Farmers Gastropub Brings English-Style Food to Springfield.

Located near the bustling crossroads of Glenstone Avenue and Battlefield Road in Southwest Springfield lies one of my favorite restaurants in the city: Farmers Gastropub.

It is a traditional English pub with a philosophy of serving locally grown food. It is owned by my friend Chef Andy Hampshire and his wife, Misty. Hailing from a little town in England called Middlewich, Chef Andy relocated to the area after an internship at Big Cedar Lodge in 1999. At the lodge, he not only met his future wife but distinguished himself and rose through the ranks to the position of executive chef, which he held for three years. He went on to serve as executive chef at both the Hilton Hotel in Branson and the Highland Springs Country Club in Springfield. In November 2015, the couple decided to purchase the pub from its original owners, Bill and Christina Griffiths. With Chef Andy in charge of the kitchen and operations and Misty in charge of the business and accounting, the restaurant soon became a popular go-to spot for good food and beer in a comfortable English pub setting.

My wife, Brigitte, and I have eaten at the pub many times, but up until this point, I’d never interviewed Chef Andy about his favorite dishes. So one day before the restaurant opened, we met to talk about his most popular dishes, which he brought out to share.

The first dish was one of Britain’s most famous classic starters, the Scotch Egg, a soft-boiled egg that is encased in Newman Farm’s pork sausage, flavored with turmeric and whole-grain mustard, breaded and fried, and served with cauliflower and shallot piccalilli. Chef Andy told me that in his home country, the Scotch egg is most often made with a hard-boiled egg and, historically, is a lunch box food often taken to work on a typical weekday. His version is made with a soft-boiled egg for a more dramatic presentation in the restaurant setting.

Next came the quintessential classic Fish & Chips (one  of my favorite dishes that I often order) made with long- line-caught cod imported from Iceland and served with an English classic side of mushy peas. He also served me another customer-favorite cod dish, Pan-Seared Cod with caper lemon butter sauce on crispy sautéed cabbage with bacon and champ-mashed potatoes, a traditional Irish potato dish.

Along with these tasty fish dishes, Chef Andy brought me the extremely popular Cream of Mushroom Soup, made with reduced cream and cremini and button mushrooms, flavored with locally grown sage, and topped with in-house baked croutons made from bread baked at a favorite local bakery, Neighbor’s Mill Bakery. The bakery also provides the pub with hamburger rolls, which are used for its Smash Burger and other seasonal sandwiches.  

After eating the soup, I was becoming very full, yet I could not resist the next dish—the Vegetable Tikka Masala with basmati rice and toasted almonds. The curry was expertly seasoned with complex layered flavors, yet it was not overly spiced with hot chili seasonings, as is so often the case with curry. He explained to me that along with the classic English fare, the pub also serves many Indo- and Pan-Asian inspired dishes reminiscent of those found in pubs all over London and throughout the United Kingdom. Over time, these types of foods with exotic flavors have come to be popular there due to the arrival of international spices and ingredients brought back from many of the English Commonwealth lands throughout the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia.

Along with the unassuming yet skillfully crafted dishes from the kitchen, the pub also serves a bevy of beers with 20 beers on tap as well as bottled beers. Many of the beers are imported favorites, along with locally produced microbrews. The pub is also well known for its handcrafted cocktails, its whisky selection, and in the summer, its fresh-squeezed fruit margaritas.

Chef Andy is proud of two things, one of which is that the pub procures its seasonal vegetables from more than twenty local farms and producers. He is also happy that a large majority of the staff, from both the front of the house and kitchen, has been with the restaurant for many years.

I asked him one final question: “In your own words, what would you like the readers of Missouri Life to know?” He offered this parting phrase, “To eat more at locally owned restaurants!” I couldn’t agree more! So stop by the Gastropub next time you are in Springfield. When you do, in the often-said English phrase, “Drink a pint for me, mate!”

Article originally published in the November/December 2024 issue of Missouri Life.