Chris Crawford is the founder of TART Vinegar, which she started as a small-batch raw vinegar project right before the pandemic in late 2019. Based in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard, TART’s become a bit of a food industry darling/obsession, with new batches selling out immediately. Chris is originally from the Pacific Northwest and made her way to Santa Barbara to work as a produce buyer at Trader Joe’s before ending up in the Bay Area restaurant scene (during the crazy aughts), where she learned to cook at places like Serpentine, Mission Chinese, and Chez Panisse. She later moved to Kenya to work in food innovation for a coffee exporter and finally ended up in New York, cooking for filmmakers, artists, and writers. For our discussion, we sent her a bottle of Monument Wine Company’s Smithereens 2021 because it had a similar florality to what we’d tasted in her Lavender Vinegar, and because the winemaker, Tyler, had Chris’ reverse trajectory, moving from New York to Oregon. She said the wine “doesn’t take showers and for sure lives in SE Portland and dropped out of Reed College.” She lives in Brooklyn with her 10-year-old son, Cecil Ranieri, who also took these photos.
You came up in Bay Area restaurants during the aughts, a common thread among many of the people we love in food and beverage. What do you think made it a special time out there?
I don’t know. It was a lot of fun though, if you are into trauma bonding.
Can you tell us about the first vinegar you ever made that you actually thought was objectively delicious?
It was celery and I bet I wouldn’t think it was very good now. My son’s father is a microbiologist/food scientist so I have him try everything I make because our relationship is 50 percent kid talk and 50 percent food talk. He was like “Make this! A lot of this! And it will be great!” or something like that. He might have just said “this one doesn’t suck.”
How does Brooklyn influence your work? Do you think there’s a sense of place to your vinegars?
Really this business has no place in Brooklyn if I was being smart about it. I should be on some magical farm where I could whisper to the vegetables and herbs as they grow but I share a kid with someone who lives here so I live here and somehow I can make it work for all of us and I am very grateful. That being said I really fucking love NYC right now, it feels like it’s bursting with chaotic super juicy energy.
What’s a typical weeknight dinner at home look like?
Well it’s me and my 10 year old son and we are typically coming home from soccer practice or some type of after school thing. If it was up to him we would have steak and salad every night. Lately I have been blanching batches of nettles and keeping them in the fridge to make tacos with. When I am alone I keep it pretty simple and eat whatever is about to spoil or scrambled eggs with greens. I just discovered these huge jars of marinated artichoke hearts at Costco that I am now obsessed with.
We sent you a bottle of Monument Wine Company’s Smithereens 2021 because a) it’s got this beautiful, wild florality, which is something we’ve found both compelling and unique about a few of your vinegars, and b) the winemaker, Tyler, has had your reverse trajectory, moving from New York to Oregon, and his wines (and labels) seem to speak to those two different worlds. What do you think of it?
This is a wine I would have been super into 10 years ago because it has a real pungent minerally oxidized beauty to it. This wine doesn’t take showers and for sure lives in SE Portland and dropped out of Reed College. I love how much I hate it. I am sure it pairs well with trust funders who dumpster dive for fun at Trader Joe’s and disappoint their parents but somehow end up with a really good job and own a home by 30. I know nothing about wine or disappointing parents. Basically I aged out of this style of wine but it holds a very special place in my heart. I drank the whole bottle.
Someone gives you an all-expenses paid trip, with a healthy R&D stipend, to one country for a month to come up with a new vinegar. Where are you going?
I would go to Greece and swim and eat and laugh about the fact that someone thinks I am a grown up.
SANS SOUFRE 