.

Whatever isn’t available there, he sources from other area farms, including mushrooms and beef, chicken, pork, lamb. The seafood comes from Rhode Island. Paszko said 80 percent of his ingredients are locally sourced.

“Brian takes the farm to table service to a whole new level,” said former colleague Aslan Zadeh, who dined there recently.” It was very unique in that I was shocked by how fresh everything was. It tastes like it’s supposed to taste.”

Zadeh said said he sees a James Beard Award in Paszko’s future.

Paszko, 33, and already an accomplished chef, opened the fine dining spot with a rustic ambiance and magnificent view in December.

The restaurant, open Thursday through Sunday from 4 to 9 p.m. has 42 seats inside and 24 on the patio.

The eatery is set in an historic, renovated post and beam barn from the 1840s.

“The food is high end, but at the end of the day I want you to feel comfortable,” Paszko said. “I want you to feel yours sitting at a friend’s table and having a nice meal.”

The patio over looks a lake on the farm, pastures, other farm sites and that view, described by many as “magnificent” can be seen through the barn’s big windows, said Lori Corriveau, who owns the 588 acre farm, along with her wife, Venus.

“When you’re eating on the patio you’re overlooking the lake and the pastures with the cows and horses,” Corriveau said. “It’s stunning.”

Add Paszko’s food and, “There’s really nothing like it,” she said.

Regular customer Matthew Breault, who has dined there at least eight times with his wife, Meredith, since they opened, said, “Everything is interesting,” from the setting to the menu that varies with the growing season.

“It adds a lot to the dining experience,” Breault said noting they live nearby in Canterbury, but it would be worth a long trip. “Everything we’ve had there has been absolutely excellent. It’s all amazing food.”

The Corriveaus bought the farm in 2021, as part of a 588-acre property with a 26-acre lake and lots of woods.

Aside from providing the restaurant with food, the business plan involves community memberships to walk on the many trails, kayak and do other activities.

The property also was recently approved for 50 overnight sites on the farm.

The couple also hosts festivals, events and speakers on the farm that are open to the public.
Farm Director Sara Mooney is a key player in Paszko’s farm-to-table world and he in her farmer world.

“Everything we produce is to support the restaurant and the land,” Mooney said.

Mooney and Paszko regularly walk the farm together to see what’s popping out of the ground. One day there were green onions coming in and Paszko decided it was time to make a relish.

“I know the produce coming in, I know the farmer,” he said. “Know your farmer really well.”

“Brian’s special gift is taking the best from the garden and making something special with it,” Mooney said.

As an example, they grew broccolini, sometimes know as broccoli rabe, and it never produced those “beautiful florets” Paszko said he was looking for. because of weather.

So the pair worked together.

Mooney harvested what was there and Paszko took each plant and separated the flowers, sautéed it, added vegetable stock and served it with turnip pieces and scallops.

“It didn’t make beautiful florets, but it provided a beautiful flavor,” the chef said.

Paszko, who holds a degree from Johnson & Wales University, has worked at many high end restaurants.

“I’m incredibly blessed for what we have now,” he said.

The menu is ever-changing, determined by what’s growing in the seasons.

At Little Dipper Farm they grow cabbage, Brussels sprouts, carrots, green beans, sweet corn, onions, asparagus, peppers, okra, escarole, red leaf lettuce, elderberry and more. The herbs grown on the farm include thyme, sage, rosemary and tarragon.

The contents of the menu’s popular Greenhouse Salad changes according to what’s sprouting in the greenhouse at the time, such as sunflower and radish shoots, pea greens, and more.

Most of what food Paszko doesn’t get on Little Dipper Farm is sourced at area farms.

He gets gourmet mushrooms from nearby Fenner Forest Farm, owned by Rich Fenner and his brother, Brandon.

Rich Fenner recently tried the restaurant and said it’s “fantastic” and he wishes he could eat there every day.

“I couldn’t tell you what the best thing was, they were all so good,” he said. “It’s just ridiculously good.”

Fenner said for value per dollar, “I don’t think you can find a better place.” Even though the dining is fine, Paszko wants the farmers to be able to afford to eat there, Fenner said.

The homemade butter to go with the homemade bread is so good that diners ask for it to be wrapped up so they can take it home if there’s any leftover.

Other fan favorites are the duck fat roasted potatoes with black garlic sour cream, steak with Bordeaux au jus and the blueberry buckle with chef-made ice cream.

Paszko said he not only believes in fresh farm products, but he also believes in supporting the American farmer.

Mooney said she’s proud and the farm will expand its offerings, but, “I’ll never be able to grow everything Brian wants.”

Lori Corriveau said she’s proud to be involved with both Mooney and Paszko.

“They’re working together with so much passion,” she said. “It’s very very special.”

Lori Corriveau said her wife named the farm Little Dipper because she grew up in the area and she remembers everyone would looking at the beautiful night sky and asking, “Can you find the little dipper?”