Potager Cafe

Cynthia Chippindale, chef and owner, is serving up warm-hearted nourishment (and the best quiche in town) to the Arlington community everyday for a price not found anywhere else.

In January of 2009, Cynthia opened Potagér on S. Mesquite St. in Downtown Arlington. Potagér is a French-style restaurant where the menu changes everyday, depending on what’s in season from local farms and from her garden.

Even though the restaurant is a curiosity, it wasn’t difficult for her to gain a loyal customer base because she is well connected with environmental groups and has always been active in the organic food movement.

“I knew people and farmers. I wanted to serve very simply prepared, nutritious, organic food and not let anybody waste it so there would be enough to go around for everyone.” she said.

Potagér has no waiters or waitresses. People simply walk up to the counter and ask for what they’d like and Cynthia delightfully serves each customer a reasonably portioned plate. It’s BYOB, and customers are asked to anonymously pay whatever they think the food is worth. At first, Potagér had a bit of trouble with the pricing system but Cynthia learned to adapt.

“I had to get tough,” she said. “There were people coming in that thought it would be funny to toss me a few dollars for two entire meals plus a cappuccino. The funniest person left me a scratch-off ticket that hadn’t won. I started monitoring and reading people. I had no qualms about confronting them.”

Cynthia grew up in Ontario, Canada, where her parents had a restaurant that surrounded her with a nourishing food culture before she got a culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu. She became frustrated when she couldn’t find the kind of food she grew up with.

“I wanted to have food that tastes like food and I decided to just shut up and do it myself,” She said with jest. “I do this because I’m old and grumpy. I see how much food is being thrown out and how big of a problem hunger is in the United States.”

These days, Cynthia is expanding her local, organic food movement beyond the restaurant business. She has plans to develop the space across the street into a grocery store selling local chicken, eggs, beef, cheeses, wine and fresh crepes.

“The fact that the economy is bad is playing to my advantage,” she said. “People are looking for value for their money. If you’re going to go out, at least get yourself something that will feed your body.”

Cynthia is influencing people to think differently about their connection to food and bringing people together in the community to experience a wholesome meal.

“Potagér is like an oasis where the cheetahs hang out with the elephants, and they find out they have a lot in common,” she said.

She recounted a time when she was standing behind the serving counter and watching a ladies’ lunching group, sipping wine in their fancy outfits. Next to them was a table with body-pierced teenagers alongside a table of Buddhist monks.

“You cannot get a more diverse feeling. They all had a common ground and felt comfortable. They all want to live a healthy life,” she said with a smile.

Pictures: Bottom Left: Cynthia puts in the final kneading work before baking more bread for customers later in the day; Bottom Right: Arlington natives Melody Benitscheck plays with her three-month-old baby, Kai, after having lunch with her husband, Tom.

Article by Emma Mujica
Photos by Rasy Ran