New farm-to-table-themed Plymouth pizzeria drawing rave reviews
Farmers Barn Pizzeria opened at 40420 Five Mile Road in Plymouth in December.
From its eye-catching logo featuring a walking slice of pizza wearing a cowboy hat to its “healthy-as-pizza-can-be” menu items, everything about Plymouth’s month-old Farmers Barn Pizzeria screams “FRESH!”.
Launched in December of 2023 at 40420 Five Mile Road in Plymouth by longtime successful restauranteur Ben Barnes, Farmers Barn has been embraced by hot-as-an-oven reviews during its first few weeks of operation.
“During the first few days we were open, a lady called me and she was practically in tears,” recounted Barnes, who is also the corporate manager for French Toast Bistro locations in Plymouth and Canton.
Happy tears, it turned out.
Tears of joy
“At first, I thought she had just ate the worst thing she had eaten in her entire life,” Barnes continued. “But she said, ‘The neighborhood (the nearby Lake Pointe subdivision) has needed something like your pizzeria for a long time and please, even if you have customers lined up out your door, don’t change what you’re doing’.
“Another example of one of the several positive reviews we’ve received was one I read on Google that said: ‘The only negative comment I have about your place is that the food is so good, I’m not going to be able to fit in my pants next week.'”
(Check out Farmers Barn menu by clicking here.)
Barnes chuckled as he recalled the reviews.
No post-meal sluggishness
Farmers Barn’s concept is to deliver delicious pizzas and other comfort-food selections that don’t make its consumers feel bloated and sluggish post-meal.
“We specialize in farm-to-table ingredients,” said Barnes. “The farm freshness angle combined with my last name is how we came up with the name.
“We make the dough in-house, we make the sauce here and we use nothing but the best, freshest cheese on the market — and we use no fillers. You can literally taste the freshness in the food.”
Unique idea
Barnes said his idea for Farmers Barn was hatched shortly after his son was born Aug. 26, 2023.
“I was working for French Toast, which is a great company, for an owner, Mario Maniac, who I consider one of my best friends,” Barnes reflected.
“I approached Mario about my idea of opening my own farm-to-table pizzeria to give me a little more freedom to be home during the day with my son.”
Maniac shared Barnes’ passion for the idea (Barnes still works for French Toast Bistro) — and a pizzeria star was born.
“I love coming in every day,” said Barnes, when asked about the daily adrenaline rush he receives from owning his own business.
“Someone asked me last week, ‘How long have you been making pizza?’ And I told them, ‘Oh, about a month and a day’ (he smiled).
‘Incredible team’ of chefs
“But I have assembled an incredible team. Our master pizza maker Derrick (Favot) and our master chef Julia (Cislaghi) have decades of pizza-making and food-preparing experience, so I give them all the credit.”
Probably the most important facet of running a restaurant Barnes has learned throughout his success-coated career is pleasing the customers is No. 1.
“Customer service is huge to me,” he said. “It’s not just about, ‘Here’s your food, get out of here.’ When customers come in and are waiting for their food, we’ll ask them where they’re from, how they’re doing.
“Even though we’re a take-out business, we’ve had customers stand at our counter and hold a conversation with us while they’re eating.”
Fresh spin on menu items
Barnes said everything on the menu — in addition to pizzas, they offer barn bread and cheese bread; hot, freshly-prepared sandwiches; and a wide variety of pockets and salads — has received fabulous feedback.
“However, among the most popular so far are our Farmers Spinach Romano pizza and our BBQ chicken pizza. To give an example of how much care goes into making our pizzas, for the BBQ chicken pizza, we don’t just throw the chicken on the pizza and then toss on some barbecue sauce. We toss the BBQ sauce and the chicken before we put it on the pizza.
“We really try to put a unique spin on everything we prepare.”
Farmers Barn is open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday; and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays.
It utilizes a take-out/delivery only model, “But we’re not going to kick anybody out if they want to stick around and chat with us,” Barnes added, smiling.
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
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