Road Tips

Gramma's Kitchen - Walcott, IA

The Iowa Pork Producers Association annually awards a restaurant across the state for having the best pork tenderloin sandwich.  This year's winner is Gramma's Kitchen along Interstate 80 north of Walcott, IA, at Exit 284, just west of the Quad Cities (see map).  We'd been to Gramma's in the past (it's been around since 1980), but had never gotten the pork tenderloin sandwich.  I had returned home after a long trip and Cindy wasn't up for making anything at home that evening (she was suffering from a cold), so I suggested we'd go out to Gramma's Kitchen and give their tenderloin a try.

Gramma's Kitchen is part of the Heart of America group of restaurants and hotels run by Quad Cities native Mike Whalen and includes The Machine Shed family style restaurants with six locations, Thunder Bay Grille in Davenport, Rockford and Pewaukee, WI, and Johnny's Italian Steakhouse with six locations (soon to be seven).  You can click here to see my entry on the Johnny's Italian Steakhouse in West Des Moines.  Gramma's Kitchen is the only stand alone restaurant of the Heart of America empire that stretches across six states in the Midwest.  

I've eaten at - and shared on Road Tips - the past three winners of the Iowa Pork Producers Best Tenderloin contest.  They are the 2008 winner Augusta in Oxford, IA; 2009 winner Goldie's Drive Inn in Prairie City, IA; and 2010 winner Buck's Bar in Mitchellville, IA.  (Buck's Bar closed up earlier this year.)  While I usually don't go out of my way to experience pork tenderloin sandwiches like I do with burger joints, if I come across one that I've heard is pretty good, I'll stop.  Thankfully, Gramma's Kitchen is only 15 minutes from our home.  

We entered Gramma's Kitchen around 7 p.m. that evening and it was far from packed.  Although the parking lot was over half full, many of the people who drove - or who walked over from the Iowa 80 truck stop (the World's Largest Truck Stop) - were in the attached Checkered Flag Bar and Grill.  We were immediately greeted by a hostess, then escorted through the gift shop area (similar to the gift shops you find at the Machine Shed restaurants) and seated in a booth in the spacious and well-lit dining area.

Our waiter for the evening, Eric, was young guy who was very friendly and was overly attentive.  He apologized for not coming around sooner (he was busy with other tables and it was less than five minutes after we were seated).  And by that time we were ready to order.

Most of the food on the dinner menu at Gramma's Kitchen is comfort food, but you can get steaks and some seafood at the place.  Actually, since Cindy was suffering from a cold, she almost got the Chicken Pot Pie, one of the king comfort food dishes you can find.  But at the last moment, she went with the battered pork tenderloin sandwich with a side of cole slaw. (Grilled pork tenderloin sandwiches are available, as well.  Make sure you know which one you're ordering when you order a pork tenderloin sandwich.)

I, too, went with the battered pork tenderloin with a side of fries.  And for good measure, I asked Eric if I could get a side of gravy for the fries.  He said, "Sure!  What kind of gravy?  Breakfast gravy, turkey gravy, pork..."  

I told him beef gravy and he said, "You bet!"   

It took about 15 minutes for the pork tenderloins to come out to us.  The pork tenderloins start out as 1/4 pound pork loins, slightly pounded out, then dipped in an egg and flour batter, then deep-fried to a deep golden brown color.  The best thing about the pork loins at Gramma's Kitchen is the term "slightly pounded out".  Some places that feature pork tenderloin sandwiches pound the living shit out of the loin and they end up being large and flat.  That also takes the moisture out of the tenderloin making it dry.  The second best thing about the pork tenderloin sandwiches at Gramma's is that they're battered - not breaded.  I'll eat a breaded tenderloin, but - to me - it's not as good a deep-fried, battered tenderloin.    

Cindy's pork tenderloin sandwich (above right) was a little larger than mine.   The tenderloin stuck out a bit from the toasted bun, but not so much like you find at other places.  The only problem I had was that there weren't enough pickles.  Only one long pickle slice came with the sandwich.  Eric came back with my drink and I asked him for some more pickle slices.  He brought out a plate with about 10 pickle slices.  He said, "We try to do everything big here at Gramma's Kitchen."  

The pork tenderloins were thick, juicy and very good.  The batter was a little salty in taste (then again, I hardly salt anything), but it was still very good with the pork loin.  I had contemplated getting just one and splitting it.  But as it turned out, we were both hungry - Cindy was especially hungry as she hadn't been eating well because of her cold - and I made very short work with my tenderloin, along with the fries and much of the gravy.  Cindy dawdled a bit, but she was able to eat all but a couple three bites of her sandwich.  She said, "Yeah, that was great!  I guess I was a lot more hungry than I thought!"  

For their winning this year's best pork tenderloin sandwich, Gramma's Kitchen was given a plaque and a $500 dollar check from the Iowa Pork Producers Association.   When Eric came back to get our dishes, he asked, "Well, how was it?"  

I told him, "You guys are much better than the last two winners (Goldie's and Buck's).  But I'm not certain that you're as good as the one over in Oxford that won three years ago.  It's close, but I'd have to go back there to see for sure.  And it certainly gives the one up at TC's Point After in DeWitt a run for the money.  That's a very good one, too."

But all that's not to say the pork tenderloin from Gramma's Kitchen isn't good.  It's very worthy of its standing as the best pork tenderloin sandwich in Iowa for 2011.  Even though the plaque says "Best Breaded Tenderloin Sandwich", it's the batter on the pork tenderloin at Gramma's Kitchen that makes the difference.

Dawson's on Main - Speedway, IN

 
The 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 will take place this coming Sunday in Indianapolis.  Actually, the race track is in a small encircled suburb of Indy by the name of Speedway, a city that was one of the first planned communities in the United States.  I've been going out to the Indy 500 off and on since 1986 and while I've known about the town of Speedway, I never knew there was actually a downtown area until I met up with a guy for a business lunch at a place called Dawson's on Main.  It is literally just a stone's throw from Turn One at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (see map).  All these years of going to Indianapolis for business and pleasure and I never knew there was such a thing as downtown Speedway, let alone a place like Dawson's on Main.

Brothers Chris and Tony Hill opened Dawson's on Main in June of 2006 along with help from their father, Gary, and their sister, Barb Lesko.  The place is named after Tony Hill's son, Dawson, who will, no doubt, grow into the family business. 

As I said, Speedway was one of the first planned communities in the United States with much of the development designed around the use of the motor car.  It was one of the first communities that was laid out with wide streets and designed with garages for every home in the little city.  So I found it somewhat ironic that Main Street was effectively shut down with a massive works project putting in new storm sewers, lights and sidewalks.  I had to park up the street on 15th and walk about a block to the restaurant.  However, I understand that Main Street in Speedway should be open by now. 

