The country store at Marlow and Sons sells organic milk, seasonal fruits, grass-fed beef, and Vermont cheese, as well as brewed coffee and fresh baked goods. During the day, it’s a full-fledged market. At night, however, the front room is lined with set tables, and diners sup on raw oysters, sliced charcuteries, brick-pressed chicken, panini, and salads.

When it opened in 2002, the general store, bar, and restaurant seemed like a retro-chic nod to a bygone era. Now several other New York restaurants are following suit. This concept allows customers to purchase many of the same ingredients found in the cuisine at local eateries.

One reason for the increasing appeal of the small general store is a growing interest in knowing where our food comes from and how best to prepare it. The soon-to-open Market Table (54 Carmine St. at Bedford Street, 212-255-2100) in the West Village is divided into a country store and a 40-seat restaurant. The executive chef, Mike Price, said he wants to spend most of his time behind the counter, advising customers on how to create complete meals from the local and imported ingredients that will be sold there. Mr. Price plans to grow his own cabbage, kale, and other produce on site in plastic planters made from corn, and to grow micro-greens on the roof of the eatery. There will be portioned-to-order meat and fish, as well as cured salami and ham, and fruits and vegetables.

In addition to such hands-on service, Market Table also has an old-fashioned look with ceiling beams made from reclaimed 125-year-old virgin pine from a former Clydesdale stable in Canada, butcher-blocks, antique clam baskets, and porcelain scales. The market will open first, while the restaurant is scheduled to open right after Labor Day.

Little Piggy (64 Lafayette Ave., at South Elliott Place, Brooklyn, 718-797-1011), a Fort Greene café and market adjacent to and owned by Smoke Joint proprietors Craig Samuel and Ben Grossman, has a blackboard menu that changes everyday and sometimes even every hour. The watermelon that goes into a refreshing lime-sprinkled salad with mint isn’t even cut until the order goes in, and still-warm buttermilk cupcakes are iced and sprinkled (chocolate or rainbow) to order.

The farmer’s market is also celebrated at the just-opened BLT Market (1430 Sixth Avenue at Central Park South, 212-521-6125), an upscale yet informal take on the market-restaurant concept. For a chef and restaurateur from France, Laurent Tourondel has a remarkably strong interest in supporting North American products. His market stocks Hamptons Honey, Beth’s jams (famous from greenmarkets around town), and Katz and Co. extra virgin olive oil imported from Rock Hill Ranch, California. Large round breads from Balthazar and eggs in a large glass jar are just for show at the moment, but he said he’s hoping to incorporate fresh ingredients into the market if he can find the quality, consistency, and attractive packaging that meet his exacting criteria. While Park Avenue Summer (100 E. 63rd St. at Park Avenue, 212-644-1900) will change its name, menus, and décor with the four seasons, BLT Market will change menus every month to highlight the fruits and vegetables that are at their peak of freshness, flavor, and natural abundance. The menu lists the month’s best produce and has black board specials that change daily.

Not just local farmer’s markets, but also foreign markets are the inspiration for several other New York restaurants. Borough Food and Drink (12 E. 22nd St., between Broadway and Park Avenue South, 212-260-0103) was named in recognition of its purveyors around the five boroughs and its New York melting pot cuisine, but the name also echoes Borough Market, the oldest food market in London, an expansive, awe-inspiring outdoor collection of vendors selling produce, artisan breads, imported chorizo from Spain, and olive oil from Italy. At Borough Food and Drink, the refrigerated deli case is crammed with fresh organic milk and butter from Evans Farm upstate, DiPalo’s ricotta cheese, Sikorski’s kielbasa and chorizo. In the dining room, one wall of shelves is lined with such esoteric condiments as mushroom ketchup, walnut spread, chili shrimp paste, and pickled thyme, many of which can be found in Chinatown.

Boqueria (53 W. 19th St., between Fifth and Sixth avenues, 212-255-4160), a one-year-old tapas restaurant, was named after a market in Barcelona, Spain, famous for its combination of purveyors stalls with fresh fruits, fish and meat and casual counters where you can grab a stool and order fresh seafood cooked on the spot. Yet, it is a token of the close relationship between market and menu, which, depending on the season, might include ingredients from the Union Square greenmarket, such as ramps, garlic scapes, and what Chef Seamus Mullen called “the best scallops in the world.”

At Merkato, (55 Gansevoort St., between Greenwich and Washington streets), which is slated to open late September, shares its name with the largest food market in Africa, located in Ethiopia. With over one million people working at the merkato (Italian for market), it is an energetic place where people from all different backgrounds — Arabs, Jews, Christians — meet and trade.

The restaurant is the latest project of chef Marcus Samuelsson, who owns Scandinavian restaurants, including Aquavit. Mr. Samuelsson has no retail component planned for the eatery, but intends to offer up African specialties from around the diverse continent and African-influenced cuisine such as grilled bread, peanut soup, tabouli, and chicken stews and seafood dishes served straight from the pot.