The Tavern on the York would be located in a building on the grounds of the Watermen’s Museum. (Gregory Connolly/WYDaily)
One of the owners of the Carrot Tree’s former Yorktown location has filed paperwork with York County to get a sit-down restaurant operating out of the Carriage House at the Watermen’s Museum.
Glenn Helseth, who owns the Carrot Tree restaurants along with his wife, Debbie, told WYDaily earlier this month that they intended on opening a new restaurant at the site of the museum. According to a preliminary menu submitted to York County, the restaurant will feature flatbread pizzas, fondue pots, platters, soups and more.
The new restaurant would place the Helseths back in Yorktown, a place they had previously operated from for 11 years under the same brand as their other two restaurants. Along with the proposed Tavern at the York, they also have Carrot Tree locations at Historic Jamestown and in Williamsburg.
According to the proposal, lunch will be served daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. According to the Watermen’s Museum website, the Carriage House is located on the waterfront behind the small parking lot on the grounds of the museum. It features a building along with a covered area overlooking the beach.
The restaurant will be able to run without significant modifications to the Carriage House building, according to the proposal. It will use countertop equipment — identified in the paperwork as soup wells and reach-in sandwich stations — that is compliant with existing electrical outlets and ratings. Much of the preparation and cooking will be done at the Williamsburg location before being transported to Tavern on the York to be served.
Along with the Tavern on the York, the Helseths would operate a seasonal snack bar inside the museum called Toby’s Dog House. There will also be catering and special events as scheduled.
The new restaurant and snack bar would require “minimal signage” to be incorporated onto the Watermen’s Museum’s infrastructure. In the proposal, the new restaurant is characterized as “a low impact kitchen concept.”
Helseth announced the closure of the Yorktown location through a Facebook post written in the style of the Declaration of Independence:
“When in the course of commercial events it becomes necessary for one concessionaire to dissolve the economic bands which have connected them with another, a decent respect to the opinions of the community requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation,” Helseth wrote. To read the full declaration, visit the Carrot Tree Yorktown’s Facebook page.
The move to close the restaurant came after the Helseths decided they were unable to accept the terms from the National Park Service — which owns the Cole Digges House where the Yorktown restaurant was located — which he characterized as “egregious” in his declaration. The restaurant almost closed one year ago for similar reasons, though NPS eventually offered more favorable terms.
The York County Planning Commission will consider the proposal at their Jan. 8 meeting. That meeting begins at 7 p.m. at York Hall. A public hearing will be held for the Tavern on the York proposal.
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