Dawson's on Main bills themselves as an upscale restaurant with a casual atmosphere.  And it's sort of an upscale sports bar, as well.  It has two pretty good sized dining rooms - the main one as you come into the restaurant at the corner of 15th and Main in downtown Speedway, and a dining/bar area as you pass through the main dining room. 

It was in the bar area that I met with my guy who I was having the lunch meeting with.  He was already seated with lunch menus in front of him.  We sat for awhile and caught up on some business before I even had a chance to look at the menu.  Although the lunch menu is definitely upscale compared to other places in the area for lunch, Dawson's on Main's dinner menu was something that interested me tremendously.   While both menus share a handful of items such as some appetizers, sandwiches and salads, after 5 p.m. Dawson's on Main goes even more upscale with a wide variety of steaks, seafood, pasta dishes, chicken and pork chops, as well as their own barbecued ribs. 

I wasn't overly hungry as I'd had breakfast earlier in the day, but I knew it would be a long time before dinner that evening so I thought I'd better have something substantial for lunch.  I looked at possibly getting the iceberg wedge salad - a large wedge of iceberg lettuce that was topped with smoked apple hickory wood bacon, red onions and cucumbers, then finished with crumbled bleu cheese and honey pecans and topped with Dawson's homemade house dressing, a herb vinaigrette.  In fact, all of Dawson's salad dressings were made in house. 

Dawson's on Main also featured a number of sandwiches and wraps including the Italian chicken and pepperoni wrap - Dawson's grilled chicken with Italian spices and topped with pepperoni slices, alfalfa sprouts (I'd pass on those), red onions and banana pepper rings, then topped with Gorgonzola cheese and wrapped in slices of cheddar cheese.  Then they top it off with the house herb vinaigrette dressing.  Man!  That sounded so good, but it also sounded so filling!

I also had my eye on the reuben - black angus corned beef, slow roasted in house and served on homemade marble rye bread with sauerkraut and aged Swiss cheese with Dawson's homemade Thousand Island dressing.  I almost got that, but I'd been on such a reuben kick as of late that I decided to go another direction.

The state of Indiana rivals Iowa for breaded tenderloins and I decided to see how the one at Dawson's stacked up.  I ended up getting the pork tenderloin sandwich - a pork cutlet, hand breaded and fried, then served on a bun with lettuce, tomato, red onions and dill pickles.  A side of Dawson's homemade honey mustard came with the sandwich.  I had my choice of French fries, onion rings, potato salad, cottage cheese, cole slaw or pasta salad.  I got the cottage cheese.

My guest got the chicken and spinach melt - a grilled seasoned chicken breast topped with their apple hickory wood bacon, Swiss cheese, then finished off with a dollop of Dawson's homemade spinach and artichoke dip.  It's then served on sourdough bread.  He told me, "It's the best sandwich in Indianapolis."  I came about this close to changing my order, but decided at the last moment to hold tight.

When our food made it to the table, I was instantly mentally smacking myself in the head.  This huge pork tenderloin sandwich was placed in front of me and it was huge.  Not only was it large in size, but it was thick from a combination of the breading and the thickness of the pounded pork loin.  I knew there was going to be NO WAY that I'd be able to eat the whole thing. 

 But I took a bite and it was good - very good, as a matter of fact.  The breading was crunchy and had a somewhat herbed taste to it.  The pork loin, itself, was juicy, flavorful and not over cooked in the least.   It was really a good sandwich.  The only thing I really didn't care for was the honey mustard dressing.  I ended up asking the bartender/waiter for some yellow mustard and he seemed a little taken aback that I didn't care for the honey mustard. 

My guest's chicken and spinach melt was declared to be "excellent".  And it did look good.  The spinach and artichoke dip oozed out of the sandwich.  It was definitely a multi-napkin lunch for him.  If I get back to Dawson's on Main - and I figure I will - I'll get that chicken and spinach melt.

Of course, I couldn't eat the second half of my sandwich.  And I couldn't take the leftovers with me because I knew it would be sitting in the car and not in the fridge for the next six hours.  If it would have been colder out, I could have put it in the trunk and it would have been fine.  But it was in the 60's and I knew I couldn't chance taking it with me and going bad before I had a chance to get it cooled down.  I usually take a cooler with me on the road, but for some reason I didn't bring it with me on this trip.  That's OK, I had more than enough of the sandwich to figure out that it was very good. 

Dawson's on Main is one of those great little surprises that pop up in my travels from time to time.  I like it when the locals turn me on to little places that are just outstanding.   And I thought the food, the service and the atmosphere at Dawson's on Main were all very, very good.  I would put their breaded pork tenderloin against many of those I've had in Iowa and would probably beat a couple of the "Best in Iowa" pork sandwiches I've had over the past couple three years.  I'm sure that during Indy 500 weekend, Dawson's on Main is nearly impossible to get into.  But now that I know where its at - and that the street work out front is probably finished - I won't need to wait for an Indy 500 weekend to visit Dawson's on Main. 

 

 

 

 

The Creekside "Two-Tone" Sandwich and Juicy Lucy Burger

First of all, I have to remind readers of Road Tips that the owner of Creekside Bar and Grill in Davenport, Randy Adams, is a good friend of mine. (You can read my initial entry on Creekside here.) We grew up together in Newton, IA and even though he moved away nearly 30 years ago, we stayed friends as I would visit him on my business trips to Davenport.

 

When I moved to the Quad Cities just coming up to 20 years ago on June 1, Randy and became fast friends again and have shared a lot of good times since I've been here. When Randy opened Creekside Bar and Grill about five years ago (see map), he wanted to have a great burger on the menu. Through a series of hiccups, trial and error and finding the right cooks, he finally has a pretty damn good burger, including his very good portobello mushroom, bacon, Swiss cheese burger that Randy's step-son, Stephen, came up with last year. It's a two-time nominee for the "Best Burger in Iowa" by the Iowa Beef Industry Council.

 

Randy told me recently that his other step-son, Ryan, came up with a sandwich on his own - the Two-Tone. Ryan's nickname is "Two-Tone" (I think it had something to do with a colored splotch in his hair that he used as a fashion statement at one point) and he designed a grilled pork tenderloin sandwich that was topped with a homemade onion ring, jalapeno peppers and cheese. Then for good measure, he put on some of his grandfather's homemade barbecue sauce.

 

On a recent Sunday night when Ryan was cooking at Creekside, he made one for a customer to try. The guy raved about it so much that someone else ordered one up. Then someone else ordered one. By the time he finished his grill time that evening, he had made 10 of this new sandwich which wasn't even on the menu at Creekside. In fact, they weren't really certain what to charge for it.

