Farow Restaurant is open for business

On Sept. 17, Farow Restaurant (7916 Niwot Rd., Niwot) opened to the public, just a few months after announcing it was taking over the former Lucky Pie space in Cottonwood Square. So far, the community has welcomed the restaurant with nights of full parking lots and crowded dining rooms during both the soft launch and the first opening weekend.

"We're feeling good about it," said co-owner Lisa Balcom during Farow's soft opening last week. "The last two days have gone well considering we're all the new kids here. We're grateful that we had so many friends who wanted to come out and support us here at the restaurant."

As a pastry chef, she was responsible for the desserts and bread portion of the menu, including a three-day fermented focaccia bread with red grapes. Other items on the menu, prepared by co-owner Patrick Balcom, included a prime-aged steak, an heirloom tomato pie and a crab agnolotti pasta with creamed corn and heirloom tomatoes.

Reflecting the pair's farm-to-table philosophy, all of their ingredients come from within 10 miles of the restaurant. The pair also focuses on creating as much of the menu as possible from within their own kitchen. One of the desserts, a goat cheesecake with a honey caramel and caramel popcorn, epitomizes this focus. "I popped the corn earlier today, and the caramel includes honey from an area purveyor, which you can taste," she said.

To ensure their bar also reflects their crafted, conscientious approach, Farow has a sommelier/beverage manager to curate its extensive wine list and ensure that diners can order a variety of drink options to complement their meals. In the future, Balcom said she planned to include representation from organic and biodynamic wines on their menu. They also plan to continue a to-go cocktail program for as long as Colorado regulations allow them to do so.

She said that as restaurant operations settled into a long-term pattern, she was hoping to accommodate two full seatings of the dining room and patio, which together seat just over 125 diners. She also said she was looking forward to seeing how available produce will impact their menu offerings in future months. "We've kind of gotten the tail end of summer here, but we're looking forward to the produce changing as fall sets in."

Balcom added as a new restaurant, she anticipated challenges with staffing, and she was pleased with the team she assembled. She attributed success in staffing to her ability to articulate the restaurant's mission in serving locally sourced, well-made food to area diners. She believes that the staff she found appreciate the chance to work in that kind of environment and to serve their menu.

Overall, while Balcom enjoyed successes in her first few days, she is pleased to have taken the first steps to opening Farow to the public. "I'm just really excited to see everybody grow and develop," she said. "And to watch how things with the food keep going as we maintain strong relationships with our purveyors. I'm really looking forward to all of that."

Farow is located at 7916 Niwot Rd. (corner of 79th St. & Niwot Rd.).