New restaurant Farm Club builds reverence for the land

By Jacob Wheeler

Sun editor

“I’m excited about eating everything right now. It’s August,” smiles farmer Nic Theisen as he suppresses a giggle. “I’m eating lots of tomatoes. That’s exciting. Now that coolness is on the horizon, one of my favorite things is ratatouille. When there are piles of eggplant, piles of zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, and onions, ratatouille will be on the menu. It will be the best ratatouille this side of the mud river.

Nic and his partner Sara, who own Loma Farm, have teamed up with Gary and Allison Jonas, owners of The Little Fleet in Traverse City, to open Leelanau County’s newest restaurant, Farm Club, on a southward facing hill in Elmwood Township.

Gary picks up the ode to produce. “I took home a quart of green beans last night, blanched them and put a poached egg on top,” he says. “It was such a great meal!”

A visit to Farm Club is more than a culinary experience. It’s an agricultural excursion, a date with a delicious (and not overpowering) pint of beer, a chance to sit outdoors at safely distanced picnic tables and socialize in a COVID-appropriate fashion. It’s also an encouragement to ditch your car and bike there on the Leelanau Trail, which runs just south of the property.

Farm Club opened July 13 on 35 acres of rolling hills and forest off County Road 641 (Lake Leelanau Drive). The destination is 7 miles northwest of Traverse City, 10 miles east of Cedar, and 11 miles south of Suttons Bay—in the heart of rural, bucolic, and lesser known southeastern Leelanau County. The farm-to-table restaurant, which thus far has offered small bites and beer, wine and cider, hopes to unveil its full menu in early September.

“We’re a farm first, and a restaurant, brewery and marketplace after that,” says co-owner Gary Jonas. “When you look at the land we’re on, it looks like a farm, it feels like a farm. That’s the way we want to keep it.”

As you exit CR-641 and climb the driveway, Farm Club appears as a simple rectangular cedar barn in a field—with its slotted walls resembling a corn crib. DesignSmiths in Traverse City was the project’s architect and worked with the two couples to achieve a simple Scandinavian design, including a spacious, clean and bright interior, big windows and doors that make you feel as though you are outdoors. Inside, the restaurant, which Gary estimates will be able to seat 60 in non-COVID times, a large wood stove and radiant floor heat will contribute to a cozy atmosphere.

“It fits well in the Leelanau landscape,” says Nic. “The building faces due south, but the fields face southwest so we get this south light. As the patio veers off and faces down, it makes the gardens your line of site. They nailed it. It’s so nice.”

“It fits well in the Leelanau landscape,” says Nic. “The building faces due south, but the fields face southwest so we get this south light. As the patio veers off and faces down, it makes the gardens your line of site. They nailed it. It’s so nice.”

The genesis of Farm Club came on a trip that Gary and Allison and their kids Maddie and Viola took to Australia in 2017. They discovered a farm-to-table restaurant and bar on a nut tree farm called The Farm on Byron Bay, which Gary describes as having an “amazing vibe.” They fell in love with the concept and thought that something like that would also thrive in Leelanau County.

“Allison and I had played around in the past with this idea of opening a business on a farm. When we got back, we put the idea to Nic and Sara. They were interested and it was like ‘oh wow, this could actually happen! This could be something special.”

The Jonases purchased the 40-acre property in 2017 and split off 5 acres to build their own rural home next to Farm Club. The following year, when Elmwood Township changed its ordinance to allow for commercial agricultural ventures, the couples were ready to begin planning Farm Club. Construction started in 2019, and Nic and Sara began re-farming the land that had gone fallow.

“The idea of hospitality and agriculture has always appealed to us,” says Nic. “We wouldn’t ever have gone on this scale without the motivation of Gary and Allison. But farm dinners, farm tours, the idea of sharing the specialness of small-scale farming with the public has always been the main reason that we farm.”

“We want to protect the land but also inspire the public to love small farms and good food and well-stewarded land. That combination is what motivates us to farm. The idea of being able to do a project like this, and really intimately share farming with people—that was the main motivation.”

Tough time to open

Gary and Nic had hoped to open Farm Club by June 1, but the COVID shutdown in mid-March brought construction to a halt one month shy of the project’s completion. Being so close to ribbon-cutting time, the experience was frightening.

When the pandemic first arrived, the two couples, who are also good friends, wouldn’t even see each other. They met up on Zoom occasionally, “and it just felt rough,” says Nic. “There was no construction. We knew that the moment we could start moving again, it was going to be a sprint to the finish line.”

The delayed timing of the restaurant’s opening worried Nic.

“In March, I have space to do non-farming stuff. But in July I really don’t. This year we had to.”

He credits Gary with being the optimist who lifted their spirits.

“The unknown was scary for everybody,” says Gary. “For this business, we rely on the summer. … We just pushed on and kept with our game plan. Luckily, we opened up in the middle of summer, not at the end.

