It’s Growing Season For Zoë Taylor
NAMED AFTER an herb native to the Mediterranean, Borage (rhymes with forage) is the next project from pastry chef Zoë Taylor, whose sweet artistry as Milktooth’s original patissier received praise from the likes of Bon Appétit and Condé Nast Traveler. The neighborhood market—envisioned by Taylor and her partner, chef Josh Kline, as a one-stop source for all things casually gourmet—will sprout in Speedway sometime this summer, sharing a few traits with its botanical namesake. The couple is not native to Speedway, for starters. “Borage was brought over to the states,” Taylor says. And it turned out to be a very beneficial plant, easy to grow yet non-invasive, and one of the highest nectar-producing blooms in the garden. “That’s what Josh and I want to do in Speedway. We want to become part of the community.”
At the Lynhurst Drive spot, expect nods to the boxed-set pastries that Taylor sold during the pandemic, as well as flaky delights like apple-filled chausson aux pommes, a callback to the burnished turnovers she discovered while studying abroad for a college semester in Paris. But Borage, a concept born during dark times for restaurants—amid rolling pandemic quarantines and a worker shortage—is equally forward-thinking. The business will operate on a no-tip system and include employees in a profit-sharing program. Taylor says she has seen some “really heartbreaking stuff” in the service industry, and she wants to be part of the change. “If we are going to have a successful business,” she says, “it will be because we are a team working together.”
For Zöe Taylor’s simple, luscious, and tangy citrus curd recipe, click here.
FAVORITE THINGS
(1) Diaspora Co. spices. “The nutmeg is like nothing you’ve ever had. It comes in a shell that you crack open with a hammer.” (2) Brownies from Love Handle. “I think about them all the time.” (3) Mad Farmers Collective. “Their winter greens are the best.” (4) Doud Orchards apples. “They bring them to dropoffs in the city. We were getting ours off a porch in Woodruff.” (5) Homemade curd.
