FARM - Bloomington

FARM is one of many "farm-to-plate" style restaurants popping up in the US, offering locally grown produce and meat in their food, as well as a nice selection of beers. Food is kind of like comfort food, but taken up a few notches in flavor and creativity.

Decent place next to the Bus-Chum theater on Kirkwood. Rustic looking bar with some deli cases and wood decor. Service was a bit . . . frosty. I was being dripped on by some pipework (get your shit sorted, FARM) and received a chilly response when I asked for a new table. Please. That aside, the food was fine, kind of rustica mediterranean circa the early 90s. On the pricy side for sure, though, and a bit overrated. Decent selection of local and regional taps (Bells, Sun King, Three Floyds, etc.), but nothing you’d seek out if you weren’t having a meal here.

Farm is a local restaurant in Bloomington and I am surprised to see it here. While the food is worthwhile, there isn’t much here to make it worthwhile as a beer destination. Upland is definitely the place to hit in town for beer.

UPDATE: A change in direction has led to the Farm giving up on their impressive bottle list. Still has a few good beers on tap, but not the beer bar which it early promised to be. Music has changedfrom live bluegrass to soul/funk dj’s minimal cover on the weekend. Beers and bourbons are generally overpriced. OLD RATING: The Farm is more like three places. A restaurant, which is out of my price range, a bar with good tapas (great fries) / flatbread and ’the root-cellar’ which is featuring bluegrass/old-timey music. The root cellar is great with two taps (currently behemouth and brooklyn extra bruin) + a nice bottle selection which is very fairly priced. The upstairs bar has 5 taps with an OK selection, featuring locals and regionals.