 

Randy soon told me that Ryan had come up with this new sandwich and that I needed to come up and give one a try. I was in Creekside on a recent visit and I was sort of hungry. Randy said, "Hey, you should try one of those Two-Tone sandwiches that Ryan made." Ryan just happened to be cooking that day.

 

I exclaimed, "Yeah, that's right! What's it again?"

  

Ryan said, "I grill a pork chop, cut it in half, serve it double decker style with cheese and jalapenos in the middle. Then I put an onion ring on top and then pour some of Grandpa's barbacue sause on it."

 

I said, "OK, you got me when you said, 'Grandpa's barbecue sauce'."

  

(As an aside, the barbecue sauce is made by our good friend, Randy Brekke. Both Randy's got to know each other when they were in an apprentice program at the Rock Island Arsenal. Randy Adams, in turn, met Randy Brekke's daughter, Lorrie, years ago. After both went through a couple failed marriages, Lorrie moved back to the Quad Cities from San Diego and got together with Randy Adams almost two years ago. They were married last fall in a ceremony in which I officiated - yes, I'm also an ordained minister legally able to conduct weddings and other non-religious ceremonies for people. But that's another story...)

 

The barbecue sauce that Randy Brekke makes - aptly named "Randy B's" - is a sweet and somewhat peppery sauce that I have to say is damn good. It has a little bit of zip to the taste and it is, by far, the best homemade barbecue sauce that I've ever tasted. Like most homemade beer, most homemade barbecue sauces I've tasted aren't all that good. If you say it's bad, it's like you've told the person their kid is ugly.  I can't say that about Randy B's sauce.  It's very, very good.

 

He now makes his sauce for Creekside and was kind enough to give me a small jar of it to use at home. I think he told me that Creekside is going through about three gallons a month and that will grow precipitously once they soon begin using this new smoker (pictured above left and right) that Randy Brekke designed and helped build.

 

Ryan commenced to make the Two-Tone for me, placing the thin, non-breaded tenderloin on the open grill and preparing the large homemade onion ring for placement on the top. It took about 12 minutes to make, and I have to say that because it was me he was extra diligent in making sure everything was right. He served it to me and here's what it looked like below left.

From the first bite, I was hooked. The Two-Tone was thick, juicy and cheesy with that great barbecue sauce on it. The jalapenos weren't all that hot - toe me, anyway - and didn't over power the overall taste of the sandwich. The onion ring - although Stephen still hasn't come up with the right seasoning for their homemade batter - was a nice additional taste that went well with the pork tenderloin.

 

Now, as I look at the pictures, there seems to be something else on top of the onion ring. I believe it's white cheddar cheese. 

 

Randy and I were sitting at the bar, and as I was eating the sandwich he was smiling as I kept exclaiming how good the sandwich was between my favorable grunts and "mmmmm" noises. Randy turned to Ryan and asked, "Now, how did you come up with this?" 

 

Ryan said, "I started to figure out all the things that I'd like on a sandwich and I just put it all together. Grandpa's barbecue sauce was the key, I think."

 

All I know is that it was certainly very good. There's a lot of stuff going on with a Two-Tone pork tenderloin sandwich and Ryan came up with a real winner on this one. 

A couple weeks after I tried the "Two-Tone" sandwich at Creekside, I happened to be in there one afternoon and Stephen was cooking. Randy had been telling me about Stephen's version of a "Juicy Lucy", the cheese stuffed burger that is so famous up in the Twin Cities. Stephen starts off with two hand-pattied burgers, stuffs them with pepper jack cheese, then tops it out with jalapenos and white cheddar cheese.  I decided to give one a try.

When Stephen brought his "Juicy Lucy" to me at the bar, I was amazed at the size of it.  It wasn't quite like taking two of their regular burgers and putting them together, but it was close.  The cheese was just oozing out of and off the top of the burger.  Randy was sitting there and he said, "It's pretty good, isn't it?"

I said, "Man, it sure is!"  The spicy cheese and the jalapeno's gave the burger a little bit of a bite, but not overpowering enough to detract from the overall taste of the burger.  The bun continues to be a big selling point with any Creekside sandwich and the toasted egg bun is a great compliment to their sandwiches and burgers.  Creekside's "Juicy Lucy" would have put up a good fight against any of the similar burgers I've had in the Twin Cities.

Randy, who is always on the lookout for menu ideas when he goes out and around to other restaurants and bars, said that he's seen variations of the "Juicy Lucy" on a number of menus of places he's been.  "Oh, yeah.  I'm starting to see a lot of places that do cheese stuffed burgers." 

Well, I travel a lot and I don't seem to find them outside of the Twin Cities.  Maybe I need to pay a little bit better attention. 

The key to a good "Juicy Lucy" style burger is to not over-cook the burger while you get the inner cheese to melt.  Stephen did a fine job in making sure that didn't happen.  The one thing Randy preaches at Creekside is consistentcy.  Between Stephen, Ryan and the other cook, Alyssa, they all do a fine job.  Creekside Bar and Grill is one of the most underrated and unknown places for good burgers and sandwiches in the Quad Cities.

 

Sammy's Lounge - Cedar Rapids, IA

First of all, I have to apologize to whoever suggested I go to Sammy's Lounge in Cedar Rapids to try one of their pork tenderloin sandwiches. I finally did make it into Sammy's a few weeks ago and here's my story -

Sammy's Lounge is located just off of Interstate 380 in a strip mall next to a Hy-Vee near the corner of Center Point Road and Blairs Ferry Road (see map). Sammy's is what I would characterize as a working-class bar. Even during the middle of the afternoon there's an hard-scrabble crowd in the place. Not that there's anything wrong with that - I sort of tend to gravitate toward those types of places. But don't go into Sammy's thinking that your son or daughter isn't going to hear some foul language from conversations people are having. It's definitely more of a bar than a family restaurant.

Bob Hamilton was the longtime owner of Sammy's. "Was" is the operative term because sadly Bob passed away last November from cancer at the age of 66. Hamilton owned Sammy's since 1978 and made hundreds of friends over the years. The "Bob-O-Burger" on Sammy's menu is named after Bob. Hamilton's family continues to run Sammy's Lounge today.

Sammy's Lounge gets a good crowd at night with karaoke mainly on Tuesday and Saturday evenings. And you can be sure that if there's a NASCAR race on TV, Sammy's will have it on. And on my visits to Sammy's, I've seen everything from 20-somethings to 50-somethings hanging at the bar. That's a good sign for any successful bar/lounge.

Actually, I went to Sammy's Lounge for a pork tenderloin sandwich late last fall, but I got in after 2 p.m. and the cook, I believe her name is Cathy, had shut the kitchen down for cleaning. Not wanting to wait, I just had a beer and decided to come back at another time. I was passing through Cedar Rapids recently and decided to stop in a little earlier in the afternoon. This time, the grill was on and the fryer was hot. I sat at the long, rectangular bar and ordered up a pork tenderloin sandwich and a beer from the bartender.

