May 13, 2008
Carrot Tree Kitchens
Home cooking with a personal touch
Carrot Tree Kitchen
Nature may not have given us a Carrot Tree, but Debi and Glenn Helseth have. In fact, they have given us three.
Those who have lived here awhile know that Carrot Tree Kitchens is located on Jamestown Road. But, there's also a Carrot Tree in Yorktown in the Cole Digges House, and one located inside Yankee Candle on Richmond Road. You'll find the same delicious homemade foods and personal service at any location.
The Carrot Tree has a history that begins in the 1980s when Debi Helseth began baking carrot cakes. It wasn't until 1990, however, that the Carrot Tree Kitchens got its official start. In the late 90s, the Helseths opened a bakery on Jamestown Road, buying an abandoned motel campground.
"We renovated the building until we had enough space to open a small cafe, something we had always dreamed of," Glenn Helseth said recently. "As with Debi's desserts, everything was done from scratch."
The Helseths bake their own bread, make soups, quiche, tuna salad and chicken salad from scratch. The barbeque offered takes two days to slow cook, pull and season.
Of course, carrot cake is the best selling dessert. But there is a variety of other yummy desserts that are all homemade.
"People seem to love our food and we give the best service we can," Helseth said.
The Carrot Tree has become popular largely by word-of-mouth. It has received a lot of good reviews and there are people who frequently patronize the restaurant.
Helseth that recently he took a dinner reservation from a couple who had recently eaten lunch at the restaurant and was returning to town expressly for dinner.
"I had a couple eat with us seven times in their nine day visit, " Helseth said. "I literally stopped them at the door and made them promise to eat somewhere else in Williamsburg before coming back in."
Helseth credits the attention he and Debi take in using fresh ingredients and making food from scratch as the basis for the rave reviews.
"We don't use imitation stuff, we buy from Farmers' markets, we use what's in season," he said. "We get so many compliments because people may have forgotten what good food tastes like. We remind them."
Copyright © 2008, The Virginia Gazette
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