First reported in the Coloradoan, farm owner Melyssa Mead will potentially partner with Little on Mountain “neighborhood eatery” owners Dan Smallheiser and Brent Jackson to develop a new restaurant at Mead’s five-acre farm property (and little red barn) at 2917 S. Taft Hill Road.
Per a Fort Collins addition of permitted use, the projected restaurant would combine counter service in the farm’s barn with outdoor eating on picnic tables. It’s a vision described on the project application as “a neighborhood-compatible gathering space where family and friends connect over food on the land where much of it comes from.”
“It’s still just in that big dream phase at this point,” Mead said in a conversation with What Now Denver. “There’s so many unknowns right now. We have to work with the city, we have to do neighborhood meetings… There’s a lot of hurdles ahead.”
The farm’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription program and its seasonal produce stand and weekly market keeps it solvent. A restaurant, though, would potentially inject a new revenue stream for Mead and local farmers as current plans are to contract nearby growers to stock the kitchen.
At the farm, patrons would not only have several freshly-farmed dining options, the primarily outdoor seating offers a bucolic perspective — fields of growing produce leading to views of the Spring Creek Trail and Horsetooth Mountain in the distance.
Keep an eye on What Now Denver coverage for updates on this story down the road.
