Village Harvest Cafe - Hancock

My recommendation: as soon as you get to the village go straight to the cafe and have some chowdah. It is extraordinary. Then go see the village, then back for more chowdah, and an apple turnover before you leave. You can grab a very good sandwich to but it's worth crossing the country for the chowdah.

The Village Harvest Cafe, located inside the Hancock Shaker Village (you don 't need to pay for museum entrance in order to enjoy lunch or a snack , happens to be a very convenient, non city spot for me to meet business clients, but that 's not the only reason I enjoy going there. In the summer, they serve soups and made to order salads and sandwiches loaded with organic produce, mostly from their own gardens. And how often can you say your lunch came from 200 feet away? This cafe could be a bit more vegetarian friendly they have 3 or 4 selections that are all vegetarian, but could do with fewer meat topped salads and a vegan dish or two would be a welcome addition. (I 'm actually surprised they don 't do a bunch of vegan recipes, considering the wealth of produce they grow. What they do have is uniformly well prepared, however. All selections are basic comfort foods, from chicken salad to vegetable soup and panini made with spectacularly thick, crusty chewy bread. They also have naturally flavored sodas, like Izze, and homemade fruit pies. Plus they sell SoCo ice cream, which automatically wins them major cool points. I 'm partial to the salad of fresh field greens, cherry tomatoes, roasted beets, and tomato jam (not a true jam, but a savory, flavorful, chunky chutney like topping , and the tomato, mozzarella, and pesto panini. Every time I 've met an omnivorous friend at the Village Harvest Cafe, he or she has always chosen the chicken salad panini, so there must be something pretty magical going on there. I 've never had a bad meal here, and my dining companions always seem impressed, as well, so I recommend it without hesitation. The one caveat is that prices are on the high side expect to pay between $12 and 14 for a salad or sandwich (the latter comes with a small side salad but the food is fresh and couldn 't possibly be more local. It also blows most museum food out of the water, and when you factor in that and the cost of maintaining a museum like HSV, paying a few dollars more for lunch doesn 't seem like such a big deal. Do go on either the early or late side, because when the cafe gets busy, service can take a while.

This was by far the best lunch I have ever had at a museum. I also had the open face roast beef sandwich, and it was amazing. The rest if my family had soup and other sandwiches that were also great.