Farm Bar recently launched their spring menu which hits all the usual highlights of spring including ramps and asparagus. But the true hero of this seasonal shift on the menu is the local farmers. Farm Bar sources from not only their own farm, Brown Dog Farm, but from other local growers such as Nichols for produce and Slagel for meat. Even the pasta is locally sourced (Avanza Pasta) and hand made by the sibling-owned company that keeps things so small and personal, that the creator delivers the goods as well. But the good way of doing things isn’t always the easy way. Farm Bar and Brown Dog Farms owner TJ Callahan explained how Farm Bar cultivates relationships with local growers, how that focus on local and fresh creates fruitful challenges, and what to look forward to as the season progresses.
Before Farm Bar, there was Farmhouse on Chicago Ave and during its operation TJ Callahan and his wife were looking for a place to escape to on the weekends. They ended up purchasing what would become Brown Dog Farm.
“Once we got the farm as a place to go on the weekends we started looking at the 140 acres we had and said, well, we could farm some of this for the benefit of the restaurant,” Callahan said. “Logistically the first thing that went in was the fruit trees. There was an existing small orchard of 7 trees and we planted an additional 40 trees in 2013 and right now the orchard is around 200 trees.”
What comes from Brown Dog Farm is mostly fruit and honey. Callahan made it clear that he is a part time farmer, unable to meet the demand of two restaurants. But items like the asparagus and green onions are available at the restaurants for short stints and are always highlighted. A current Brown Dog Farm menu feature is a Lavender Honey Half Chicken with a Brown Dog Farm honey glaze.
The next item about to come to the restaurant from his own farm will be the black currants, which are used in desserts and savory dishes. The attention that Farm Bar draws to their own farm on the menu, they do the same for the other farmers and artisans that they work with locally.
“Farm is always trying to support local farmers and use ingredients that are thoughtfully sourced, but we never want to give the impression that everything comes from Brown Dog Farm,” Callahan said. “We use Slagel Farms for most of our meat, it allows the money to go straight to the Slagel family and not a distributor, and places like Nichols Farm, we try to buy directly from the grower, the farmers whenever we can.”
Slagel and Nichols are both featured in new spring menu items including Dry Aged Meatloaf with a plum tomato glaze, garlic mashed potatoes, butter-glazed peas, and a potato crumble. Avanza Pasta is on the new menu as well for the Ramp Pesto Fusilli.
But all that attention on sustainability and supporting the surrounding community isn’t the easy route. It involves managing and juggling multiple deliveries and accounts, thinking way ahead, and understanding that it is a community effort to develop an ecosystem built on mutual support.
“It’s a hell of a lot easier to use US Foods, it's a hell of a lot easier than what we do. We use far more vendors than most of our competitors. It's much more challenging than a single vendor where everything comes off the same truck,” Callahan said.
Callahan and Farm Bar have no interest in short cuts unless it means cutting out the middleman and going straight to the source. Even the cocktails feature locally sourced ingredients. Farm Bar has two locations, one in Ravenswood and another in Lakeview. For more information and to check out the new menu, visit www.farm-bar.com.
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