Food Pinnacle: Summer Jo’s

Southern Oregon Dining: Our White Water Warehouse guests kept calling our offices raving about this fabulous southern Oregon restaurant. They usually started the conversation with the following, “We were blown away that this restaurant was located in Grants Pass. They offer wonderful, local-sourced, organic meals. And the coolest thing is that the owners encouraged us to wander through the farm fields and look at the produce that the chefs eventually incorporated into our meals!!” This restaurant is Summer Jo’s.

Nancy Groth, co-owner of Summer Jo’s explains that she and her hubby both worked in the Silicon Valley but had grown weary of the area’s hub-bub and purchased the farm that Summer Jo’s sits on in 1999. “We fell in love with this farm on a trip to visit my sister who had relocated to Oregon a few years before. We bought it, put in some crops, looked at the outbuildings, and conceived a plan to launch a gourmet-quality organic restaurant using certified organic crops that we grew on-site. Ten years on, it’s still very much a 24/7-type of endeavor (we work every day) and we continue to launch complementary side businesses (bakery, theater, farmstand…this year we’re raising chickens for certified organic eggs) in order to make the whole thing work.”

And work it does. Nancy goes on to say, “In conceiving the restaurant, we had two options: quantity (serving volumes of people at cheaper prices) or quality (serving fewer people at a more premium price). Given our own penchant for healthy, nutritious foods, we opted for the latter. In my mind, it’s also a moral issue. I care about my customers. Beyond that, FLAVOR rules and you get the best flavor when you use quality ingredients.”

Back to those side businesses. The bakery was launched in 2007 and recently Nancy notes a mercedes-of-an-oven was installed with steam attachments (important for crispy crusts). They bake six types of sourdough artisan breads: Kalamata Olive, Rustic Sourdough, Rustic Whole Wheat, Golden Raisin-Fennel Seed, Rye Caraway; parbaked pizza crusts, and rosemary dinner rolls. You can purchase the breads at their on-site bakery or at 11 other southern Oregon venues including: Rays, Cartwrights, Farmers Market, Gooseberries, Rogue Creamery, Harry and David, ShopNKart, Market of Choice, and Ashland Food Coop.

Summer Jo’s represents everything we here at WWW value…quality, superior taste, and stellar service! The farm/restaurant is located at 2315 Upper River Road Loop, Grants Pass. You can call them at: 541-476-6882

Photo credits go to Summer Jo’s