It wasn't long before the tenderloin came out, piping hot. It was served with pickles and onion and I put mustard on the sandwich to complete the condiment trifecta. Sammy's Lounge gets their tenderloins from Fareway (there's a familiar theme with pork tenderloin places using Fareway pork - it is damn good), they hand-cut and hand-bread them in their kitchen. The tenderloin hung over the edges of the sesame-seed bun, but it wasn't pounded into submission and flattened into the size of a man-hole cover like some places will do.

The breading on the tenderloin was sort of tasty - it was more of a breading/battered coating on the tenderloin. The tenderloin, however, was a little overcooked and wasn't quite as moist or juicy as it could have been. She could have pulled it out about 30 seconds sooner and it would have been better.

But that's not to say that it's not a bad tenderloin. I don't think I can put it in the same category as Augusta and TC's Point After, but it's better than many that I've had. Sammy's Lounge acquitted themselves very well and their pork tenderloin sandwich is worth a mention.

TC's Point After - De Witt, IA

I've been prodded by a number of people who regularly read Road Tips to travel to nearby De Witt, IA so I can give my observations on the pork tenderloin sandwich at TC's Point After.  Their tenderloin garnered 2nd Place in the annual Iowa Pork Producers Association "Best Tenderloin in Iowa" contest in 2009 behind Goldie's in Prairie City (see the post about my visit to Goldie's here).  I've been meaning to go up to TC's for a tenderloin, but never had the time - or actually, made the time. 

Recently, a good friend of mine, Curt Buchmeier, called and said that he was staying in De Witt for a couple nights while he was selling Yellow Pages ads for Hanson Directory out of my old hometown of Newton, IA.  It had been years since we'd seen each other, so we worked it out where could meet at TC's for dinner that night.  Cindy and I hopped in the car and drove the short distance up to De Witt and TC's Point After (see map). 

Chuck Cox was a salesman on the road for over 15 years when he became fed up with overnight travel and mediocre restaurants where the kitchen always seemed to close too early for him.  He said to himself, "If I ever open a restaurant, it would have extended kitchen hours so someone can get a sandwich at 10:30 at night if they want it."  Chuck's dream to open a bar/restaurant came true when he bought a small building in downtown De Witt and with the help of his wife, daughter and three sons, they remodeled the place into a nice little family oriented sports bar.  He named the place by combining the initials of his childrens names (Tracey, Todd, Terry, Tony) with a sports theme - hence, TC's Point After.  Cox populated the walls with sports memorabilia including a lot of Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bears items.  A shelf above the bar holds helmets from various high school football teams around the area.

Cox opened a second location in the Village of East Davenport a little over 20 years ago, but it only lasted a couple three years.  If I remember right, he closed up that location and moved it to the Hilltop Campus Village area of Davenport.  That place, too, eventually closed and he focused his efforts on the De Witt location. 

Being a big Cubs fan, Cox became friends with Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins (pictured at right with Cox).  I don't remember what the connection between the two was, but Jenkins regularly comes to De Witt for fund raisers and outings with Cox.  At the Cubs Spring Training facility in Mesa, AZ, Jenkins helps Cox sell battered pork chop sandwiches called "Fergie's Big Bite".  They're the same pork chop sandwiches that TC's Point After sells in De Witt. 

A couple years ago, Cox sold TC's Point After to his long time general manager Michele Bowers.  Cox still comes in on a daily basis when he's in town, but sits on the other side of the bar in a chair with his name on the back of it.  Cox's grandson, Christopher, remains the head cook at the place. 

The pork chop sandwich that TC's is famous for - dubbed Chuckie's Famous Tenderloin - was actually developed by Cox's wife and daughter.  They take a whole pork loin and cut of about a six ounce center portion of pork, run it through a tenderizer front and back, and then coat it with a secret homemade batter.  It's deep fried and served on a bun.  I'd heard so much about TC's pork tenderloin that I couldn't wait to try it.  

We met Curt around 7 p.m. and took a table in the far back of the dining room at TC's.  It had been over 10 years since we seen one another and probably four years since we'd last talked, so catching up was the first thing on the agenda.  Well, that and drinking a number of beers.  Cindy didn't feel like drinking that evening, so she just had water.  It turned out good for me as one beer turned into three, which turned into six, which turned into...  Well, let's just say that I was grateful that she went along so she could drive me home that night.  

The menu at TC's Point After features a number of steaks, chops and seafood, as well as a number of salads and side dishes to choose from.  In addition to the famous tenderloin sandwich, TC's has an extensive list of appetizers, burgers and other sandwiches.  They also feature nightly specials on a regular basis.  

Cindy was getting hungry and we still hadn't really opened our menus as we were talking non-stop back and forth about what had been going on with our lives.  Cindy took the initiative and ordered up a plate of TC's Hat Trick - a combination of onion rings, cheese sticks, fried mushrooms and cauliflower.  It didn't take long for the plate to show up and I have to say that while I usually don't eat much deep fried food like this, everything that I sampled in the Hat Trick was very good.  It was a pleasant start to the evening. 

We finally decided we'd better order up food for dinner as we'd been there over an hour and Curt and I were completely pounding back the beers, having a very large time.  I knew exactly what I was going to have - the tenderloin with onions and pickles.  I had my choice of either regular fries or waffle fries - I took the regular ones - and a small side of cole slaw came with the sandwich.

 Cindy contemplated getting the grilled chicken sandwich, but she instead opted for the Black and Bleu Burger - a six ounce beef patty topped with bleu cheese and cracked black pepper.  That really sounded good to me, as well.  She got the waffle fries with her meal.

The special that evening was the "surf and turf" combo - a 6 oz. beef tenderloin filet with three shrimp coated in TC's homemade batter and deep fried.  Curt ordered the special and when asked how he wanted his steak cooked, he replied, "Just walk it through a warm room.  I like my steaks about as rare as possible."  Ah!  A man after my own heart!  A baked potato came with his meal.

 
We continued to have more beers and lots of laughs up to the time we got our food delivered to our table.  I was very happy to see that the tenderloin (above right) wasn't pounded to a paper thin width and spread out so that it hung over the bun by six inches in each direction.  While it was still bigger than the bun, it wasn't unmanageable to pick up and eat.

Cindy's black and bleu burger (above left) looked pretty good, but I thought they sort of skimped on the bleu cheese on top of the patty.  But Curt's surf and turf combo looked pretty damn good.  The battered shrimp looked pretty tasty and the small filet looked a little bigger than 6 oz.  The waitress asked Curt to cut into his steak to make sure that it was cooked rare enough for him.  We both agreed that it was overcooked a bit - but it was rare in the middle.  I said, "I think they cooked it about a minute too long on both sides."  Curt said he'd still eat it anyway. 

