Home-Grown

I used to carry it around under my arm like it was a Bible," says chef David Page of Calvin Trillin's Alice, Let's Eat, amazed that the author is now among his restaurant's regular customers. Page and photographer Barbara Shinn opened Home, the instant downtown dining hit on Greenwich Village's Cornelia Street, two years ago and are now producing a line of condiments to be sold at their restaurant, as well as at Manhattan's Gourmet Garage, Murray's Cheese Shop, and Faicco's Pork Store. Barbecue sauce, pickled okra, bread-and-butter pickles, and their famed Home-made ketchup are being "put up" in Mason jars just the way your grandmother might have done it in her own kitchen.

The restaurant—named for legendary chef James Beard's aphorism "American food is anything you eat at home"—is notable for its interesting clientele, which runs the gamut from Trillin and his wife, Alice (who bring their friends Tom Brokaw and Russell Baker), to Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson. But it's the neighborhood folk that the midwesterners Page and Shinn (who plan to marry next July) treat like celebrities. "When people come back," says Page, "they always know that we'll know their name."

And now they can have a bit of Home away from Home. Shinn herself has designed the labeling for the condiment line. "We've even got red and green ketchup—perfect for the Christmas season," she says, knowing that marketing is an important final ingredient in any successful American recipe.

KEVIN SESSUMS