Curiosity stirs up an appetite—enter, Hill & Hollow at the Garden.
Hill & Hollow and the West Virginia Botanic Garden are a match made in Almost Heaven. The pair has been partnering for around a decade, collaborating on dinner series, fundraising events, cooking lessons, and more. When the garden was looking for a new food vendor to fill the grab and go window at the visitors center, it was a natural move to invite Hill & Hollow. As of May 1, find Appalachian-style fare at Hill & Hollow at the Garden.
“We’ve always tried to highlight the good things about West Virginia and be proud of what we have here, and so has the garden,” says Hill & Hollow co-owner Alegria Ohlinger. “We’ve always had a good relationship with them, and it’s been very cool to see how much they’ve grown.”
You might recognize Hill & Hollow because of Ohlinger’s former ventures with her husband, Marion Ohlinger. Solera Cafe, Richwood Grill, Hill & Hollow at the Seneca Center, and the Hill and Hollow Free Range Kitchen food truck are just a few of the stops on the pair’s culinary journey.
Putting the menu together for Hill & Hollow at the Garden required some strategy. Because it’s a small space with limited prep areas, Ohlinger curated the menu to feature manageable forms of fan favorites. Since opening early May, a few recipes have emerged as top customer cravings.
“Our most popular item so far is probably the Chilled Sesame Noodles. The West Virginia Hot Dog is always consistent,” says Ohlinger. “Some things that we didn’t have on the food truck but have been very popular are the muffins and brownies. The garden has also worked with a local coffee roaster, SABO Coffee Roasters, to curate a special blend for the garden. It’s been a nice pairing for people to get a coffee and a muffin.”
But a chef as creative as Ohlinger tends to shake things up, so as summer weather settles in, you can expect some menu changes. Fewer hot items, more cool items—including ice cream, like the Ohlingers’ popular pawpaw ice cream. And menu specials might include a hit from the former food truck days: an Appalachian twist on a Filipino pork adobo.
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