Cindy just shook her head and said, "You guys are nuts.  That steak is perfectly cooked!" 

I said, "Well, yeah.  That is, if he ordered it medium rare." 

My tenderloin was just outstanding.  One of the better pork tenderloin sandwiches I've ever had.  I thought it was even better than Goldie's tenderloin - the pork tenderloin TC's lost out to in 2009.  And I thought it was even better than the 2010 winner, Buck's Bar in Mitchellville (click here to see the post on my visit to Buck's).  But I'm more partial to a battered pork chop sandwich rather than a breaded one.  I think a breaded tenderloin dries out quickly during the cooking process.  The tenderloin at TC's was moist and tender, but most of all it had some thickness to it.  With the onions, pickles and yellow mustard on top, it was very tough to beat.

Cindy said she liked her burger, as well.  It looked a little over-cooked for my taste, but she said it was fine for her.  I may have to try the black and bleu burger on a later trip to TC's.

And Curt was happy with his steak.  The battered shrimp were very rich and he still had some of his steak left when he said he was finished with his meal.  The steak did look good and I noticed that a number of people that were in TC's that night got steak or prime rib for their dinners.  I may have to go back and try a steak at some point.  If that's the case, I'll have to go back three times because I'll want to get another pork tenderloin sandwich.

A couple of Curt's colleagues were in TC's that night, as well.  One of them was an old softball teammate from my days back in Newton, Brian Flattery.  Brian joined us after dinner and we caught up on stuff in and around my hometown.  Brian quit drinking 25 years ago and, as I said earlier, Cindy wasn't drinking that evening.  That's OK - Curty Wayne and I more than made up for them.  It was well past 11:30 when Curt walked over with two Bud Light bottles for me and a Fat Tire in a 24 ounce mug for him.  I protested and he said, "C'mon, Wilbur!  We only get together once every, what?  Ten years?  You can have a couple more beers with me!"  We proceeded to drink those and when Curt got up to go to the bathroom, unbeknownst to me he ordered one more beer for both of us.  When the waitress brought the beers to the table, I said, "That's it!  This is absolutely the last one!  I've got to go home!"

It was after midnight when we left TC's.  Thankfully for both Curt and I, we had designated drivers.  Brian took Curt back to the hotel and Cindy drove the 25 minutes it took for us to get back home.  It was really great to catch up with an old friend.  Cindy and I made a promise that we'd do our best to get to Des Moines some weekend to get together with Curt and his wife.

I just have to say that the pork tenderloin at TC's lived up to the raves I've heard about it for years.  While TC's isn't a large place and it's not much when it comes to decor if you're not a sports fan, I was overly happy with every aspect of our visit.  Quite honestly, I didn't really know what to expect, but I was pleasant surprised at how good everything was - the food, the service, just the homey-ness of the place.  Oh, yeah.  We'll go back to TC's for more food at some point.  

Buck's Bar - Mitchellville, IA

For the last eight years, the Iowa Pork Producers have been handing out the award for the Best Pork Tenderloin in Iowa to restaurants and bars around the state.  So far, I've written about visiting Augusta in Oxford, IA and trying their 2008 award winning pork tenderloin (click here to see that entry); and recently I posted an entry on Goldie's Ice Cream Shoppe in Prairie City, IA (click here to see that entry) and trying the 2009 winning tenderloin.  The 2010 winner was recently announced and the Iowa Pork Producers awarded the best tenderloin of this year to Buck's Bar in Mitchellville, IA - about 20 miles east of Des Moines (see map).  I was coming back from a couple three days up in Minneapolis with a side trip to Ames for a meeting when I decided to stop into Buck's Bar for a tenderloin on my way home.

It just so happens that one of my sisters lives in Mitchellville, about three blocks from Buck's Bar.  I called her up before I left Ames and asked her if she was home.  She said she was and wondered why I asked.  I said, "Well, I want to try a tenderloin from Buck's Bar and I wondered if you wanted to join me for a beer."

She said, "Oh!  I just had a leftover tenderloin from Buck's for lunch!  Sure, I'll meet you there."

It was about 45 minutes later when I pulled up in front of Buck's Bar in Mitchellville (see map).  My sister was sitting on a bench in front of the place waiting for me to show up.  It was about 3:30 p.m. when I got there, saving up my appetite for a Buck's tenderloin through the course of the day.

 

Buck's Bar is a relatively new place.  My sister explained that the original owner had built the place about three years ago, but went through a nasty divorce from his wife at the time.  The bar had opened, closed, then reopened about nine months ago under the ownership of Buck Bos.  It was sort of nice on the inside - open and well-lit with some tables and booths interspersed throughout the place.  There was a pool table and some other games that you'd find in any small town bar.  The bar area featured a three-sided bar with comfortable high-back seats. 

My sister discribed Buck Bos as a nice guy who is sort of a player with the ladies.  "He has a big smile and very white teeth.  He's always wearing Hawaiian or tropical shirts.  When I go to the State Fair, it seems I always run into him partying with a bunch of ladies at the beer tents." 

Sounds like my kind of guy.  I wanted to meet him after that, but he wasn't in his place that afternoon.  My sister and I sat at the bar and we were greeted by a tall, slender blond-haired bartender.  She asked us if we needed menus.  I said, "I understand that you guys have the award winning tenderloin for this year."

She said, "Well, yes, we do!  Would you like to try one?" 

Absolutely!  My sister was still full from her lunch a couple hours before and she just had a beer while we caught up on what's been going on with our lives. 

About 10 minutes after I ordered the tenderloin, the bartender brought it out.  It was a thin, breaded tenderloin cut in half with raw onion rings and pickles off to the side.  A side of fries came with the sandwich, but I wasn't interested.

It turns out that Buck Bos gets his pork from the same place Brad Magg at Goldie's gets his tenderloins - from the Fareway store in Altoona.  (Mitchellville and Prairie City are only about seven miles apart as the crow flies, and about a 15 minute drive between the two communities.)  The only difference, as it was explained to me by the bartender, is that Fareway does all the processing of the tenderloins for Goldie's - cutting, tenderizing, etc. - while Buck buys the pork tenderloin, does his own cutting and hand tenderizes them with a cook's hammer.  "Buck was using this thing that looked like a mallet at first," the bartender said to me.  "But then he got this big cook's hammer and he can really flatten them out."

While the tenderloin was large and hanging over the bun, it wasn't so flat and huge that the taste had been literally hammered out of it.   I've said many times that too often I've run across pork tenderloin sandwiches at restaurants where they're literally two sizes too large for the bun.  When they hammer 'em out to be that large in area, they also hammer the juiciness out of them, too.  Buck's tenderloin was big, but not big enough to make them dry in taste.

