Delicious with a story – Meet Creamline

Creamline is a fast casual restaurant that is a staple in Chelsea Market, serving farm-sourced American classics. Their menu includes cheeseburgers, fried chicken sandwiches, milkshakes, grilled cheese and tomato soup, and more. In preparation for Creamline at Harvest Fest on October 12, we sat down with the restaurant to learn more about their sustainability practices, trends in fast food, and their locally sourced ingredients. 

Ronnybrook Farm, located in Hudson Valley

What was the inspiration behind Creamline? 

We proudly partner with Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, whose renowned, non-homogenized Creamline milk gets its name from the layer of cream that rises to the top of the bottle. Ronnybrook makes all of their dairy the old-fashioned way with minimal processing.

Ronnybrook’s approach, as well as the name of their signature milk, inspired the concept for Creamline restaurant. At Creamline we continue to derive inspiration from Ronnybrook’s superlative dairy and all the local farms products we source, which for us means making straightforward, authentic food using the best ingredients

You recently partnered with Boxed Water to remove plastic from the restaurant. Why is sustainability important to Creamline?

Sustainability is one of our core principles at Creamline. It’s an important consideration when we decide which farmers supply our ingredients, what food we cook, and how we package our food to guests. We feed a lot of people at Chelsea Market and have always been conscientious of the waste that our business generates. We use eco-friendly and compostable paper straws, compostable cups and cutlery, recycled packaging, and now Boxed Water instead of plastic bottles. We want to do everything we can to reduce our waste carbon footprint.

Talk to us about how you source your ingredients. 

We built our menu around a guiding principle — that not only should every menu item be delicious, but it should have a story behind it that we’re proud to tell. 

Our all-natural beef comes from the family-owned Rosenkrans Farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Our honey and maple syrup are from Claire Marin at Catskill Provisions in Long Eddy, New York. Our eggs come are cage-free and come from Feather Ridge Farm in Elizaville, New York. Our jam is from Beth’s Farm Kitchen, a stalwart of the Union Square Green Market.  Ronnybrook Farm is our primary supplier partner; their dairy is used on nearly every menu item from the buttered bread for grilled cheese to the buttermilk-brined chicken. 

Where do you see the future of fast food going?

We think the fast food industry is moving towards plant-based foods. We are already seeing it with Burger King and White Castle, both of which are now serving the Impossible Burger. Secondly, as labor and occupancy costs rise, making full-service and fine dining concepts more costly to operate, we think the ‘fast food’ segment of the industry is going to expand. 

What’s your best selling item? 

We have a lot of favorites on our menu and of course our cheeseburger is very popular, but the menu item that garners the more enthusiasm from our guests is our Fried Chicken Sandwich. We volunteered ourselves for the ‘Chicken Sandwich War’ on Instagram and think the caption best describes why we believe ours is the best around. 

What can we try at Harvest Fest?

We’re excited to be a part of Harvest Fest this year and will be sharing our grilled cheese and tomato soup made with New York cheddar cheese, Brooklyn sliced bread, and house-made Jersey tomato soup. We will also be serving our chili, which is a special we make with local beef from Rosenkrans farm. For dessert we’ll have our fried Oreos, which are an homage to Chelsea Market, the site of the original Nabisco factory and the birthplace of the Oreo!