How Friendly Farm Restaurant Became a Fixture for No-Frills, Family-Style Fare

Having a restaurant in his house while he was growing up wasn’t always easy for Larry Wilhelm, a retired owner of Friendly Farm Restaurant in northern Baltimore County—especially since the family shared an upstairs bathroom with diners.

On one occasion, several young guests decided to explore his bedroom after a trip to the toilet. “I found kids jumping on my bed, taking clothes out of the drawers, and getting my toys out,” says Wilhelm, 73, who was a peeved 8-year-old at the time. “I went downstairs and told my mother.”

He didn’t know he was about to get his first lesson in serving the public. “She said, ‘They’re customers. We have to take care of our customers.’ I was introduced early on to customer service,” he says with a chuckle.

Wilhelm is still surprised that his mother, Dorothy Wilhelm, even agreed to be part of the business venture cooked up by his dad, Jack Wilhelm.

“How does a guy from the country, a rural person, talk a city girl, who lived on Remington Avenue in Hampden, into turning their home into a restaurant?” he asks.

Fate probably had something to do with her decision. Larry’s father learned to cook while serving in the Army during World War II. “He could take things and make them pretty tasty,” Larry remembers. After returning home from the war, Jack bought the 200-acre Upperco property—the future home of Friendly Farm Restaurant—and raised corn, wheat, and beef cattle before marrying Dorothy in 1949.

The couple settled into farming life until 1957, when Jack’s leg got caught in a corn-picking machine, “messing it up terribly,” Larry says. “He thought, foolishly, that being in the restaurant business would be easier. Maybe that’s how he talked Mom into it.”

When Jack and Dorothy opened Friendly Farm, not far from winding Mount Carmel Road, in 1959, Interstate 83 hadn’t been built yet and the now-bustling Hunt Valley area was all horse country. Going to the restaurant, which recently celebrated its 65th anniversary, was considered a day trip by Baltimoreans, who traveled along Falls or York roads to get to the pastoral property.

In the early days, Larry remembers going to Sunday church at 9 a.m. and returning home to find customers waiting to get into the restaurant. “They’d be on the field, playing ball and lying on blankets,” he says. “We’d quickly change and open the restaurant.”

It was all-hands-on-deck for the family, including Larry, who would stand on a milk crate while washing dishes by hand. “The apron would wrap around me twice,” he says with a laugh. “Now, it won’t wrap around me once.”

At the time, the restaurant, then called Friendly Farm Steakhouse, was open only on Saturdays and Sundays, serving fried chicken, ham, and steak with family-style appetizers and side dishes, starting at 95 cents a person. Today, the restaurant is open Wednesdays through Sundays and operates on a first-come, first-served basis, only accepting reservations on Thanksgiving and for parties of 10 or more.

And while those initial entrees are still on the menu, plus numerous additions, prices kick off at $22.95 and include oversized scoops of ice cream for dessert and unlimited drinks, from sodas to coffee. There’s also a children’s menu.

“You get such great portions,” says Bonnie Kabara, who lives in Dundalk and makes the trek to the restaurant twice a week with her partner, Bruce Schmitt. “They always give you extra sides. We eat half our food; then bring the rest home so we have additional meals.”

No alcohol is served in the dining room. “We have several church people who don’t want to be involved in that,” explains Larry. “It’s a family-style restaurant.”

“YOU GET SUCH GREAT PORTIONS. THEY ALWAYS GIVE YOU EXTRA SIDES.”

When the crowds outgrew the 44-seat parlor dining room in the original house, the Wilhelms built a new restaurant building nearby, which opened in 1964 and seats 200. It was around that time that they dropped “Steakhouse” from the name, settling on Friendly Farm. “When people called, it was quicker to say,” Larry says.

After the deaths of Jack in 1976 and Dorothy in 2014, Larry; his younger brother, Gary, 69; Gary’s wife, Jane, 66; and Larry’s late wife, Denise, who died in 2023, continued to run the business. As the Wilhelm brothers grew older, they knew they would have to make a decision about what to do with the property one day.

“We had a great run, Larry and I,” says Gary, who declares himself 80-percent retired. “We weren’t sure what was going to happen to the restaurant. We thought about leasing it or selling it.”

Then, the next generation stepped up. Gary and Jane’s children, Caroline Fouts, 36, and Chris Wilhelm, 33, have become a crucial part of the operation, with Caroline handling accounting and other duties and Chris managing the catering side of the business and day-to-day maintenance.

“I didn’t expect them to take over,” says Gary, who is thrilled with the outcome. “I told them, ‘Don’t assume you have to do it because we did it.’ I didn’t want them to miss out on anything else.”

Gary, a star athlete during his days at Hereford High School, speaks from experience. When he was a graduating senior in 1975, a Detroit Tigers scout reached out to him. But he decided not to pursue the opportunity. “Unfortunately, my dad was very sick,” Gary says. “I let that go for family. I have no regrets.”

So far, neither do Caroline and Chris, who both live on the restaurant property. They have already experienced other jobs. Caroline, a Stevenson University business major who has worked at the restaurant since she was 14, took a position at Under Armour after graduation in the team sports division, working with local high schools and colleges. “It was very rewarding,” she says. But after five years, she was drawn back to the family business, getting married and becoming a mom to daughters Saylor, 5, and Raegan, 3.

