Springfield, MO is one of my more favorite places to travel to for my work. I've enjoyed going there for over 30 years and I've found a number of interesting restaurants during my trips there. One place that sort of caught my eye during a visit a couple years ago was a small farm-to-fork pub on the city's southeast side - Farmers Gastropub. I had looked at their menu on-line thinking that I may go there on one of my visits there. It turned out that I was in Springfield recently and decided to go there for lunch.
Bill Griffiths had a large appreciation for locally grown foods that were the staple of his diet while he was growing up in the United Kingdom. An engineer by vocation, Griffiths eventually became the top executive for a British manufacturer of adhesives that were primarily used in the automotive industry.
After selling his shares in the company, Griffiths moved to the U.S. to work in the British Consulate in Chicago as a trade and investment officer. He had married a woman from Springfield, the former Christina Fugitt, and after his time was up at the consulate, they moved to Springfield, MO.
Christina and Bill Griffiths actually met in France when both were working there for a couple of years. During Bill Griffiths' time in France, he took the time to study under the legendary Roger Vergé who was the father of the French nouvelle cuisine movement. Mssr. Vergé's Moulin de Mougins restaurant located in the French Riviera region was a longtime Michelin 3-Star restaurant.
While running a consulting business in Springfield, Griffiths decided to pursue his dream of opening a British-style gastropub that featured foods that were locally-sourced. The Griffiths thought their restaurant would be more of a personal passion to show that made-from-scratch meals featuring local sustainably raised foods could be good for everyone. In 2009, the Griffiths opened the Farmers Gastropub in the Wilhoit Plaza in downtown Springfield.
Pictured right - Bill Griffiths. Photo courtesy 417 Home Magazine.
In 2012, readers of the Daily Telegraph - sort of the United Kingdom's version of USA Today only with more of a world view and better writers - voted Farmers Gastropub as the top British restaurant outside of the U.K. With this award, Griffiths found that many tourists - British and others - who were driving the famed Route 66 highway would stop in for food along the way. It became evident that the little pub was bursting at the seams and in 2013 the Griffiths moved Farmers Gastropub to its present (and 3 times larger) location in the Brentwood North shopping complex along S. Glenstone. (see map)
There happened to be another British ex-pat who was also working in kitchens in the Springfield area. Andy Hampshire had been working in kitchens since he was 15 years old starting out at the famous Boars Head hotel and restaurant in his hometown of Middlewich, Cheshire, U.K. Hampshire eventually went to culinary school - not just to learn how to cook, but also to study all that takes to run a restaurant from front-of-house and back-of-house management to kitchen management to butchery and fish mongering. After graduating from culinary school at the age of 19, Hampshire got an internship at the Big Cedar Lodge owned by Bass Pro Shops founder Johnny Morris in the heart of the Ozarks resort country south of Branson.
Hampshire eventually worked his way up through the ranks at the various kitchens at Big Cedar Lodge before he landed a spot in the kitchen at Johnny Morris' Top of the Rock opulent rustic resort. From there, Hampshire became the head chef at the high-end Level 2 steakhouse in Branson. He then moved on to be the executive chef at the Highland Springs Country Club, a private member golf club located just outside of Springfield. He was still in is early 30's by the time he had made the rounds of the Ozarks area restaurants.
Pictured left - Andy Hampshire. Photo courtesy Springfield Business Journal.
Andy Hampshire had met and got to know Bill and Christina Griffiths over a five year period. The Griffiths were now in their 60's and were thinking of slowing down and possibly selling the restaurant - preferably to a Brit, as Griffiths had told Hampshire at one point. By the summer of 2015, Hampshire and his wife, Misty - a financial officer for a local hospital - decided that it was time for Andy to either buy his own restaurant or to move on to other pastures away from Misty's hometown of Springfield. One day during that summer of 2015, the Hampshires walked into Farmers Gastropub and made Bill and Christina Griffiths the proverbial offer they couldn't refuse. By November of that year, the Hampshire's had taken over the Farmers Gastropub keeping the nearly two dozen staff members and continuing to source foods from local growers, livestock ranchers and fish farms.
