My wife and I decided to head up to NE Iowa for our wedding anniversary this year, particularly to Decorah where my wife has been pestering me to take her to for quite some time. We really hadn't spent a lot of time around the Decorah area, but we have friends of ours who went to Luther College there years ago who go up a couple times a year to hang with old college friends. So, it's almost like we've spent time in Decorah as we were familiar with all the places they liked to hang out. But we wanted to go to someplace sort of special for our anniversary dinner and we found a place along Water Street, the main drag through downtown Decorah, that looked like it would fit the bill for us. This is our visit to Rubaiyat.
For the owners of Rubaiyat, Andy and Kim Bonnet, owning a restaurant was something they had wanted to do for nearly all their lives. Andy grew up in Galena, IL and Kim grew up in nearby Dubuque and both entered the food service industry at the age of 14. The two met while working at Fried Green Tomatoes in Galena (click here to see the Road Tips entry on Fried Green Tomatoes). Kim went on to work as a server at Clarke University in Dubuque, eventually becoming the front of house hostess at a handful of other restaurants around Dubuque in her high school years. Andy eventually ended up at the famed Timmerman's Supper Club in East Dubuque. (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Timmerman's.)
Kim went off to college at Luther College, but would come back in the summer to work in restaurants in the Dubuque area. After graduating from Luther with a degree in finance, Kim came back to Dubuque to work as a financial advisor. But she couldn't get the restaurant business out of her blood and she would work at restaurants in the area as a second job at nights and on weekends.
Andy and Kim eventually were married, and the first time Kim took Andy up to Decorah he experienced the same overwhelming sensation about the area that Kim experienced on her first visit to the town as a high school student looking at colleges. The quaint town in a valley with a Norwegian influence gave them both a feeling of home when they were in Decorah.
Pictured at right - Kim and Andy Bonnet
The Bonnets had discussed running their own restaurant at some point in time and were actively looking for a place to take over. At a food show in Dubuque in 2006, Andy just happened to hear about two properties in downtown Decorah that could easily be turned into restaurant space if so desired. One day while Kim was working at her financial advisor job, Andy drove up to Decorah to look at the two properties. One building was probably too small for what they wanted, the other one - a building that was built in the 1890's that had originally been two spaces, but was combined into one in the 1960's - was probably too big for what they needed. The Bonnet's decided that the larger space would be better - they could grow into the space if needed - and they bought the building in March of 2007.
Going through the renovation process, the walls were stripped down to the original brick facade and the drop ceiling was taken down to reveal the original tin ceiling tiles. The original front doors to the building - which are being used today - were found in the upstairs area of the building. The building had been many things over the years - a drug store, a dry goods store, a jewelry store, a Five and Dime store, a hardware store, an office supply store - but it had never been a restaurant. (Although, the story goes that the second story of one of the buildings before they were combined was a speakeasy during Prohibition.) After months of renovation and restoration, the Bonnet's opened Rubaiyat in November of 2007.
Initially, the name Rubaiyat sort of threw me - I thought it was probably a Middle Eastern restaurant. But after looking at their menu on the window in front of the place, it turned out to be an American restaurant that featured a number of seasonal farm-to-fork offerings that Andy Bonnet sources from suppliers within a 150-mile radius around Decorah. But the name Rubaiyat also confused a number of people. I can almost hear some of those people who live in NE Iowa or SE Minnesota now - "What in the hell is a Rubaiyat?!"
When the Bonnets were brainstorming for their restaurant's name one evening sharing a bottle of Cakebread Cellars cabernet wine, Kim began to read a poem that was on the back of the bottle. It turned out the that poem came from a collection of poems by 11th century Persian mathematician/astronomer/poet/philosopher Omar Khayyám called Rubaiyat. Many of the nearly 1000 poems celebrated the pairing of food and wine with one of Khayyám's famous lines being, “A jug of wine, a loaf of bread—and thou.” What a great name for their restaurant, the Bonnet's thought! But - to this day - it continues to be the most asked question by new patrons at their restaurant.
It was a somewhat rainy evening when we pulled up to Rubaiyat on Water Street. (see map) The May day that we experienced went from somewhat cloudy and cool weather, to warm sunshine, to off and on heavy showers toward the latter part of the afternoon. It had turned chilly - much too chilly for late May - by the time we went out for dinner.
The bar area was to the right as you come into Rubaiyat. It was a lively place when we got there - not so lively when we were leaving. They featured a full bar with a great tap selection - 40 beers in total - with half of them being craft beers from the area.
We were met at the hostess table by Kim Bonnet who recognized our name from the reservation I had made earlier in the day. Even though the dining room was packed with diners around 7:30 on a Saturday evening, they had our table waiting for us. She took us to a smaller table next to the wall toward the front of the dining room. Kim gave us a couple menus to look through and it wasn't long after before our server for the evening - a young man by the name of James (more on him later) - came by to greet us. He took our drink order to start out - my wife went with a limoncello martini and I went with a Pseudo Sue IPA from the Toppling Goliath brewery just up the road.
