“You look at all of these rooftops and you think of the possibilities.”
Ten years ago, the possibility Gracie’s Executive Chef Matt Varga saw was a garden on the roof of the Peerless Building. “At that time foraged items were very popular but also very expensive, so the chef at the time and I were like ‘well we should just grow our own,’” he says. The location already had roughly 400 square feet of raised beds, and by 2011 Gracie’s had tripled the garden space, meaning fresh herbs, edible flowers and vegetables picked daily by Matt find their way to Gracie’s menu. Think rosemary, basil and sorrel for herbs, cucumbers, tomatoes and strawberries and a whole catalogue of edible flowers.
What are the advantages of a garden seven floors up? No rodents for one. Deer and rabbits, Matt tells us, are not the world’s best climbers. They also get the advantage of a longer growing season thanks to the building’s residual heat. “We don’t get a real frost here until late October.”
Matt’s been personally overseeing the garden, from seeding through harvesting since 2010, and seems to just have a knack for it. “What do plants need? Water, sunshine, some nutrients and a little love.”
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