How Pittsburgh steel manufacturer Gary Rack built a successful farm-to-table restaurant brand that has now expanded to Coral Springs
Coral Springs, Florida – For most of his professional life, Gary Rack has worked in an industry far removed from restaurant kitchens. Ask him what business he is in, and he still gives an answer that surprises many people. He says he is in the steel business.
For roughly five decades, Rack has operated a manufacturing company in Pittsburgh that produces prefabricated metal buildings shipped to customers around the world. Yet alongside that career, he has quietly built another successful business—one centered on fresh food, hospitality, and neighborhood dining.
That second chapter has now reached Coral Springs, where Gary Rack’s Farmhouse Kitchen recently opened its newest location at 3314 N. University Drive in the city’s new downtown Modera development.
The restaurant represents the latest milestone in a journey that began more than 20 years ago with an unexpected conversation during a trip to France.
While traveling with his wife in the south of France, Rack shared an idea that would eventually reshape his life. He wanted to open a restaurant, despite having no experience in the food industry. His wife questioned the plan.
“Why would you want to open a restaurant? You don’t know anything about restaurants,” she told him, Rack recently recalled.
His response was simple. “I’ll figure it out.”
More than two decades later, Rack is still expanding his restaurant business, proving that determination can sometimes outweigh experience.
Ironically, Rack admits that his first restaurant was not created because he saw an untapped business opportunity or had a carefully crafted culinary vision.
Instead, the motivation was much more personal.
“I basically opened it up to entertain my friends, to have a restaurant close to where I live,” he said. “I didn’t know how to manage food costs.”
His first venture, Coal Mine Pizza, opened in Royal Palm Place in Boca Raton. At the time, coal-fired pizza was still uncommon in South Florida. Only two restaurants in the region specialized in the style, including Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza.
Rack’s original coal-fired oven continues operating at the Boca Raton restaurant today, serving as a reminder of where the business first began.
As the years passed, Rack continued experimenting with new concepts.
Coal Mine Pizza eventually led to Table 42, another restaurant that reflected his growing experience in hospitality. About 12 years ago, however, he decided to transform that concept into something that better matched his own lifestyle and eating habits.
That decision became the foundation for Gary Rack’s Farmhouse Kitchen.
Rather than focusing on pizza, the restaurant shifted toward fresh, farm-to-table meals inspired by the way Rack himself lives.
“I get up at 5 o’clock every morning, I work out, I go to the gym, I eat salmon literally every day for lunch with vegetables,” Rack said. “I eat very clean. That’s how the farmhouse kitchen concept started.”
The menu reflects that philosophy by emphasizing fresh ingredients and balanced meals while maintaining a welcoming atmosphere for a wide variety of guests.
Rack’s newest location is also his largest Farmhouse restaurant to date.
Spanning approximately 3,600 square feet, the Coral Springs restaurant occupies a prominent space within the Modera mixed-use development that continues reshaping the city’s downtown area.
According to Rack, the move to Coral Springs was driven by more than just a new building.
About two years ago, a developer approached him about becoming one of the project’s anchor restaurants. The proposal immediately caught his attention because it offered something he had been searching for.
Unlike some South Florida communities that experience large seasonal population changes, Coral Springs offered a more consistent customer base throughout the year.
“I wanted to be in an area that was not seasonal,” he said. “Here you have people living 10, 11 months out of the year, versus Boca where they’re here for four or five months, and then they’re gone.”
That year-round community made Coral Springs an attractive place to continue growing the Farmhouse brand.
Guests visiting the new location will find a menu similar to the one served at the restaurant’s Delray Beach location. One notable difference is the absence of the coal-fired pizza that remains exclusive to the original Boca Raton restaurant, preserving a connection to the company’s roots.
The Coral Springs restaurant also features a distinctive artistic centerpiece.
Artist Ruben Romero spent three weeks hand-painting a large mural inside the restaurant, creating a visual focal point that complements the warm, rustic design of the dining space.
While fresh food plays a major role in the Farmhouse concept, Rack believes another ingredient is equally important.
He says the restaurant experience begins with hospitality.
His goal is to create an environment where guests feel welcomed from the moment they walk through the doors and receive attentive, friendly service throughout their visit.
For someone whose primary business continues to involve manufacturing steel buildings shipped across the globe, his restaurant ambitions remain remarkably grounded.
Rather than focusing on rapid expansion or becoming a national chain, Rack says his objective is much simpler.
“We want to be the local favorite,” Rack said. “Where people really want to go and experience great food and great service.”
That philosophy has remained consistent throughout his more than two decades in the restaurant business.
Even after spending nearly 50 years in manufacturing while simultaneously growing a hospitality brand, Rack says he continues learning and refining the business that began with a spontaneous idea during a vacation in France.
Today, visitors can experience that vision at Gary Rack’s Farmhouse Kitchen in Coral Springs, located at 3314 N. University Drive. The restaurant is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Fridays until 11 p.m., and weekends beginning at 10 a.m., remaining open until 11 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 p.m. on Sundays.
From steel fabrication plants in Pittsburgh to a growing collection of restaurants in South Florida, Rack’s story illustrates an unlikely career path—one built on curiosity, persistence, and a willingness to embrace an industry he once knew nothing about.
