Chef JohnMichael Lynch’s popular summer pizza pop-up, Farina Rossa Kitchen, has found a permanent home in northeast Minneapolis after facing challenges with its seasonal operations.
Lynch had planned to take the pop-up into a fall residency offering expanded tasting dinners, but struggled to attract enough traffic. Faced with financial realities, he decided to cancel the plans. “We couldn’t get enough traffic to it, and doing the math, I realized we weren’t able to survive like this,” Lynch explained.
However, the day after making the decision to close, Lynch received a call from Fair State Brewing Cooperative. The brewery was looking for a new food partner to move into the adjacent bakery space that had previously housed Aki’s BreadHaus. When Aki’s relocated, Fair State took over the space, and Lynch’s expertise in bread baking made him the ideal fit.
By mid-December, Lynch’s Farina Rossa Kitchen will officially open at Fair State Brewing, located at 2506 Central Ave. NE. This marks the first permanent location for his concept, which he developed after years of dealing with food allergies.
Growing up in a household of celiacs, Lynch became deeply interested in nutrition and experimenting with ingredients like gluten and sugar. His passion for cooking grew out of a desire to find healing through food, leading him to culinary school.
Lynch, who has worked at notable restaurants like Travail and Red Wagon, channeled his love for whole grain cooking into creating a signature sourdough pizza crust. This past summer, he operated a pop-up at Bang Brewing Co. in St. Paul, offering hearty pizzas topped with farm-fresh ingredients, such as a standout peach pizza.
“Setting up a tent, breaking it down, and transporting everything twice a day was an incredible challenge,” Lynch said. “The labor involved made it very hard to be successful.”
Now, with a permanent kitchen at Fair State Brewing, Lynch is excited about the opportunities to expand his menu. While pizza remains the focus, he uses mostly Minnesota-grown grains, milled at Baker’s Field Flour & Bread, for both Neapolitan and Detroit-style crusts.
“My love for the flour we use and for pizza in general is an easy way to connect with people,” Lynch said. “I think everyone can appreciate pizza on some level.”
In addition to pizza, Lynch will offer creative appetizers, including roasted seasonal squash with green curry sauce, cilantro chutney, candied pumpkin seeds, and chili crisp.
Though currently limited by the equipment available in the bread ovens, Lynch hopes to eventually expand his offerings, including pasta dishes, as the business grows.
“There’s definitely an avenue to explore creativity,” he said. “We’re hoping to continue the journey and expand what this brand was really meant to be.”
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