“The question remains what will happen this fall and winter.”

Farm Club features 25 outdoor picnic tables placed between the restaurant and the farmland, which allows guests to drink and dine and celebrate the space, while remaining safe. Masks are required when entering the restaurant to peruse the market.

“I think people are really relieved to have an open-air space like this to gather safely right now,” says Nic. “There are so many unknowns right now. We asked ourselves: ‘How will we be received? Are we encouraging gatherings when we should be encouraging safe behavior during the pandemic?’ It feels like we’re able to do both. That’s felt really good to me. It has felt safe, and people have been so appreciative.”

“We’re providing something that adds value to the area, but also to people’s lives,” says Gary.

Workers, beer, and bread

Farm Club’s beer program is the big draw, at least until the restaurant opens. Brewer Corey Valdez, Gary’s brother-in-law, was an organic chemistry professor in New York City for 10 years before leaving academia to make beer.

“He has a real understanding of science and chemistry. That’s more important to brewing than most people think it is,” says Gary. “I’ve never seen anyone pay attention to brewing like he does.”

Valdez makes lighter style beers for Farm Club, including lagers, pale ales and wild yeast ales, that are lower in alcohol. He uses a wild yeast strain that was harvested from the property two years ago.

“We call Corey our secret weapon,” says Gary. “We started getting frustrated with beer that was out there that was overpowering to your palette. Too much going on and too high in alcohol. Peanut butter and jelly type beers. I think we just wanted to get back to making good solid beers.”

Nic brings up the historical link between farming and beer, especially in Europe. 

“Field beers like farmhouse ales were made for the workers. They were low in alcohol. Saison is a seasonal beer, meant to hydrate you, to nourish you. It’s meant to lighten your spirits at the end of a long day.”

Farm Club also offers wine and ciders that are made in collaboration with nearby wineries and cideries.

Just as he did when talking about ripe tomatoes this August, Nic alights when the conversation shifts to the bakery.

“I’ve been baking a seedy bread we call the Big Seedy,” says Nic. “There are more seeds and sprouted grains in it than there is flour. It’s baked sustenance. It is so tasty. It’s been received better than we thought it would be, because it’s an interesting bread. People are super excited about its taste, its texture, but also its nutrient level.”

Nic also takes spent grain from the brewery and incorporates 25 percent of that into a loaf. More loaves and styles will rise in the months ahead.

Fresh food, playful experience

On a visit to Farm Club in late July, I drank a refreshing Saison and nibbled on the Farm Board, which varies depending on what’s coming out of the field that week. My experience included Nic’s seedy bread, a beet hummus spread, bean dip, pickled cucumbers, carrots, radishes, and turnips. Fresh and delicious.

The restaurant hopes to have a full menu by early-mid September. James Beard Foundation-nominated author Abra Berens will be Farm Club’s chef. Berens authored the cookbook, Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables, which was named one of the “12 Best Cookbooks of Spring 2019” by The New York Times.

“Whenever we’re ready, it will come,” says Gary. “We’ll put out the food as we’re inspired to, and as we have the ability. It’s going to ebb and flow and contract. One week we had four items on the menu, then went down to one, the next week we had six. But when people come, there will be food here, whether it’s a full meal or a bar snack. What’s fun is that it changes throughout the night. If we’re out of radishes, we’ll add cherry tomatoes. It’s what’s available.”

And no matter the season, getting to Farm Club should be part of the fun.

Gary says that the property’s proximity to the Leelanau Trail was a major selling point. The trail runs from Suttons Bay to Traverse City and is maintained by TART Trails.

“When we were evaluating whether to do this, the fact that it would be accessible via biking or cross-country skiing was like the cherry on top,” he says. “That’s important for what we stand for. We want to encourage an active lifestyle and encourage people to bike.”

TART Trails worked with Farm Club’s owners to build a noninvasive boardwalk over a wetland on the southern end of the property, so bikers (and skiers) wouldn’t have to use County Road 641 to reach the restaurant.

“As soon as we reached out to TART Trails and told them we were doing this, they were nothing but encouraging and wanting to help,” says Gary. “In order to put in the boardwalk we had to get an easement from them to allow it. They didn’t even hesitate. They want to encourage more biking on the trail.

“We’re showcasing Leelanau County. It’s so beautiful here. To have people come out and enjoy— it feels really good.”

Love of the land. Good food and beer. Fun lifestyle.

“Though we all have reverence for the land, the whole project is meant to be really playful and encourage active lifestyles,” says Nic. “It’s so fun being on the trail. It feels like a celebration of life. Inspiring people to have fun instead of just eat well. That’s the way to change the world through inspiration, and not through shame.”

Located at 10051 S. Lake Leelanau Drive, Farm Club is currently open from 3-10 p.m. on weekdays and noon-10 on weekends. Visit online at www.FarmClubTC.com