The Farmer’s Table restaurant on Forest Street on Tuesday closed its doors at number 21 as it started moving equipment and furniture across the road to number 12, where it’ll open within a couple of weeks, its chef and owner said.
The Farmer's Table chef/owner Robert Ubaldo in front of 12 Forest St., where his restaurant will re-open in a new, larger space. Credit: Michael Dinan
“That ought to be confusing enough, flipping those numbers around,” Robert Ubaldo said with a smile from the sunny sidewalk of New Canaan’s “Restaurant Row.”
Ubaldo said a part of him is sad to leave the spot where the restaurant started three-plus years ago—formerly the Lindner motorcycle shop located next to the old Griffin Ford dealership.
The original site of The Farmer's Table at 21 Forest St. The buildings pictured here will come down to make way for condominiums and retail. Credit: Michael Dinan
“It still had parts in the basement when we moved in,” Ubaldo recalled. A mixed residential-and-retail space is planned for the second half of the downtown Forest Street block.
Yet the larger floor space and kitchen across the street—formerly Bistro Bonne Nuit—offers a chance to grow, he said.
“We can have 40 seats instead of 18,” Ubaldo said. “And another good part is that there’s outdoor dining, and we can have a liquor license, too.”
Ubaldo grows much of his own produce for his new American cuisine fare at Farmer’s Table, and he said the restaurant’s menu will expand.
“I think I might vary it a little bit more,” he said.
Specifically, Ubaldo said, he will offer a greater number of appetizers and is in the process of remaking the kids’ menu to offer more healthy options.
“I know people like to try a lot of things, so I was thinking people could order a lot of appetizers, maybe try this and that,” he said. “When I go out to dinner, sometimes I just order a bunch of appetizers. We don’t have that many now, so I was thinking we’d vary that a little bit.”