What do you get when a pair of New York City restaurateurs find themselves in rural northern Michigan, making friends with a couple of local farmers? It sounds like the plot of a feel-good film, but I promise you, it’s not. It’s actually the true story of how Farm Club was born.

For 10 years, Gary and Allison Jonas ran a farm-to-table restaurant in one of the top foodie destinations in the country—New York City. When they decided the city life no longer served their wants and needs, they moved to northern Michigan. That’s when they met Nic and Sara Theisen, owners of Loma Farm, a small vegetable farm snuggled in the southern Leelanau County landscape. The story really writes itself.

“We started talking about this idea of opening up a restaurant that is serviced by the farm,” Gary explained. “Once we started talking about it with Nic and Sara, we couldn’t stop talking about it.”

They ended up finding a piece of property just a stone’s throw away from Loma Farm, the perfect spot to turn their idea into reality. As the pieces of their puzzle came together, the world began falling apart as the COVID-19 pandemic grew. (Cue cinematic, seemingly insurmountable challenge).

Prices soared, and this dream project got more and more expensive. But with careful planning, vision, and even an economic development loan through Cherryland, their dream became a reality when they opened their doors in 2020.

Farm Club is much more than a restaurant. This Cherryland member is a thriving farm, restaurant, brewery, bakery, and marketplace. They used the loan through Cherryland to kickstart their brewery, which has grown so fast that they can’t keep up with demand locally and across the state.

Last year, they grew 90% of the vegetables they served. Gary explained, “Considering we are a vegetable-heavy restaurant, we’re very busy, and covered in snow for three to four months of the year, to have that 90% number is remarkable. There’s a lot of effort that goes into doing that.”

As the seasons change, so does the menu, and that’s all part of the effort Gary’s talking about. The team at the restaurant works hand in hand with the team at the farm to make sure they’re getting the most out of their crops. “Nic, our business partner and farmer, does a weekly walking tour with our chef. He explains what we have right now, what’s coming up soon, and what needs to be used right now because it’s not going to be around forever,” said Gary.

At the heart of this passion project is a really wholesome mission. “I think that the goal is to create a place that’s accessible to everybody. We want it to be a place where you can get really good, quality food that we know is the highest quality because we’re growing it. We want you to be able to come up off the TART Trail in your bike shorts. We want you to be able to come from the beach. You don’t have to have a fancy restaurant to have really high-quality food,” said Gary. “And with that comes community. People are not just stumbling into a restaurant downtown; they’re seeking us out. People who come here really care about what they are eating. They care about the environment around them. They care about the people, so it creates this really great sense of community.”

Gary reflected on moving from Brooklyn—where farm-to- table meant sourcing food from a farm an hour and a half outside the city—to Traverse City, where the farm is quite literally in the backyard and the farmers are your best friends. “It is very different than any other area I can think of. I still pinch myself every day that we live and work here in such an amazing place,” he said.

While this feels like the right time for our story’s happy ending, Gary says, “I think getting better at what we’re doing is our number-one goal right now.” So, we’ll call it a cliffhanger, to be continued with whatever this Farm Club dreams up next.

Farm Club is located at 10051 S. Lake Leelanau Drive in Traverse City, just 7 minutes from downtown with easy access from the TART Trail.