Now, I'm not usually big on breaded tenderloins - I like a good unbreaded, grilled tenderloin for a sandwich from time to time.  Buck's breaded tenderloin was good, better in my opinion than the one at Goldie's.  But as I confessed to the bartender after she asked how my tenderloin was, neither Buck's nor Goldie's could hold a candle to the Augusta in Oxford.  The breading at Augusta was better - it's more of a batter breading, I believe.  The bartender said, "We had a couple in from Creston the other day trying the sandwich and they said they liked the battered tenderloins better than the breaded ones." 

The pork tenderloin at Augusta in Oxford is still the best restaurant pork tenderloin sandwich I've ever had.

It's not that the tenderloin at Buck's was bad - far from it.  But I've had similar tenderloins at any number of places across the state over the years.  I honestly don't know how the Iowa Pork Producers can judge how one tenderloin is better than another.  The breading on Buck's tenderloin was better than the one at Goldie's, but quite honestly they're all pretty much the same.  But Buck Bos gets to wear the crown of having the Best Tenderloin in Iowa for a year and they've already seen a spike in business since they were named the 2010 award winners in early October.   And, quite honestly, other than getting the tenderloin, Buck's seems like a cool place to just hang out and have a beer.  I may have to stop more often to have a cold one with my sister as I pass by Mitchellville on my way to wherever.

(Update - My sister told me in August of 2011 that Buck's had closed its doors.  Rumors I've heard had something to do about a divorce, but I didn't think Buck was married.  In any event, the reigning Best Pork Tenderloin in Iowa is no longer available.)     

Goldie's Ice Cream Shoppe - Prairie City, IA

Since 2003, the Iowa Pork Producers Association has staged a contest where they invite people to nominate restaurants who they believe has the best breaded pork tenderloin sandwich in the state.  I tried the 2008 winner - Augusta in Oxford, IA, just outside of Iowa City and not far from Cedar Rapids.  And I was plenty impressed with their pork tenderloin sandwich.  In 2009, the winner of the best pork tenderloin sandwich in Iowa was a small sandwich/ice cream shop in Prairie City - Goldie's Ice Cream Shoppe - not far from where I grew up in the Newton/Kellogg area, and a 20 minute drive from Des Moines thanks to a four-lane highway that now connects SE Iowa with the greater Des Moines area. On a trip back home from Kansas earlier this past summer, I stopped into Goldie's to see if their tenderloin sandwich stacked up. 

I found out that there is somewhat of a personal connection between the owner of Goldie's - Brad Magg (pictured at right) - and myself.  It turns out that Magg's mother, Marilee, and I graduated together from Newton High School back in the 1970's and we were pretty good friends during that time.  Time and circumstances have caused Marilee and I to not connect for over 30 years, so it was sort of interesting that I found out her son was the one behind Goldie's.

Brad Magg started out cooking when he was an early teenager, baking cookies and pies and selling them to people in and around the NW Jasper County area.  He turned that into a catering business by the time he was 15, then after graduating from high school he earned a degree from the Iowa Culinary Institute at Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny.

A month before he got his degree, Magg, along with his mother and his father, Gary, bought the ice cream shop in Prairie City from Golda Ingram - the "Goldie" of Goldie's.  Before the Magg's bought the place, Goldie's was nothing more than a seasonal ice cream shop.  When Brad Magg came in, he expanded the building, added food to the menu and kept the place open year round.  The young Magg kept Goldie Ingram on board where she continues to work four days a week. 

While the ingredients for the breading that Magg uses on his tenderloins is a secret, he fully acknowledges that he buys all of his pork cutlets at the Fareway store in nearby Altoona.  Fairway usually has some top quality meat to choose from.  The Altoona Fareway cuts and tenderizes each of the loins for Goldie's. 

In addition to the pork tenderloins that have suddenly given them a measure of fame, Goldie's also has a grilled pork tenderloin sandwich, a marinated pork loin sandwich, a hot ham and Swiss cheese sandwich and an Italian sausage sandwich.  In fact, the pork used for the Italian sausage sandwich and the beef for the hamburgers at Goldie's come from the Magg family farm and are processed at a small butcher shop in Magg's hometown of Mingo, IA. 

It was a lazy summer afternoon when I pulled into Prairie City.  Highway 163 now by-passes the small rural town, but Goldie's is on what used to be the main route through the city when 163 was a two-lane road (see map).  Goldie's is not unlike any other small restaurant/ice cream shop in any small Iowa town.  The outside is tidy and neat, the parking lots are on either side of the building and there's not much as far as signage along the road to alert you that you've arrived. 

 

I walked into Goldie's and there were a couple farmers in there having mid-afternoon coffee, clearly eying the out-of-towner walking through the door.  While there were tables and booths in the place, I took a seat at the old fashioned soda bar counter and took a quick look at the menu that was placed behind the napkin holder.   An older woman - who happened to be Goldie Ingram - and a couple of the girls working in the place were having a mid-afternoon snack at a table along the west wall.  Another young lady asked me if I knew what I wanted and I didn't hesitate - "You guys won the best pork tenderloin award this past year.  I'm here to give it a shot." 

She said, "Well, all righty, then!"  She asked if I wanted anything on it and I told her yellow mustard, pickles and onions.  I never use any tomato-based products on a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, not even barbecue sauce. 

While I waited, a lady came in to get some soft-serve ice cream.  I also noticed they had a number of homemade pie slices in a couple holders on the counter.  The "special" board above the back soda bar touted the different types of pie and ice cream Goldie's had available that day.  It was a slice of small town living that I certainly remembered when I was growing up. 

Since I was the only one in there getting food at that point (the farmers had long gone, figuring the stranger wasn't anyone to trifle with), my breaded pork tenderloin showed up in just a bit over five minutes.  The sandwich came out open-faced with a ton of pickles and a sliced red onion with a kosher dill spear on the side.   I put a little mustard on the sandwich and I took a bite. 

Now, I've had a number of breaded pork tenderloins over the year - I live in Iowa, for God's sake.  Some are just thin and huge, hanging well over the bun and impossible to eat without a knife and fork.  Those, I've found, are usually not that good.  The ones that are just a bit bigger than the bun are usually the best.  And that was the size of the Goldie's breaded pork tenderloin.  The only problem was that their pork tenderloin sandwich was average, at best.  I mean, it was good, but it certainly didn't open my eyes like the tenderloin at Augusta did when I tried it after they won the 2008 award.  It was OK, but far from the best breaded pork tenderloin I've ever had. 

When I got up to pay my bill, Goldie Ingram asked me, "So, what do you think about our pork tenderloin?"

I had to be honest.  "It was good," I said.  "But, I really can't say it was the best I ever had." 

