Yorktown has a Carrot Tree restaurant again.
After the owners of the restaurant were unable to reach a deal with the National Park Service to continue to operate in the Cole Digges House — where the restaurant was located for more than a decade — the Yorktown branch of the restaurant has settled into the spot left vacant by Kero Asian Grill at Riverwalk Landing.
“It’s a much smaller operation, but we’re happy to have a home in Yorktown again,” Co-Owner Glenn Helseth said of the new space.
Like the Cole Digges location, the Riverwalk Landing restaurant sells food and baked goods prepared at the Williamsburg store. Helseth said he is in the process of getting a beer and wine license to serve a limited selection of alcohol. He said he will seek out local craft beers and Virginia wineries.
The menu for the Riverwalk Landing location is still being developed. Helseth said he is focusing on wraps, seasonal foods, salads, soups and baked goods. As with all the Carrot Tree locations, the carrot cake will be front and center.
Helseth said he spent “a great deal of time” looking for a site in Yorktown.
“There were several possibilities, but all of them, for the most part, were financially unfeasible,” he said. “Everything required too much in the way of renovations, upgrades, things of that nature.”
The Riverwalk Landing space was already outfitted for a restaurant, making the move to that location easier. Helseth signed a five-year contract for the space.
The Carrot Tree will continue to operate a snack stand called Toby’s Dog House and a catering business out of the Watermen’s Museum down the street from Riverwalk Landing. Toby’s Dog House operates along the Riverwalk during tourist season, while the catering business works with special events like weddings.
“I think they add to the restaurant mix, and I think it will be good for everyone down there,” said York County Director of Economic Development Jim Noel. “It makes us even more of a restaurant destination.”
Noel said it was “a positive” to get a restaurant with the Carrot Tree’s reputation in place at Riverwalk Landing. Carrot Tree is the latest restaurant to open in the development, where in the last year and a half restaurateur Mario Buffa has remade Riverwalk Restaurant and opened the adjacent Water Street Grille.
The Yorktown Carrot Tree is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
