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The restaurant moved to South Glenstone Avenue from downtown on New Year’s Eve 2013.Photo courtesy FARMERS GASTROPUB
The restaurant moved to South Glenstone Avenue from downtown on New Year’s Eve 2013.

Photo courtesy FARMERS GASTROPUB

Farmers Gastropub owners agree to sale

Posted online

 Last edited 3:54 p.m., Aug. 18, 2015

Farmers Gastropub owners Bill Griffiths and Christina Fugitt-Griffiths have signed a deal to sell their nearly 6-year-old restaurant to the executive chef of Highland Springs Country Club.

Andy Hampshire, who worked the past three years at Highland Springs until today, is scheduled to take over ownership Nov. 1, said Bill Griffiths. Declining to disclose financial terms of the deal, Griffiths said Hampshire would retain the pub’s roughly 22 employees.

“He and his wife made us an offer we couldn’t refuse,” Griffiths said, noting he wasn’t seeking a sale of his 2620 S. Glenstone Ave. restaurant but was approached by his longtime friend and his wife Misty. “I look forward to watching the business grow and prosper here in Springfield and maybe helping along the way.”

The Griffiths established the English-style pub offering local, organic and sustainable foods in October 2009 in downtown Springfield. They relocated to the Brentwood Center on New Year’s Eve 2013, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

The two couples share similar backgrounds.

Englishman Griffiths, who’s in his early 60s, met his wife, a Springfield native, while the two were working and living in France. Andy Hampshire is also from the United Kingdom and his wife is American, according to a news release.

Hampshire also has past experience at Bass Pro Shops’ Big Cedar Lodge, where he became executive chef in 2008, and at the Hilton Branson Convention Center.

"We are committed to preserving Bill and Christina’s motto of 'the fresher the food, the better it tastes' and will continue to work with local farmers to bring only the freshest seasonal ingredients to pub patrons,” Hampshire said in the release.

Griffiths said he has no immediate plans to retire.

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