The menu changes seasonally - and at times, weekly - at Rubaiyat. They feature meat entrees such a beef, chicken or pork option, some seafood dishes, a pasta selection or two, and a flat bread pizza with a cauliflower crust. They have a number of eclectic shared plates for appetizers, as well as a selection of salads and soups.
The wine list is also extensive and very interesting at Rubaiyat. Some we were very familiar with, others not so much. For 11 years in a row now (they just received a 2019 mention), Rubaiyat has garnered the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence and they've also been recognized by Wine Enthusiast for their Award of Distinction. Rubaiyat is only one of three Iowa restaurants to receive those honors from both publications. Many of their wines were on display on shelves in the dining area and the prices were very reasonable, as well. We selected a bottle of the 2014 Jordan cabernet that they had for $66 bucks - that same bottle in larger cities would be 40% higher in cost.
For starters, my wife went with the kale Caesar's salad. It had a ton of garlic included in it - I had to have a bite just so I'd be able to be around her later in the evening. It was very good. The salad came with a fresh baked loaf of warm sourdough bread that was simply excellent in taste.
I got the wedge salad, only it didn't really look like a wedge salad from other restaurants. This salad featured romaine lettuce leaves topped with the usual bacon bits, chopped tomatoes and slathered in a blue cheese dressing. Slices of a hard boiled boiled egg were crowned on top of the salad.
For our main entrees that night, my wife ended up with the beef tenderloin filet. It was paired with a side of bacon-grilled Brussels sprouts. I'm not big on Brussels sprouts - especially steamed. But she made me have a bite of these and they were excellent. "They're so stupidly easy to make," she exclaimed. "We can have these at home!" I thought the filet - topped with buttered truffles - looked overcooked. But when she cut into it, the steak had a nice pink middle. My wife declared her steak as "excellent".
I went with the pasta dish that night, the chicken parmigiana with spinach ravioli stuffed with blue cheese. It was also fabulous. The chicken parm had a nice coating of shaved mozzarella on top with a wonderful tangy marinara sauce surrounding it. The blue cheese-stuffed ravioli pillows had that great house-made pasta taste to them. Blue cheese can be somewhat overpowering in taste to me sometimes, but the ravioli had a subtle blue cheese taste quality to it. I was more than happy with what I ordered.
We were savoring our meal at the end when James came over to offer up their dessert choices for the evening. We weren't overly certain that we wanted dessert as we were both satiated by our meal selection. But then he came up with the dessert menu and we immediately got that look on our faces of "How can we pass this up?" One of the desserts was a lavender vanilla cheese cake with mixed wild berries and drizzled with a raspberry-cream sauce. When my wife heard, "Lavender" from James, she was hooked. But he had other things to offer, as well.
One of the other desserts was a classic creme brûlée. Quite honestly, we couldn't make up our mind, so we went with both knowing good and well that we'd be completely miserable and full of guilt if we finished both. The creme brûlée had a nice full-bodied, but light custard taste to it. But it was very rich and we were only able to finish about half of it.
The reviews on the lavender vanilla cheesecake were mixed at our table, however. I liked it - a lot. My wife, not so much. She actually thought the lavender flavor was overpowering. And she loves lavender! Well, mainly the scent of lavender, but maybe not the taste. I actually ate more of the cheesecake than the creme brûlée. Both, I felt, were extremely good.
As the night wound down, we had a nice little chat with James. It was raining off and on with the temperature dropping, so we weren't in any hurry to depart. In fact, Rubaiyat encourages their patrons to linger and savor their meals and enjoy their wine. We never felt hurried all evening long. It was a great laid-back feeling during our visit. We asked James his story and he said that he was from the Hyde Park area of Chicago and had come out to Luther to be a performance voice major. He was a week away from graduating and after that he really didn't know exactly what he wanted to do. "Maybe I'll work on a cruise ship or some dinner theater," he told us. "Or maybe I'll have to find a real job," he said laughingly.
I don't know if I can say much more about our wonderful experience at Rubaiyat. This was one of those restaurants where I wish I could just pick the whole thing up and drop it within a 10 minute drive of our home. I'm not certain that the people who live in, around, or near Decorah know that they have such a gem in Rubaiyat. Everything we had was delicious - the beef tenderloin filet that my wife had, and the chicken parm with blue cheese-stuffed ravioli that I had were both outstanding. The salads - a garlic kale salad for my wife, and the interesting wedge salad that I had - were both very good. And while my wife was a little disappointed with the lavender vanilla cheese cake, I thought that and the creme brûlée desserts we had were both very good. The service was personable, prompt, and professional. And the atmosphere was laid-back - to the point where they encourage people to stick around and not be hurried with their meal - and comfortable. If you get to Decorah for a weekend outing, I would wholeheartedly recommend Rubaiyat for one of your meals when you're there.
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