Turks Head Wines in West Chester has traded its cheese-and-charcuterie tasting room for a full-service restaurant, now plating three- and four-course prix fixe dinners built around the winery’s own California-made bottles. The shift turns a once-simple pairing spot at 120 N. Church St. into something closer to a destination restaurant, with chef Dave McDonald designing seasonal menus meant to showcase the wines rather than the other way around.
Founder Allison Owen opened the tasting room in 2024, two years after she walked away from a two-decade career in human capital management and cloud software consulting to chase a different kind of life. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Owen, 47, left her corporate job in 2022 “longing to enter the wine world,” and the business has steadily grown from there. Her aim was to give Chester County wine lovers a Napa-style experience without the cross-country flight.
That Napa connection is literal, not just aesthetic. All of Turks Head’s wine is produced and bottled in California and shipped east in refrigerated trucks, the Inquirer reports, an arrangement made possible by Owen holding both a Pennsylvania limited winery license and a California wine manufacturing license. The winery’s fruit comes from Northern California vineyards, with PennLive putting the number at 14 across regions including Napa Valley, Lake County, Sonoma Mountain, Alexander Valley, and Russian River Valley.
From Charcuterie Boards to a Real Kitchen
When Turks Head Wines first opened, the tasting room kept things simple, serving only cheese and charcuterie alongside a rotating portfolio of more than 30 wines, per the Inquirer. But guests kept asking for more substantial food, and Owen eventually installed a kitchen hood and brought on McDonald, a chef with previous stints at Laurel Creek Country Club in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, and Helm BYOB in Philadelphia.
The result is a seasonal menu designed specifically around the winery’s California bottles, with two recommended wine pairings accompanying each dish, according to the same PennLive report. Owen curates the wine list first, then works with McDonald to build dishes that complement it, rather than the other way around. The wines themselves often end up inside the food too, whisked into vinaigrettes and sauces that accompany the plates, the Inquirer notes.
What's on the Fall Menu
Diners can now choose between a three-course prix fixe for $55 or a four-course version for $75. The current fall lineup includes gnocchi sardi with butternut squash and Kennett Square mushrooms, roasted chicken breast, and braised pork shoulder finished with a red-wine porcini sugo made from Turks Head’s own bottles.
Owen told the Inquirer that the new format is meant to deepen, not replace, the original tasting-room concept. “Wine is the starting point and guests can build their own experience around what they want to drink and eat,” she said, framing the prix fixe menu as an extension of how she wants visitors to experience the brand. Food writer Kiki Aranita covered the restaurant’s debut for the Inquirer, documenting the shift from pairing snacks to full plated courses.
A Building With Its Own History
The space itself carries some West Chester history. Built in 1880, the building once served as a market house, and during World War II it operated as a packing plant for penicillin manufactured in West Chester, the Inquirer reports. Today it houses Turks Head’s tasting room, bottle shop, and now its restaurant, open Wednesday through Sunday according to the Inquirer.
PhillyVoice has described the business’s broader evolution as moving from a tasting room offering charcuterie snacks into a farm-to-table restaurant that also runs wine classes and private tastings. Turks Head isn’t the only Chester County winery leaning into a full dining model; the Inn at Grace Winery in Glen Mills has similarly paired a tasting area with a locally- and French-inspired menu under a new chef, per Delco Today. For now, though, Turks Head Wines is betting that West Chester diners want their wine with a real meal attached — one built from the bottle up.