It was the start of the noon hour by the time I made it in to the Farmers Gastropub. There was some construction going on in the parking lot in front of the building, so I parked up next to the fence that blocked off the construction site. The Union Jack was flapping in the brisk Spring wind out in front of the restaurant. For a moment, the location brought back a memory of a pretty good Italian restaurant that used to be in the Brentwood North strip center a number of years ago, quite possibly in the same spot in which Farmers Gastropub is housed.
I was greeted by a young hostess just inside the front door. I could see into the bar area and I saw the bar was pretty wide open. I asked if I could sit at the bar and she said it would be no problem. There were a number of little nooks with booths in the place, as well as a larger room that could be used for larger groups or overflow. Farmers Gastropub also had a nice patio on the side of the building that looked like it was set up and ready to go for outside dining. But it was a cool and blustery day - even with the brilliant sunshine - so no one was out there.
The bartender that day was a laid back guy by the name of Bob. I took a seat right in front of the line of spigots for their draft beer and he asked me what I'd like to drink. They had a number of English and Irish beers on tap including Old Speckled Hen and Murphy's Irish Stout. I found a local beer on tap that I like - the Springfield Brewing Company Greene Ghost IPA - and I ordered up one of those.
Looking through the lunch menu, I was trying to find something that I had seen when I initially checked out their menu on-line a few weeks prior to me coming in. They had some pork tacos that sounded really good on the on-line menu, but I couldn't find them on this menu. Well, it turned out that they had recently changed up the menu and there were no pork tacos on this one. Hmmmm.... OK. Now what?
The menu had a strong English influence to it - battered cod, bangers and mash, a their "Farmer's Pie" that was their version of a Shepherd's Pie were some of the items that were featured on the menu. They also had a Southern U.S. influence with fried chicken livers, a pulled pork sandwich and slow-cooked spare ribs. Farmers Gastropub also had an organic burger on the menu, as well as a number of vegetarian and gluten free offerings. Soups, salads, appetizers and naan flatbread with toppings rounded out the menu.
I sort of had my mind set on the pork tacos, however. Having to change direction, I decided that I didn't want a burger. And I wasn't certain that I wanted the rock shrimp and andouille sausage plate with cheddar cheese grits. The fried cod tacos were out, as was the sausage and egg sandwich. I was in a quandary as what to get.
I ended up getting the Farmer's Pie that featured 12-hour beer-braised grass-fed beef along with peas and carrots in an ale gravy and topped with mashed potatoes. A house salad consisting of fresh greens topped with cranberry raisins, almond chips, goat cheese and a house Vinaigrette dressing.
The Farmer's Pie serving wasn't all that large - the bowl was small in circumference and depth - but it was chock full of braised beef, carrot slices, peas and the brown ale gravy. The mashed potatoes had a crispy top to them. The meat in the dish was mostly tender, but there were some chewy chunks that I found. But the overall taste was very good, rich and hearty. It was a good "stick-to-your-bones" type of meal.
But the Farmer's Pie at Farmers Gastropub was also expensive, in my opinion. It was $14.95 for a small bowl of the Farmer's Pie and the house salad side. The taste was very good, however, and the service I had that day was also prompt and friendly. They had a great beer selection at Farmer's Gastropub and the overall atmosphere was like you walked into a pub in the middle of Great Britain. Other than what I thought were excessive prices for my lunch entree, I liked everything about Farmers Gastropub. It's another of a long list of unique restaurants that I've found in Springfield.
Thank you for your blog posting about Farmer's Gastropub. We appreciate your desire to include our background history, however not all of what you have written is factual information. We would be happy to give you an interview or a historical narrative to clear up the discrepancies.
We are glad you enjoyed your Farmer's Pie. Serving locally sourced products does tend to make our menu items a bit more "expensive" in the eyes of some patrons; but our locals feel the quality they are getting is well worth the price.
Posted by: Misty Hampshire | May 12, 2017 at 12:09 PM