While I'm happy for Marilee and her son, I walked away from Goldie's thinking that if this was the best tenderloin in the state of Iowa for the year 2009 there had to be some pretty average places that were nominated.   Still, Goldie's is a slice of small-town life where you can go and get a good sandwich at a reasonable price and know that it just isn't going to suck.  But at the same time, it's not going to be "knock-your-socks-off" great.  If you find yourself going by Prairie City during the middle part of the day, it won't hurt to stop in to Goldie's and get something to eat.

Breitbach's Country Dining - Balltown, IA

Breitbach's Country Dining is located in little Balltown, IA which is situated high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in Northeast Iowa (see map).  Breitbach's has been a family owned restaurant/tavern since back in the 1860's, but it's history goes back to 1852 when it began as a stage coach stop.  Recently, Breitbach's has suffered from two fires - one in December of 2007 and another one in October of 2008.  But they've rebuilt both times and continue to serve country style meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Cindy turned me on to Breitbach's a number of years ago when we were out on a weekend drive in NE Iowa, going around to see some of the places her family was from and places she used to visit as a little girl.  That one and only visit, I forget what I had for dinner, but Cindy had grilled shrimp.  The only problem was that there were these little metal flakes on the shrimp.  When we brought it to the attention of the waitress, she quickly took the shrimp away.  It wasn't long before more grilled shrimp - a LOT more grilled shrimp - came to the table.  And stopping by to apologize was Mike Breitbach, the owner of the place.  He comped Cindy's meal that evening with a promise that we'd make it back at some point.  We always had planned on going back, but just never got around to do it.  However, I had to drive up to La Crosse earlier this summer and I had a chance to stop in to Breitbach's for lunch. 

 

Mike Breitbach (right) is the sixth-generation owner of Breitbach's.  His great-great grandfather, Jacob Breitbach, worked at the stage coach stop that served food and beer to weary travelers heading up the Mississippi River to Minneapolis.  In 1862, he bought the establishment from the previous owner and it's been in the Breitbach family ever since.  Breitbach's Country Dining is said to be the oldest continuous restaurant/tavern in the state of Iowa.  And with his kids and - I was told - grandkids working in the restaurant, there would be eight generations of Breitbach's who have helped out in the place. 

On Christmas Eve of 2007, a fire engulfed Breitbach's restaurant.  (For that story, click here.)  Mike and Cindy Breitbach decided almost immediately to rebuild the restaurant.  With the help of local contractors and volunteers, they rebuilt the place from the ground up.  They redecorated with vintage antiques and large dining rooms with wood-beamed ceilings.  The Breitbach's would have loved to have installed a water-sprinkler system throughout the restaurant, but Balltown doesn't have a city water system - the residents get their water from wells.  Installing a pressurized sprinkler system in the restaurant would have been too expensive.

So, guess what?  Breitbach's Country Dining went through ANOTHER devastating fire in October of 2008, less than five months after they'd reopened and exactly 10 months to the day after the first fire.  (For that story, click here.)  While a gas leak was found to be the cause for the first fire in December, authorities weren't sure what caused the second fire.  A number of framed newspaper pages and articles on both fires adorn the wall of a hallway between Breitbach's bar area and one of their dining rooms.

After a second fire, Mike Breitbach wasn't overly certain that he wanted to rebuild.  He was still waiting to get the final verdict from his insurance company who was doing a thorough investigation of the first fire.  The second fire was investigated by up to 50 insurance inspectors who combed through the rubble for any sign of what may have started the fire.  I've since heard that the second fire may have been started by faulty electrical wiring, but that wasn't the definitive ruling of the probe.  In any event, arson was ruled out. 

The Breitbach's eventually decided to rebuild, buoyed by the support of longtime customers and friends in the area.  Breitbach's new restaurant opened in the Spring of 2009.  It features a large bar area and three large dining rooms.   The main dining room also features a buffet area for lunch through the week, a full buffet on Friday and Saturday nights, and a breakfast buffet on Sunday mornings followed by a brunch buffet on Sunday starting at 11. 

 
Balltown is so small that it basically has one main road through town.  It's on this main road that Breitbach's sits next to.  They have a large parking lot in back, although a large semi and a bus were parking in the lots making it difficult to maneuver around them.  I went in and was greeting by a young hostess who showed me to a table.

I sat in one of the dining rooms toward the back of the place.  A smaller dining room off to the side was host to a group of motorcyclists who had driven their U.S. flag-adorned bikes to Breitbach's for lunch.  I was given a lunch menu and while I thought about going through the buffet, I ended up thinking about just getting a sandwich for my lunch.  While they don't really have deli sandwiches, per se, Breitbach's serves up basic fried or grilled items burgers, chicken sandwiches, BLT's, tuna melts and tenderloin sandwiches.  I'm guessing the buffet is the go-to item on the menu during the lunch hours and that's why they don't go much further than the basics on their menu.

I thought the fried tenderloin sounded good.  The waitress told me they use the same batter as they put on their fried chicken.  I will say that I looked at the fried chicken on the buffet and thought it looked pretty good.  I ended up getting the fried tenderloin with onion rings. 

And I'm glad I did.  The tenderloin was very, very good.  The batter was light and they didn't pound the tenderloin before hand to squash it out into an uneatable size.  The bun was lightly toasted and wasn't dried out in the least.  The onion rings were *OK* - nothing special.  I'm sure they were of the frozen variety that Breitbach's buy from a food purveyor.

After lunch, I walked around the inside of Breitbach's to take a closer look at things.  Mike Breitbach had been running around the place, helping bus tables, pointing things out to the wait staff, and talking with what appeared to be long-time customers of his restaurant.  I wanted to ask Mike if there were any changes he did to the restaurant between the first and second fire.  You know, you put up a new building and about four months later you're thinking, "Well, if I had to do it over again, I would have done it this way."  I didn't know if it would be tacky to ask him such a question.  And he sort of disappeared into the kitchen, so I never did get the chance to ask him.  And thinking back, it's probably for the better. 

 
Outside Breitbach's, they have a large beer garden behind the restaurant.  It actually looked rather nice with heavy walnut oil-stained tables and benches, a heavy roof over the top and a number of hanging baskets through out the garden.  There was a garden area just to the east of that with a number of ornamental plants and flowers.  It looked like a great place to hang out on a warm Friday afternoon during an Iowa summer. 

You can tell that it's a labor of love for Mike Breitbach and his restaurant.  When we first met him years ago when we had a problem with Cindy's meal, you could tell he was a genuinely nice guy who cared about his customers first and foremost.  Joking with his customers during my visit tells me that even getting hit in the stomach twice in less than a year, he's been able to pull through and carry on a tradition that began in the mid-1800's.  While the food is average to better, it's tough to beat Breitbach's for a small slice of Americana high above the bluffs along the Mississippi River in NE Iowa.     

