Farm Club

Farm Club TRAVERSE CITY, MI

FARM CLUB OPENS ON LEELANAU PENINSULA

Karl Klockars | MiBrew Trail

July 2020 was not the greatest time for any business to open — but for a small agricultural brewery located seven miles outside Traverse City, the hurdles were even higher. And yet, in spite of a pandemic, people are drawn to Farm Club: a new brewery, restaurant, farm and market on the Leelanau peninsula. Maybe it’s the open space, the clean Nordic styling, the fire pits or looking out over the scenic hillside, but there’s nearly always a crowd in warm weather or cold, savoring dishes featuring ingredients like heirloom beans, collard greens and smoked trout. And they’re all happily sipping the house-made beers including pilsners, pale ales, saisons and dark Czech-style lager. Owner Gary Jonas, along with his wife, Allison, opened Farm Club after opening The Little Fleet in downtown Traverse City. Following the success of their food-truck-incubator/bar concept, they looked to a more rural space for their next project. “The plan has always been to bring a customer-service restaurant experience to a farm,” Jonas said. True to its name, Farm Club sits on 35 acres of extremely scenic farmland and is already using a few of those acres in conjunction with nearby Loma Farm to develop crops that land on patrons plates — and in their beer steins. “Nic and Sara [Thiesen] became really good friends of ours — they’ve been running Loma Farm for ten years now. Everything we do is stemming from the farm. A lot of ingredients go into the beer, go into the market and into the menu.” Brewery Corey Valdez comes to Farm Club after brewing for a few years at Jolly Pumpkin’s Old Mission outpost. That experience followed a career in organic chemistry, so expect the evolution of Farm Club to involve things like wild yeast strains, native fruits and other fun experiments. Their farmhouse saisons and low-ABV table beers already features yeast taken harvested a pear tree on the property. Valdez is focusing on simple, subtle flavors in styles that range from familiar — pilsner and pale ale — to ones that Michiganders don’t see quite as often. “We’re a small brewery so we’re not making every style in the book,” Valdez said. “There’s a lot of other people filling that space so we focus on the lagers, a couple hoppy beers, and our wild beers or farm beers — we have a couple of long term projects here.” While the beers have remained fairly traditional to start, Valdez is starting to stretch into those projects including offerings using locally malted grains like spelt and heirloom corn as well as farm-grown offerings like lemon verbena. “Part of our major plan is to take what Nick is growing and put it into our beer in a subtle, responsible way,” Jonas added, noting that Loma farms has a catalogue of about 70 different herbs and botanicals that can be called on to add to beers throughout the year. Farm Club’s beers are available primarily on site but some cans have started to emerge, getting their East Coast pale ale and pilsner down to places further south including Grand Rapids and Detroit to “seed” — pun intended — interest in a visit to the new Leelanau peninsula destination. Farm Club also features a regular farmer’s market, a pantry so guests can take home things like Farm Club pizza dough and pesto as well as products and wares from other local companies. It’s an oasis that’s easily accessible from downtown Traverse City, and just a short bike ride from the Leelanau Trail. In spite of everything that 2020 threw at them, Farm Club finds itself in rich soil — and growing.

BORN & BREWED IN MICHIGAN

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