Chef/owner Quintin Wicks and his dog in the back of Revival Kitchen
Apologies. This article is going to be a tease. That’s because Revival Kitchen, a one-of-a-kind dining gem in Mifflin County, is so special that the first round of reservations for the season were virtually snapped up in just minutes.
Reservations for the first three months of the season (May, June and July) went live on Resy at noon on April 1. By 12:07 p.m., no more were to be had.
Chef/owner Quintin Wicks opens Revival Kitchen on Main Street in Reedsville only from May through October and only Thursday through Saturday evenings, often with just one seating a night, to enjoy his locally inspired, $100-plus-tax-and-gratuity, five-course tasting menu. At most, he prepares 40 dinners a night.
Over the past nine years, diners have raved about his French breakfast radish with smoked butter and morel salt appetizers that don’t even count as one of the five courses—they’re “Chef’s Welcome Bites.”
Wicks has introduced diners to pickled ramps, pawpaw fruit, lovage, carrot butter, squid ink, sea trout roe, morels, and the garlic scapes he found at a farmer’s market in downtown Lewistown being sold by an Amish woman who told him he was the first person to ever buy them from her and the first person to even know what they were.
Chef Wicks talks with a butcher at Wilson’s Meats.
Home Turf
A skateboarder with a passion, Wicks left his hometown of Lewistown immediately after graduation and headed to Pittsburgh, where he earned sponsorships for his boarding and trained at the now-closed Pennsylvania Institute of Culinary Arts. He worked several jobs there, including at the Big Burrito Group at Casbah. The chef, Bill Fuller, “took me under his wing and taught me how to be a real cook,” Wicks said.
Later, skateboarding took him to Portland, Ore., which offered “bigger, faster and gnarlier skating.” Fuller connected him with a chef at Atwater, a fine dining restaurant for the Aramark group. From there, he worked at Denali National Park in Alaska in the summers and eventually landed in Vail, Colo., for the winters.
It’s in Vail that he connected with top chefs at some of the best restaurants, helping to open Larkspur at the base of Vail, then Juniper, where he was a sous chef. Finally, he landed at Splendido in Beaver Creek, “a magical place” that hosts events for Food & Wine magazine featuring some of the world’s top chefs.
Wicks returned to his home turf because of family and the lower cost of real estate and food. Reedsville offered the dream.
“We were really naïve,” Wicks said, of his return. “We thought we would be overseeing a restaurant, not doing everything.”
Lettuce at a Mennonite farm that supplies Revival Kitchen
A Little Respect
From Revival’s first day, Wicks has sought the best local producers he could find, supplementing them with a restaurant supplier. That’s no easy task. It has meant hoofing it to the farms, establishing relationships with the area’s Amish, Mennonite and other farmers, and making weekly trips to pick up the food, all before prepping can start.
He befriended one Amish farmer, helped him get his organic certification then became his biggest customer. That farmer later moved to Maine, but relatives picked up the void across the dirt lane and now supply Wicks with those tasty French breakfast radishes, rhubarb, lettuces, peas, beets, garlic scapes and more.
Wicks visits Peichts Country Store in Belleville to buy spices and seasonings, flours, kitchenware and more. Kish Street Produce is just down the road and can provide rhubarb and strawberries. He’s used the Let-Us-Grow Hydroponic Greenhouse, gets goat cheese from Byler’s Goat Dairy, peaches and apples from Garver’s Orchard, and has claimed an entire asparagus patch from another Amish farm. Brummer Farms in Thompsontown also helps fill gaps, along with corn, melons and flowers from the Kish Park Farmer’s Market in Lewistown.
The butchers at Wilson’s Meats in Lewistown custom cut and keep an eye out for the meats that Wicks needs. They provide the marbled, delicious cuts that his customers love.
“After eight years of buying large quantities of food, I’m finally getting a little respect,” Wicks said with a smile.
Flock In
Reedsville lies just off U.S. Route 322 West, a few exits past Lewistown on the way to State College.
Before Revival Kitchen arrived in 2015, the sleepy downtown had only a few shops, and residents would dump debris on a corner lot in the downtown square. Hence the name, “Revival,” something Wicks and his then-wife Liz were hoping to bring to Reedsville. The Wicks held a burger fundraiser and wrote letters to the state in hopes of getting a streetscape grant that Reedsville eventually was awarded.
“One small restaurant full of passion can make a big difference,” Wicks said.
Rhonda Kelley, executive director of the Juniata River Valley Chamber of Commerce, is quick to credit Revival Kitchen for new vibrancy and economic growth in Reedsville.
“When Quinton and Liz arrived in Reedsville, they found a town in dire need of revitalization,” Kelley said. “The once-overlooked community lacked attractions to draw visitors and investment. However, with the establishment of Revival Kitchen, everything changed.”
Friendship Bookstore opened on the other side of the post office from Revival Kitchen this spring. Across the street, the Reedsville Creamery Ice Cream Stand has done so well that it plans another location in Belleville. Chef Wicks uses beans from the East End Coffee Co. on the corner, which is open six days a week until 2 p.m. serving coffee from locally roasted beans.
Next to the coffee shop, Gritwell offers fine, handmade leather goods crafted locally and coordinates hours to attract Revival customers. A Keller Williams real estate office, Michele’s OIP and Pizzeria, a local drinking hole called the Vault (in a former bank), Seven Mountains Winery and Stonefly Cafe, and a small grocery, Stone House Market, also sit along Main Street.
“Suddenly, Reedsville found itself in the spotlight as a steady stream of out-of-town visitors began to flock in, eager to experience the culinary offerings of Revival Kitchen,” Kelley said.
Revival Kitchen is located at 64 S. Main St., Reedsville. For more information, visit www.revivalkitchen.com or follow on Instagram at @revivalkitchen.
Reserve Revival
If this story has left you salivating, you may be in luck—there’s still a chance.
Revival is taking reservations 90 days in advance for the rest of the season. Last season, cancellations that created openings also were advertised on Instagram.
For those who miss out, Chef Wicks plans to offer takeout orders of soups—along with Thanksgiving fixings—in November, and Christmas parties in December.
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