Sitting in the heart of Southampton, new farm-to-fridge market Wishbone Farms is prepared for any and every weekend plan. Here, owner and Hamptonite Josh Lebowitz talks inspiration, weekend boxes and favorite foods of the summer.
Wishbone Farms offers a fresh assortment of prepared foods and snacks.
WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE STORE? I thought there was a need in Southampton for a high-quality, healthy prepared food market that gives busy people, families or vacationers a place where they can go and pick up great food and don’t have to worry about shopping or cooking or cleaning or using up that valuable time (that no one has anymore). There was an opportunity in January to take over the lease of this space and create Wishbone Farms. We focused on making everyone’s life a little bit simpler in a time where everything seemed to have gotten so complicated.
Owner Josh Lebowitz alongside sister and executive chef Eva Pesantez
WHAT IS INCLUDED WITH THE WEEKEND BOX? My family and I would leave the city after school or after work and we would get over here late and have no food in the house. The next morning, I would spend an hour going to the supermarket; if we’re going to have people over, I would then have to spend some time prepping the food, figuring out what we want to serve.
The whole process takes hours, and you end up spending so much time indoors preparing and away from your family. So the idea behind the weekend box was you can preorder whatever you will need for the weekend in the category of prepared foods. You can have a great, wholesome meal and there’s no cleanup, no shopping and no thought.
The box can be anything—it can be you’re planning on having a picnic at the beach, so you’re planning on having some guacamole and chips and shrimp cocktail, or you’re going to a friend’s house for dinner, so we’ll send you an apple pie and one of these drink mixers. [You can] customize what you need for a few days over the weekend, and you can pick it up on your way out or we can deliver it.
From prepackaged meal kits for the whole family to last-minute snacks and forgotten bits and bobs, Wishbone Farms acts as the neighborhood’s one-stop shop for everything your weekend getaway requires.
CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR PARTNERSHIP WITH EXECUTIVE CHEF EVA PESANTEZ? She’s my sister, so it wasn’t hard to make an introduction. I wouldn’t say she has a specific style as much as it is just a wholesome way of cooking. She loves worldly ingredients—from Chile Crunch to coconut milk—and tries to curate really healthy food options. She was trained as a baker, so our baked goods are especially fantastic. The scones are amazing, different breads (banana walnut, chocolate zucchini), muffins, anything that you can think of.
She’s very committed to using the freshest ingredients, and her style is very much farm to table—that’s such a cliche, but that’s really what it is—finding the freshest ingredients and making them taste great. We don’t really cook with a lot of butter and we don’t use a lot of gluten; things tend to be naturally healthy without focusing on making exclusively ‘healthy’ foods. For example, if gluten or bread is not an integral part of the flavor profile of what we’re making, we’re not going to include it.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE FOODS FOR THE SUMMER? The rotisserie chicken has been a humongous hit in what we’ve been doing. The name Wishbone Farms obviously construes the chicken, but something else that we do is pull a bunch of rotisserie chickens we make and turn them into different chicken salads. For example, we have a basil chicken salad, which has just been off the hook—we can’t keep it on the shelf. Another part of the focus [of what] we’re making is food that will stand up well in the format that we’re serving it. We’re cognizant of what will hold up best and what will taste the best at home. Everything is kept cold and handled properly and produced with that same kind of care, so our food will taste just as good on the third day as it does on the first.
ARE THERE ANY UPCOMING PROJECTS THAT WE CAN BUZZ? We’ve been finishing up our backyard with enough seating for about 20 to 25 people in comfortable chairs. The ultimate goal is for people to be able to park in this large parking lot behind us and enter from the back and do their shopping that way, but at the same time you can go grab a salad, sandwich and coffee and sit back there and actually eat.
We are also developing a lifestyle brand. Obviously, our food and coffee are the anchor, but we are also developing a line of gifting items. I want anyone who walks into the store to be able to answer whatever problem they’re having in that moment—which might be ‘My dog’s thirsty’ or ‘I’m in a rental and don’t have any serveware.’ We’re trying to make life simpler while delivering an amazing product and experience. 54 Hampton Road, Southampton, 631.259.5333
Photography by: PHOTOS BY SEAN ZANNI/COURTESY OF WISHBONE FARMS