Chris, who graduated from James Madison University in Virginia with an accounting degree in 2014, worked for a local accounting firm for four years. “I loved it,” he says. But he, too, felt the pull of family. “You are born into it,” explains Chris, who also worked at the restaurant as a teenager. “It’s hard to let it go. It feels like home.”

The sister and brother hope to put their own imprint on the business. “We have a lot of ideas,” Caroline says. “A wedding venue is definitely in our vision. We do weddings, but we’re not a full wedding venue with a place for people to get ready and stay overnight.”

Getting a liquor license in 2023 was a big plus. “We lost a lot of business because we didn’t have one,” she says.

Even with a liquor license in place for catered events in the recently renovated, lower-level banquet room, the family doesn’t plan to serve alcohol in the main dining room. “It’s one thing my grandma never wanted,” Caroline says. “I’m still trying to abide by her wishes.” Chris agrees. “You don’t want to mess it up,” he says.

In recent years, Chris also worked on getting parts of the property rezoned. “It’s ready in case we want to build something,” he says.

It’s too early to tell if there will be a fourth generation at Friendly Farm, though Caroline’s girls spend a lot of time at the restaurant. “They’re pretty young,” she says. “But they like to come here and run around.”

Cheryl Haglauer, who lives in Lutherville-Timonium and has been going to Friendly Farm since the ’70s, can relate. The acres of green grass surrounding the restaurant in the warmer months are a lure to visitors of all ages before or after their meals.

“We take the grandchildren, who are 2 and 5. They run free through the fields to see the ducks and geese,” she says. She also brought her son to the restaurant when he was younger. “The staff are warm and welcoming,” she says. “And they are so kind and considerate to children.”

Many of the servers have been there for decades. Most are women, dressed in crisp maroon shirts and black pants. One of them, Linda Naylor, 69, has been hoisting trays for 25 years. “It’s the most important job I’ve ever had,” she says. “I like being around people. It warms my heart.”

The setup at Friendly Farm is different from most sit-down restaurants. Customers order and pay for their entrees before they enter the dining room. Jack Wilhelm got the idea after visiting the now-closed Peter Pan Inn in Frederick County, known for its bountiful meals and roaming peacocks.

Some diners were wary at first. “They would say, ‘What if I don’t like the meal,’ and my mother would say, ‘You’re going to like the meal,’” Larry says.

Once diners are seated, the servers take drink orders and immediately place several bowls of appetizers on the table, from cottage cheese and canned sliced peaches to coleslaw and addictive sugar biscuits that taste like beignets. Family-style sides, including green beans, corn, and French fries, are served with the main dishes. Hershey’s ice cream or sherbet finish the meal.

There’s nothing fancy about the food—think American grandma food. “You keep going because it’s always good,” says Haglauer, who first came to Friendly Farm on a date with a boyfriend. “There’s a lot of lump in the crab cake, not a lot of filler. And there’s nothing like their fried chicken.”

Jane, Gary’s wife, started working at the restaurant as a waitress when she was in high school and is clocking in at 50 years. “My kids won’t let me retire,” she says with a laugh. She remembers when the family tried to serve fresh green beans instead of the beans simmered in ham broth. It didn’t last long. “People love the mushy green beans,” she says.

THERE’S NOTHING FANCY ABOUT THE FOOD—THINK AMERICAN GRANDMA FOOD.

Stu Barnes, 46, oversees the daily running of Friendly Farm’s dining room, banquets, and catering jobs. Growing up in central London, the former IT worker never imagined he’d be cooking on a Maryland farm for a living, although he always enjoyed making food for friends and co-workers. Then, Cupid intervened.

While visiting his aunt in Maryland, Barnes met Larry’s daughter, Crystal, and was smitten. They married in 2013 in an outdoor ceremony by the property’s pond, complete with a spraying fountain. It wasn’t long before he found a place in the restaurant’s kitchen.

“I helped Larry out with the cooking one day, and I knew it was what I wanted to do,” says Barnes, who then enrolled in the culinary program at Anne Arundel Community College.

Though the dining-room menu offers the same homey dishes it has for years, Barnes was instrumental in adding a vegetarian eggplant Parmesan dish to the lineup and spotlighting baby back ribs as a special. He also gets to explore his creative side when planning menus for events and weddings.

But he appreciates the predictability of the restaurant’s regular menu. “It’s the consistency,” he says. “People came here with their grandparents. They may not come back for 10 or 15 years, but when they come back, it’s exactly as they remember it. It’s why we’ve been in business so long. It’s exactly what they wanted.”

Barnes also finds comfort in the landscape. He and Crystal now live in the old homestead that once housed the restaurant.

“Growing up in a concrete jungle, I now look out my window, and I’ve got all this,” he says, gesturing to restaurant’s acres of open  and. “I’ve fully become a country boy.”

While the restaurant is surrounded by lush acreage, there are no farm animals or fields plowed with vegetables these days. After the restaurant opened, Jack and Dorothy tried to grow enough green beans and tomatoes to feed their diners, but there were too many mouths to feed. “It became overwhelming,” Larry says.

Currently, Friendly Farm seats about 1,000 people a week.

“It’s a beautiful place to enjoy,” Jane says. “I think that’s why we do the crowds we do. It’s safe. You don’t have to worry about parking. People can let their kids run around and not have to worry about anything happening. We’re very fortunate to have so much and to be able to share it with so many people.”