It’s almost food truck season, and big things are happening at Farmers & Foragers. When the growing restaurant group’s seasonal Dockside location opens at the Burlington Harbor Marina on Saturday, May 23, past James Beard Award finalist Avery Buck will be the group’s executive chef.
Buck has been head chef at Burlington’s May Day — where he earned that 2025 James Beard nod for Best Chef: Northeast — since July 2023. Sloan Miller, his current sous chef and a former cook at Hen of the Wood and Paradiso Hi-Fi, will move up and run May Day’s kitchen as chef de cuisine, owner Matthew Peterson confirmed, with Aren Berkenbush taking over as sous. Buck’s last day there is May 18.
“Avery and I started working together eight or nine years ago as cook and bartender at Hen, and I have nothing but love for that guy,” Peterson said. “He’s done so much for the business and really helped it develop its voice.”
May Day will “keep things steady” on its seasonally inspired menu as Miller and Berkenbush “get their arms around the boring stuff like scheduling,” Peterson continued. “It’s nice to be able to provide some upward mobility to people and give them an opportunity to let their voices develop and work in the space and be inspired.”
For Buck, 33, the move is “a new chapter” as he grows older, he said. He’ll head Farmers & Foragers’ commissary kitchen and run catering for weddings and community events at Charlotte’s Old Lantern Events Barn, which Farmers & Foragers’ cofounder Solomon Bayer-Pacht bought with a group of investors in spring 2025.
Farmers & Foragers’ current head chef, Ryan Brigante, will retain his title and focus on the food truck’s busy summer lakefront location full time, Bayer-Pacht said. Expanded hours at Dockside are a possibility.
“Ryan has been incredible, basically taking everything on solo this winter,” Bayer-Pacht continued. “For years, I’ve wanted someone with Ryan’s ability to want that [food truck] position full time, and it gives me peace of mind going into the season with him running the show down there.”
Buck’s role, Bayer-Pacht said, is the same one that Farmers & Foragers cofounder Lauren Johnson occupied for the past 12 years. Johnson has moved to California and is “more of a silent partner now,” Bayer-Pacht said, though she remains an important sounding board.
It’ll be a busy summer at Farmers & Foragers Hillside at the Old Lantern in Charlotte, too. This winter’s Wednesday dinner and Saturday brunch offerings wrapped up at the end of April, but weekly Thursday community concerts will run the first week of June through Labor Day weekend. Those indoor-outdoor events will feature live music, dancing, lawn games, a full bar and food — some of which Buck hopes to cook on new wood-fired grills outside.
Buck’s first event is a Seth Yacovone Band show on Friday, May 22; dinner starts at 5 p.m. with music at 7 p.m.
Wednesday dinners could return to Charlotte, too, Bayer-Pacht said. And he has plans in the works to open a downtown Burlington location this summer, which will house Farmers & Foragers’ commissary kitchen and a year-round brick-and-mortar restaurant.
“I’m fired up,” Bayer-Pacht said. “It’s definitely bringing us to a new beginning here.”
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