About US

In December 2010, owners Abby and Rogan Lechthaler from Jackson, Mississippi and Weston, VT, respectively, bought 41 Depot Street. Using local, house-butchered meat and sustainable seafood the cozy, bistro-vibed spot became a destination for unique experiences in eating and drinking.  With the re-boot of in-person dining, Rogan is thrilled to serve food on plates again and looks forward to letting inspiration dictate his menu.  Moreover, the chef is especially inspired to mix up his offerings and turn the menu upside down in this moment of re-invention.  Abby can’t wait to pour wine tableside, wear her bright pink lipstick again, sans mask, and her cowboy boots.

Abby has a degree in journalism from the University of Colorado- Boulder and started working in restaurants via Aspen, CO and Oxford, MS to fund her love of overseas travel.  Rogan has no formal training in the world of cooking, but instead has a degree in small business from the University of Vermont and learned to hold a knife at the flagship Ritz Carlton in Boston.  He cut his culinary chops at Mistral (Boston), The Pitcher Inn (Warren, VT), Blackberry Farm (Walland, TN), L&M’s Salumeria (Oxford, MS) and as the head chef at Verdé (Stratton, VT).

Rogan has cooked at an ambassador’s dinner in D.C. (2011), for Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd at a private dinner party (2012), as a guest chef at the Delta Hot Tamale Festival (2013), at The James Beard Foundation (2013, 2014) and alongside celebrity chefs like Tom Colicchio & Charlie Palmer among others at the Naples Winter Wine Festival (2019, 2022 & 2024). 

Abby was invited to attend Oregon Pinot Camp in June of 2023 & was thrilled to head West to further her education as 1 of “270 of the world’s most influential wine buyers.” (Wine Industry Advisor)

The Downtown Grocery has been featured in GQ, Travel & Leisure, SKIING, Garden and Gun, Yankee Magazine, Edible Green Mountains + The Wall Street Journal in an article that ranked TDG as one of the top 100 highest rated restaurants on YELP in the country (2013).  In addition, the Ludlow restaurant was also named one of the Top 100 Best Restaurants in America by the food critics of Us Weekly (March 2019).  Rogan will return to the Naples Winter Wine Festival January 25th- 28th, 2024 as one of 15 celebrity chefs featured at the event, which has raised nearly $269 million since 2001 and is the most successful international charity wine auction in the world.