New Syracuse Restaurant To Offer Large Garbage Plate Variety With Farm-To-Table Ingredients

A Rochester garbage plate is a mixture of home fries with macaroni salad on top of hot dogs or burgers that have been covered with meat sauce and onions.

And, there are fans of this huge concoction.

However, The Brine Well Eatery in Syracuse is wanting to bring a farm-to-table garbage plate using local ingredients. The restaurant, which is set to open in April, will be located at the old Creole Soul Café along Jefferson St.

Devon Hubbard, 31, is the owner of The Brine Well Eatery. He’s worked with food for the majority of his life, which included running a Chipotle Mexican Grill. After spending some time in the Rochester area, he wanted to bring some of its taste to the Syracuse area.

Hubbard said he’s trying to fulfill a dream.

He hired a consultant chef Sarah Hassler. She has worked with numerous restaurants including Peppino’s Neapolitan and The Stoop. Working together, they have developed a menu with an array of plates. While the Rochester plate is regarded as a classic, the Syracuse plate is something new. It will include a mixture of smashed salt potatoes with baked beans with Hofmann hot dogs on top as well as pickles, homemade bacon jam and honey mustard. It comes with Byrne Dairy chocolate milk.

The pair also came up with the Buffalo plate, which includes Buffalo chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese. Other plates include Tex-Mex style San Antonio, the Memphis plate and the Vegan Ithaca plate. For the Memphis plate, it will include sweet potato fries with pulled pork, coleslaw, onion rings, maple bourbon barbecue sauce and cheddar cheese.

The Brine Well can also turn every meat plate into a vegan or vegetarian dish using plant-based sausages and burgers. It will also offer a vegan version of its meat sauce using Beyond Meat beef alternative.

According to Hassler, developing a menu that included gluten-free and other dietary restriction options was important. She said the goal was to ensure everybody could eat at the restaurant.

For its breakfast menu, the restaurant is serving an array of coffee selections from various local roaster such as Recess Coffee, Death Wish Coffee Company and Salt City Coffee. The menu also includes an array of sandwiches such as the O-Rock’s Waffle Taco (a bacon, egg and potato waffle sandwich with maple syrup).

Hubbard has reached out to many co-ops around North Country, Finger Lakes and Central New York to use farm-to-table ingredients for its dishes. He said about 70 percent of the food would come from local sources.

Customers will also have an opportunity to buy foods from the area’s local producers such as Sunswick Farm, Syracuse Salt Company and Dutch Hill Maple. Hassler said what’s been supported in the back can also be purchased upfront.

The restaurant is focused on using compostable packaging, and Hubbard wants to have a zero-waste takeout system where customers can buy reusable containers for their takeout meals. For customers who bring their container back, they’ll receive a discount on the food in another clean container.

Hubbard said the restaurant’s name was inspired by the “Salt City” nickname Syracuse was dubbed with for its once-booming salt industry. Focused on the wells where miners pumped the saline brine and harvested the dissolved salt, he came up with the Brine Well Eatery.

The restaurant will be open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. though he may stay open later on Friday and Saturday nights. It’s working with various delivery service businesses to deliver to area customers.

Hassler said the “farm-to-table” concept is a step in ensuring Syracuse moves forward.