 

Augusta - Oxford, IA

The state of Iowa is nationally known for having some of the best breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches on the face of the earth.  Now, I have to say that I'm not a big fan of these type of pork sandwiches.  But on the recommendation of my local, yet long distance friend, Burt Gearhart, he told me that I had to try one at Augusta in Oxford, IA. 

Oxford is a small town west of Iowa City, southwest of Cedar Rapids and just to the east of the famous Amana Colonies (see map).  Oxford is a small, non-descript town that reminds me tremendously of my hometown of Kellogg, IA.  There's not much to the town.  I didn't exactly know where Augusta was in town, but I figured it had to be in the small downtown area of Oxford.  After coming off the interstate and taking the trip north to Oxford, I easily found Augusta in the small downtown area (see map). 

Ben and Jeri Halperin were living in New Orleans as Ben was working as a chef in some restaurants down there.  Hurricane Katrina pushed Ben and Jeri up to Chicago where Ben worked in a number of restaurants, not finding a particular one that he liked to work for.  When a friend in Oxford told them that a local restaurant was closing it's doors, Ben and Jeri went out to Oxford to inquire about renting the building.  It turned out the rent was reasonable and after some clean-up and refurbishing, Ben, Jeri and a partner, Nathan Ruble opened a year ago.  They named the restaurant Augusta after the street the restaurant is located on.

Ben wanted the restaurant to serve comfort food - Cajun style.  Many items on their menu have a Cajun flair - po' boy sandwiches, crawfish beignets, chicken and andouille gumbo and cornmeal crusted catfish.  They also feature steaks, roasted pork loin and chicken entrees. 

Since 2003, the Iowa Pork Producers Association has handed out an award to the restaurant who has the best breaded pork tenderloin sandwich in the state.  The IPPA focuses more on small family style restaurants and taverns across the state.  Restaurants have to be nominated by two different people and the IPPA officials go out and try the sandwiches.  The winning restaurant receives a plaque of recognition and a $500 dollar check. 

And it also brings in a lot of business.  Since the Town House Supper Club in Wellsburg, IA won the award in 2006, they've served nearly 30,000 of their famous breaded pork loin sandwich.  Other winners include:

2003 - Darrell's Place - Hamlin, IA (I had to look Hamlin up on a map - I'd never heard of it before.)

2004 - Suburban Restaurant - Gilbert, IA (Actually, it's at the intersection of Highway 69 and a county road that takes you into Gilbert.)

2005 - Dairy Sweet - Dunlap, IA (I used to travel between Omaha and Carroll, IA on Highway 30 quite a bit, years ago.  I know I had to pass the Dairy Sweet on each of those trips.)

2007 - Larsen's Pub - Elk Horn, IA (I've been in Elk Horn on a few occasions.  Would have never thought any place in that town would have a good tenderloin.)

I had a meeting in Cedar Rapids recently and I decided to make a side trip to Oxford to have lunch at Augusta.  I walked in and I was the only person in the restaurant, other than a couple of insurance guys talking to Ben Halperin.  Jeri Halperin greeted me and told me that I could sit anywhere.  I took a table toward the front and got a menu from her.  

When Burt visited Augusta last fall, he took along his camera and took a few snapshots of the place.  He sent them out to some friends to show them the place and the delectable sandwich he got.  Here's a picture Burt took of the inside of Augusta.  The tables are topped with table cloths and then a fresh square paper is placed on top of the table cloth each time a table is turned.  There's a small bar that seats two or three people.  They have six beers on tap, including some Goose Island varieties. 

There's not a lot on the menu for lunch items - a burger, a Cajun-style Po' Boy with your choice of catfish, shrimp or roast beef, and a grilled chicken club in addition to the pork loin sandwich.  They feature salads and a kids menu.  But I was in for the tenderloin, which comes with homemade dill pickles, homemade mayo and topped with lettuce, tomato and onions.  You have your choice of either hand-cut french fries or homemade sweet potato chips.  I ordered up a tenderloin with fries.  The waitress asked, "Have you ever had the sandwich before?"

I said, "This is my first time here.  Heck, I went to school in Iowa City for five years and this is my first time ever in Oxford."

She said, "Oh, you're going to love this sandwich." 

I waited for about 15 minutes on my sandwich and the waitress brought it out with a side of ketchup in a small container.  Looking back, I should have gotten a small container of their homemade mayonnaise to dip my fries into.  (That's something I picked up from the Canadians, who, in turn, probably picked it up from the Europeans.  They don't put ketchup on french fries.)

This is just about what my sandwich looked like when it was served to me, only Burt got his with the homemade sweet potato chips.  The pork loin was thick and the buttermilk breaded batter around the loin was light, flaky and flavorful. 

The problem I have with a lot of these breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches is that they take a 12 to 14 ounce, pound the piss out of it, bread it and then deep fry it.  And they're usually too big.  I read somewhere that a true Iowa breaded pork tenderloin had to be three times the size of the bun that is served with it.  Well, the pork tenderloin at Augusta certainly achieved that.  And the breading is usually pretty rich and it's tough to eat the whole sandwich in one sitting.  It's never as good if you take it home and heat it up.  So a lot of it gets wasted.  And I hate to waste food, especially when it's good. 

One other thing that Augusta has going for it, they do their own breaded tenderloins.  I've eaten at restaurants where they have pre-made breaded pork tenderloins and they're usually frozen in advance.  But Augusta's pork tenderloin was definitely pounded out by hand (I could hear them pounding it out in the kitchen) and they have their own breading recipe.  Even though the pork loin was pounded out, it was still pretty thick.  I would have liked to have seen the pork loin before they started to work on it. 

Bottom line - the sandwich was very good.  I didn't care for the mayo on it - even though the mayo was very good - and I didn't use the tomato or lettuce.  A true pork tenderloin is topped with only pickles, onions and mustard. 

As I was paying for my meal, I got to talking to Jeri Halperin.  She was giving me some of the background on the restaurant and how they ended up in Oxford, IA.  It turned out that Jeri was a native Iowan, growing up in far NE Iowa in Clayton County, before she left to go find the world.  We agreed that while places like New Orleans and Chicago are great places to visit, Iowa is definitely home. 

The pork loin sandwich at Augusta was everything that it was advertised to be.  It was a little expensive - $9.00 with fries - but it was worth it.  Every restaurant says they have the best pork tenderloin, but Augusta can really back up their claim.  Augusta is closed on Monday's and Tuesday's, so if you go, make a note of that.  I really want to go back and try the roast beef Po' Boy sandwich sometime.  I'm hoping that with Ben Halperin's New Orleans background it will taste as good as the ones I had at Mother's in New Orleans years ago.