Homestead, a rooftop restaurant, to open above Roots in July

Homestead

What would it take for a restaurant to be "literally" farm-to-table? Greg Mohr and Scott Weiner—the owners of Roots Handmade Pizza, the Fifty/50 and a West Town bakery that will surely not remain Bleeding Heart for long—are testing the meaning of the phrase with Homestead, a restaurant where ingredients from every dish will come from a 1,000-square-foot organic rooftop farm, slated to open mid-July.

At the helm will be chef John Wayne Formica, who brings to the table his Italian and Lebanese roots as well as two-and-a-half years of experience at Sunda. Formica is a four-year United States Army veteran who served a tour in Iraq and is nicknamed "the Duke": He's an avid traveler and blogs about his experiences at travelingcowboychef.com.

On Formica's opening menu: a "Two Way Potato" topped with shaved summer truffles, lamb tartare made with Illinois-raised lamb filets, and "Textured Foie," i.e., torchon paired with squash puree and greens picked from the rooftop farm. Accompanying the food will be a cocktail list created by Femme du Coupe's Revae Schneider, a Midwestern beer selection heavy on large-format "bombers," and a collection of 50 mostly organic and biodynamic wines.

Which leaves only one question: How is Homestead going to continue to source from a local rooftop in winter? The answer is: It's not. The restaurant will operate until mid-October, then reopen in the spring of 2013.

Homestead (1924 W Chicago Ave, 2nd floor) is slated to open mid-July.