According to an article from the Chicago Eater , The Farm will soon expand with its first Chicago location at 15 W Illinois Street.
“We are currently open only for the Windy City Smoke Out as more of a pop-up. It’s a 2-floor facility, and upstairs we need to fine-tune décor and lighting systems. It is finished enough for us to do a sneak peak kind of thing. Our real opening with both floors and our amazing BBQ will be mid to late August,” Michael Schwartz, the CEO and Lead Designer of Forward Hospitality Group, told What Now Chicago .
“Aesthetically, we designed the space after Chase Rice’s farm in Nashville. A lot of materials were duplicated into the space from there. The Farm will be detailed in its finish work, and patrons will see a lot of reclaimed wood, bricks, western wallpapers, hardwood flooring, real cowhide furniture, and some saddle seats at the bar. From a décor standpoint, we are a national country western bar with amazing BBQ.”
“Our BBQ has its separate name called Drinking Pig BBQ. The reason for the separate name is that our Chef and Business Partner Raheem Sealey created the concept in Miami where we had partnered up on a different project, and then he became a business partner. We took that concept and expanded that, individually and together, but when opening a farm location and having the option to put the Drinking Pig concept in, we do.”
“We have national style music, where most bands who perform come from Nashville with some exceptions. We try to do everything at a much higher level, and finished details are super important to us. Our guest experience starts when they first see the space but is truly encompassed by an amazing team.”
“The upstairs area is where the live venue is, downstairs is where we lean into a sports bar flavor, as in we have large-scale television and jumbotrons for floor viewing. The mission behind The Farm is that we have a love for country music, and during COVID, we had the fortune to meet Chase Rice. We did a social distancing, park your car event in Columbus in a closed mall parking lot and got to meet him there and get to know each other.”
“Once we joined forces, we went down to his farm in Nashville and came to an agreement, and now The Farm is here! We started in 2015/2016 and had been chewing on a new concept. We are also behind Good Night John Boy, which was also born out of the pandemic era.”
“A fun fact about The Farm is that we always have a Dairy Queen sign inside our locations because Chase’s dad would go with him to Dairy Queen growing up, so it’s a tribute to his father after his passing.”
“I have a passion for Chicago, and so do the other partners. Chicago fits our niche that we love and we love the city. We’re excited to be in Chicago, and we love the people. The big win for us is the customer satisfaction.”
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