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ORAL HISTORY

Andrea Reusing and Miguel Torres

Lantern Restaurant

Chapel Hill’s Lantern Restaurant has received local and national acclaim since it opened in early 2002. Just a few blocks west of UNC’s campus and one mile east of the Carrboro Farmers’ Market, chef-owner Andrea Reusing and her team—including chef de cuisine Miguel Torres—fuse North Carolina ingredients with Asian flavors and techniques. Popular menu items include dumplings of local pork, fried whole fish from North Carolina waters, and tempura-fried okra served with Indian-style chutney. Lantern’s cocktail menu changes frequently, making use of fresh fruits and herbs from nearby farmers. And pastry chef Monica Segovia Welsh dreams up inventive desserts that reflect the seasons and use either fresh or house-preserved fruits, as well as nuts, herbs, dairy products, and heirloom grains that are sourced locally and regionally. Reusing and Torres are fixtures at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market, shopping weekly and conducting demonstrations for marketgoers at least once per season. Segovia Welsh and her husband, Rob, are also vendors at the Market, selling their Chicken Bridge Bakery bread. Reusing estimates that Lantern sources from forty to fifty local farmers and producers, and many of those relationships began at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market.