RAVENSWOOD — The owner of a popular Lakeview farm-to-table restaurant is opening a second location in Ravenswood next month.
Farmheads Hospitality has taken over the former home of Land & Lake Ravenswood, 1970 W. Montrose Ave., with plans to reopen it as Farm Bar Ravenswood on Nov. 15.
It will feature a menu by chef David Wakefield that’s similar to Farm Bar Lakeview. The Ravenswood location’s much larger kitchen will allow for an expanded menu down the line, co-owner TJ Callahan said.
“It’ll be a big brother version of the Lakeview restaurant that we opened in 2015,” he said. “The Lakeview location, the kitchen is tiny and what we do is like a magic trick there. The kitchen is, like, the size of the average coffee table.”
Returning favorites include the North Road Faroe Island salmon, which is pan-seared and served with honey-roasted carrots, parsnip puree, pickled watermelon radish and a watercress salad.
“We’re going to be doing something kind of cool with these iron skillet pies. They’ll be savory pies and a core part of our entrees,” Callahan said. “It’ll be something kind of fun and different.”
Another popular menu item are the Ellsworth Wisconsin cheese curds.
“That little 65-seat restaurant in Lakeview last year sold 2.2 tons of cheese curds,” Callahan said, laughing. “And we’re doing a smoked beet reuben, which is an amazing vegan and vegetarian option at the Ravenswood location, too.”
Similar to the Lakeview location, the Ravenswood restaurant will source produce from Brown Dog Farm near Mineral Point, Wisconsin, also owned by Callahan.
“What I grow at the farm is all for the restaurants,” Callahan said.
That includes apples, cherries, peaches, apricots and pears from a 200-tree orchard, he said.
Callahan also grows asparagus, long neck garlic, black currants, black, yellow and red raspberries, and elderberries, he said.
Honey from 24 to 40 beehives they maintain yearly is used in much of the restaurant’s menu, especially in cocktails, he said.
Years ago, Callahan took the concept of a brandy-based Wisconsin Old Fashioned — “a disgusting, foul drink” — and remixed it into a “drinkable” Brown Dog Old Fashioned, he said.
His version uses apple brandy made from Wisconsin apples, bourbon from CH Distillery in the West Loop, honey and bitters made from his farm ingredients, he said.
“I joke with customers that this drink will make them taller and better looking. But it’s been the number-one selling cocktail in my restaurants for the past 10 years,” Callahan said.
Farm Bar’s beverage menu will also feature a rotating selection of spirit-free drinks made with ingredients like smoked fruits, homemade cider, syrups and more from his farm, he said. The wine list will offer bottles from underrepresented regions across the world, he said.
Callahan opened Farmhouse Tavern in River North in 2011 but closed that location because of the pandemic. His restaurant group also operated Thomas & Dutch in suburban Evanston until this month, Callahan said.
“But now, we’ve decided to build on our successful Farm Bar Lakeview concept,” he said.
Rooftop seating will be less of an initial priority for now, but that’ll change once the weather warms up again, he said.
“I don’t know what we’d do up there quite yet,” Callahan said.
Land & Lake Ravenswood opened in 2022 after a renovation that added seating and upgrades to the rooftop patio, including a dumbwaiter that enabled customers to enjoy the restaurant’s full menu upstairs.
The Land & Lake owners closed it in early October and sold the restaurant to focus on their hotel restaurants, including Evanston Corner Bistro, which opened Oct. 13 at the Hilton Orrington in suburban Evanston.
The Montrose property was previously home to the gastropub Fountainhead, which closed in 2020 after 10 years in the neighborhood.
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