After about a year-and-a-half in business, Lisa and Patrick Balcom plan to expand their farm-to-table restaurant’s reach. While procuring 90% of Farow Restaurant’s ingredients within a hyperlocal, 10-mile reach of their location at 7916 Niwot Rd. (per Travel Boulder), the pair are in the process of setting up services at the farms that source their food. Beginning in June, Farrow will feature Boulder County’s finest fresh produce, ranch-raised meats, and house-milled grains at nearby Niwot farms.
“It’s unbelievable how much we have at our fingertips,” Lisa told What Now Denver. “There are 10 to 15 farms within 15 minutes of us. We’re smack dab in the middle of Longmont and Boulder. And there’s guaranteed parking, which is really nice.”
The idea is for Farow to set up once a month at a nearby homestead from June through October. The idea is to arrive at 5 p.m. to a welcome cocktail (likely whipped up by Lisa, a sommelier and fine-dining bartender), take a tour of the farm, and then sit down to a four-course, family-style meal (sharing dishes as opposed to individual plates). Lisa estimates there will be about 40 tickets available per meal. The Balcoms are meeting with farmers in the next week to decide on pricing and begin fleshing out meal specifics.
“It’ll be pass potters, for sure,” Lisa said. “This lends itself to that casual farm vibe. Something fun and something different to do on Sunday afternoons.”
In the meantime, the owners are busy keeping Farow going through the winter season, focusing on developing root crops, pickled vegetables, and milled flour to grind out comfort food like rutabaga cacio e pepe with black truffles. Pureed peaches from the harvest season serve as the base in its housemade sorbet for dessert.
“When it’s freezing cold out, eating stew or a bowl of pasta is a treat,” Lisa said. “We’ve lost touch with seasonality and lost touch with what things should taste like at their peak. There’s a world of difference between buying a tomato in a grocery store right now versus picking a ripe one in the middle of August.”
Towards fulfilling that winter comfort craving, the restaurateurs also just launch Pie Dog Pizza. The “only Door Dash, takeout, and delivery” pizza pies come on hand-rolled focaccia bread, fired up in Farow’s brick oven. Its “high-hydration dough” offers “great fermentation” and is “ridiculously good.”
“I’m really upset when we tear one in the oven,” Lisa said. “It’s like, ‘Oh no, now we’re going to have to eat that.'”
