Chef Shannon Dougherty keeps it green and local

Shannon Dougherty rocks out at her Fishtown restaurant.

Fishtown’s list of must-try food destinations has just expanded. Cedar Point Bar and Kitchen, which sits where Cedar, Norris and Susquehanna meet, opened just a few weeks ago, with Shannon Dougherty and Liz Peterson at the helm. You might recognize their names as the owners of the now-closed café A Full Plate, which was No Libs’ veggie haven. Though she was wildly busy, Dougherty took a minute to chat with us. Between receiving deliveries and dolling out tasks, she told us about the trials and triumphs of the new digs.

Can you tell us about Cedar Point Bar and Kitchen?
Our menu is about 50 percent vegetarian and 50 percent meat dishes. We get our cheese from Cherry Grove Farm, our ground beef and pork chops from Sweet Stem Farm. We get lots of produce from Teen 4 Good, which is an amazing program. It’s teen-led and they turn empty lots into urban farms. Then they sell the produce at farmers markets. We get sauerkraut from our old friend, Food & Ferments, and coffee from One Village. I try to choose the farms and products that I love and highlight them on the menu.

How difficult is it to keep things local?
It’s an exciting challenge. I think it’s great to start out this way, to know how you want things. It’s more difficult to try to incorporate these ideas later.

Your old spot, A Full Plate, was in Northern Liberties. What do you think about having a place in Fishtown?
We found that a lot of Full Plate fans moved to Fishtown, and we’re just a few years behind! Fishtown has our kind of people. There is definitely a strong movement towards all things green. There are a lot great young families raising kids here, and old Fishtowners. And everyone around us is great. When we were working on the restaurant we spent just about every day at Kraftwork or Memphis Tap Room. We’re fans and friends of Pizza Brain, too.

Any events planned for the new spot?
We always did tons of events at Full Plate, and that’s still in us. We joked with Loco Pez about closing the streets down and having an awesome block party. We’re still finalizing ideas about events, though.