Openings

Roots Team to Open Homestead, Farm and Table, On Roof

One floor above this.
One floor above this. Photo: courtesy Homestead

The owners of Roots Handmade Pizza, Greg Mohr and Scott Weiner, are not just opening a new farm-to-table restaurant— they’ve built both the farm and the tables on the roof above Roots. What that means is that they’re opening Homestead, a restaurant whose every single dish will come from the 1000-square-foot organic rooftop garden (plus additional hanging gardens) which the seating overlooks. (Obviously not every element of every dish— like, say, beef— but every dish will contain elements from the garden, which will grow more than 100 different items.) The chef will be John Wayne Formica— yes, he really is named Formica, how much more destined to be a chef can you get— who was on the opening team of Sunda under Rodelio Aglibot and then worked as executive sous chef. The beer list will be exclusively midwestern, while the wine list will be primarily organic and biodynamic; Femme Du Coupe’s Revae Schneider is consulting on the cocktail list. And yes, because Chicago has a winter, it is a seasonal restaurant— only open from spring until October. But you can never have enough great spaces to dine outside during those months, can you?

Roots Team to Open Homestead, Farm and Table, On Roof