Joe’s Farm Grill used to be the Johnston family residence. Built in 1966, Jim and Virginia Johnston hired D. D. Castleberry to design and build a ranch-style, slump block home for their young family. Sons Joe, Steve, and Paul were excited to move to “the country”. In the planning of Agritopia, we always envisioned a restaurant coupled to the urban farm as a focal point for the project. This vision guided our redevelopment of the Johnston home into Joe’s Farm Grill.

We preserved the 60’s era look while updating it into a modern, mid-century “burger stand”. Blending the indoors and outdoors as we took advantage of the peaceful setting created by the large trees. 

So what is left of the original house? Most of it, actually. The dining room with its fireplace is the former family room. The kitchen is where all of the bedrooms used to be. The home’s kitchen and dining room were taken out to create the atrium.