Business Profile Farow

The beginning of the Covid lock-down in 2020 was probably not the best time to consider opening a new restaurant in Niwot, but Lisa Balcom and her husband, Patrick Balcom, did so, and they are thriving since opening Farow in 2021 with 17 employees and a gourmet farm-to-table menu. And although finding experienced cooks has been tough, she said, "I love it here. It's beautiful. Definitely better than the Northeast."

"What we've learned," she said, "is just keep going. Never give up. A situation is only as bad as you tell yourself it is.... Solutions are always right around the corner. You just have to shift your perspectives.

Born in New Jersey, she explained, "I was 16 and a hostess, who then moved into bartending and discovered my passion for food." Even though she studied interior design in college, she discovered her passion for food by endlessly reading cookbooks and magazines such as "Gourmet" and "Bon Appetit."

She was living in Savannah, Georgia, studying interior design in college and bartending at night. She was in her mid-twenties and decided she wanted a break from interior design, so she decided to go to culinary school.

Always artistic, Balcom applied and was accepted for pastry chef training at Johnson and Wales, an esteemed culinary school in Charleston, North Carolina, where she met her husband, Patrick, now an accomplished chef.

"Four years later," Balcom added, "after working at a four-star hotel and surmounting a lot of hurricanes, we were married, and we decided to come to Colorado."

She had met Patrick when he was a line cook in North Carolina. "We were friends at first, and then we started dating" and soon they were married in 2015.

They visited the Denver and Boulder area on vacation. "We loved it and decided to move out here in 2018. "We just winged it," she said, smiling. "There were no jobs and we rented an apartment in Longmont."

She said that after awhile Patrick got a job as a sous chef at Blackbelly Market & Restaurant in Boulder, and she started working as a pastry chef at Safta.

After Covid hit, the couple helped create a program to offer free donuts and pre-packaged meals to people, and then, "Patrick decided we wanted to do our own thing," and the couple created a business plan, and were fortunate to find a bit of magic.

They were eating pizza one night at Rosalee's in Longmont when they bumped into a friend who told them about a start-up incubator in Colorado called "E for ALL," but the deadline for application was in two days.

They applied, and won the grant, which provided a three-month program for young entrepreneurs. The course included business classes in law, finance and marketing, taught by local business owners, with three mentors provided for each participant.

Through a final pitch they made at the end of the three months, they met their primary investor, who owns a fast-food franchise in Colorado.

It was 2021 which Balcom describes as "a weird year for sure." The Balcoms looked at several properties in Longmont, but ended up renting the lovely space they occupy in Cottonwood Square. In July, 2021, they signed their lease which she said "was a killer time," she said. By the time the doors to their new restaurant, Farow, opened in September, the mask mandate was in full swing. Despite supply chain issues, labor shortages and the "chaos post-Covid," Farow, the Balcoms, their staff, and customers appear to be doing very well.

"There has been no shortage of learning, opportunities and challenges," she said. She said the name of the restaurant, "Farow," is "a made-up word." She noted that "farro" is a grain and "farrow" is a term for a litter of baby pigs.

Balcom said both she and her husband as well as their staff "wanted to hit that farm-to-table vibe" and that "90% of what we source comes from local farms." They stick to "a seasonal menu" where the menu "changes with the seasons." The co-owners also try to buy their meat and produce from local farms within a 500-mile radius of Niwot.

"Our food is extremely clean and organic. Our bread and pastry are made in-house. We use free range chickens and eggs, and our pasta is made from scratch."