LAKEPORT— What compels two successful business owners with over 30 years of professional experience in the culinary world to settle in to a farm in Lake County? That’s a question Bess Giannakakis and Blaise Bahara, owners of Dancing Poly Farm & Food, answer a lot as their Big Valley Rancheria property has become the epicenter of an epic culinary destination housed in a barn, surrounded by the fields that would grow the food, trees that bear the fruit and vines that produce the wine to stock their kitchen for cooking classes, catering, take home feasts and food-trailer adventures.
“We have fallen in love with Lake County and its people,” said Bahara.
“There is so many fresh and wholesome ingredients available right here including things we get right from our own land,” echoed Giannakakis.
Seeing potential is not new to Bahara and Giannakakis. They turned a 500 ft. dilapidated shack into one of Minneapolis’ most success bistros: Colossal Café. They turned a historic mansion in Austin Texas into the highest-ranking B&B in a town full of history and B&Bs; a B&B with a distinct culinary focus including picnics, dinners and cooking classes for guests.
Giannakakis is the chef, chief builder and repairer. Creating authentic and innovative cuisine is her life’s work and joy. Bahara is the farmer at heart and chief operating & marketing officer by necessity and out of experience.
Dancing Poly Farm & Food is now a year from its official opening in October of 2017. The duo created a fully licensed commercial kitchen inside the 2000 square foot barn, planted crops to see how they’d grow and figured out what their orchard would produce, they began their food service with Farm Feasts: Holidays at Home for the winter holidays of 2017. In 2018 they have expanded with a full array of cooking classes that include technical classes such as Knife Skills, Boning Meats and Canning and food preparation such as Tuscan Feast, Low & Slow the Art of Barbecue and, the just completed, Seasonal Soups-Fall.
To date they have held more than 20 classes and worked with more than 30 local organizations and persons to cater feasts both at other venues and the farm. However, they are perhaps best known for their mobile trailer pop-up at the local Farmers Markets and in the Lakeport Umpqua Bank parking lot.
“It’s a lot of fun to go out in the trailer. I can prep all the food here in the kitchen and then we take it on the road. The mobile flat top allows me to create almost anything on-site. People seem to genuinely enjoy and are maybe a little shocked what comes out of the little 8ft trailer but I have the entire farm and this kitchen as my lab,” said Giannakakis.
As we reach the holidays of 2018, almost two years after seeing their barn and a year after opening, Dancing Poly Farm & Food will again off Farm Feasts: Holiday at Home. They do the work, you take the glory and enjoy your holidays!
Thanksgiving Feast brings out the traditional in all of us. Choose a Roasted Dancing Poly Turketta (boned turkey rolled, tied and baked around classic Cornbread Dressing, legs and wings remain bone-in) plus Mashed Potatoes, Boats of Gravy, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Green Beans cooked with Heirloom Tomatoes, Cranberry Compote & Farm-made Butter Rolls. All this plus a slice of Apple or Pumpkin Pie!
Christmas and New Years Feast, eves and days, it’s time to go big! Prime Rib with Au Jus, Green Beans cooked with Tomatoes, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Mashed Potatoes, Mixed Green Salad, Farm-made Butter Rolls and a slice of Apple Pie. New Years eve feast comes with a side of Black Eyed Peas for your breakfast on the first morning of 2019.
Ask the gals about why they are traditionally known to bring you luck. The lore is good and Bahara and Giannakakis are believers. After all, they’ve had black eyed peas every New Year’s Day for more than 20 years. They’ll attest that their success is due to that…and maybe a little hard work.
More information and sign-up at their website: http://dancingpoly.com or by calling 707-413-0054.
